Beautifying the menorah

Hi,

"[The menorah of the Chashmonaim] was made of iron spits, covered with tin. When they became wealthier they made it of silver. When they became still wealthier, they made it of gold."

(Talmud, Rosh haShanah 24b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Why traditional prayer is not instrumental

Hi,

"We have seen that our ancestors who instituted the prayers did not enact musical instruments even though song emerged from among us in the service in the Beit haMikdash. Our ancestors abandoned it; we see that they felt it inappropriate, because there is no joy before Gd since the day the Beit haMikdash was destroyed."

(Rav Moshe Sofer, Chatam Sofer 6: Likkutim 84)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The message of the oil

Hi,

"The essential miracle [of the oil] was performed only to demonstrate to them the love of Gd for them… A miracle occurred for them in the essential fact that they were fully redeemed from the wicked Greek empire, who told Israel, “Inscribe upon the horn of the ox that you have no share in the Gd of Israel,” and who decreed various shemadiot. Now that the Jews were redeemed, and a great miracle was performed for them in that they would reign over their foes, this miracle of the flames was also performed for them, testimony for Israel that Gd is among them."

(R' Yehoshua Falk, Pnei Yehoshua to Shabbat 21b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Love and Awe

Hi,

"Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar: One who acts [for Gd] out of love is greater than one who acts out of awe...

"There were two students of Rava. One said: I was told in a dream, 'How great is Your goodness, which You have stored for those who are in awe of You.' The other said: I was told in a dream, 'All who trust in You will be glad, and will sing eternally... those who love Your Name will rejoice in You.'

"Rava said: Both of you are completely righteous, one out of love and the other out of awe."


(Talmud, Sotah 31a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Honor My Name

Hi,

"And you shall not desecrate My Holy Name, and I will be sanctified in the midst of the children of Israel; I am Gd, who sanctifies you."

(Vayyikra 22:32)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The future of Jerusalem

Hi,

Yoel 4:17 says, "Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will no longer pass through."

"“Strangers will no longer pass through” to harm them, as they had done until today. It is also possible that strangers will not enter Jerusalem because in the future her sanctity will grow. Just as one – even a Yisrael - may not enter the heichal, so the whole city will be holy, and strangers from the nations will not be permitted to enter."

(Radak to Yoel 4:17)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The importance of respect

Hi,

"Rabbi Yitzchak said: Yerushalayim was destroyed only because they equated the small and the great, as it is written, “And as is with the nation, so will be with the kohen… and the land will be emptied out.”"

(Talmud, Shabbat 119b)

Have a good day,
Mordechai

A generation and its leader

Hi,

"R’ Yehudah Nesiah and the Sages debated whether the generation matches the leader or the leader matches the generation.

"As far as what? If you are discussing their spiritual level, meaning that one says that if the generation is good then the leader will be good, and the other says that if the leader is good then the generation will be good, then what about Tzidkiyah, who was good in a bad generation? And what about Yehoyakim, who was bad in a good generation?... Rather, it’s about harsh and gentle styles."

(Talmud, Arachin 17a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Gluttony - The body betrays the person

Hi,

“Do not be embarrassed by your teeth, by eating too much. This is a function of the yetzer hara. So it is written (Mishlei 25:19), ‘At a time of trouble, trust for a disloyal person is like a damaged tooth or a dislocated foot.’”

[The message is that eating too much will harm a person, as treason does.]

(Kallah Rabti 3:7)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Corruption isn't new, and we have ways to deal with it

Hi,

“Initially the hides from korbanot [temple offerings] were left in the office in the beit haparvah, and in the evenings they were divided up among the family of kohanim serving in that shift. However, strongmen would take these by force, so they enacted that the hides would be distributed on Fridays, so that all of the shifts would come take at the same time. However, the more powerful kohanim continued to take by force. The owners of the offerings took charge, consecrating the hides to Heaven.”

(Talmud, Pesachim 57a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

There is honor in giving tzedakah

Hi,

"Rabbah ordered that tzedakah be collected from the estates of the orphans of Bar Maryon.

"Abbaye asked: Didn't Rav Shemuel bar Yehudah teach that one may not levy tzedakah taxes upon orphans, even for the sake of redeeming captives?

"Rabbah replied: I am doing this in order to give them communal honor."

(Talmud, Bava Batra 8a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The purpose of a miracle

Hi,

"Know that via miracles, all can see that the world was created, and that there is a Cause above all Causes that created the world, and that all realms were created other than blessed Gd."

(R' Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, Kedushat Levi, Chanukah: Kedushah Rishonah)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Support the Sages!

Hi,

"I say that the Jewish people are obligated to support, with honor, their sages and judges whose livelihoods are their Torah, so that they will not need to cease their heavenly work for the sake of melachah, and so they will not be disgraced before amei ha’aretz because of their poverty, and so they will be treated with honor."

(R' Shimon ben Tzemach Duran, Tashbetz 1:142)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The value of labor

Hi,

"There is a great level in supporting one’s self with the work of one’s hands, and this was the trait of the early pious ones, and through this one merits all honor and goodness in this world and the next, as it is written, 'When you eat the labor of your hands, you are fortunate and it is good for you.' You are fortunate in this world, and it is good for you in the next world, which is entirely good."

(Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Talmud Torah 3:11)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Promises

Hi,

"Kohelet 5:5 says, 'Do not use your mouth to make your flesh sin.' Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi explained: This refers to people who pledge tzedakah publicly, and do not fulfill it."

(Midrash, Kohelet Rabbah 5)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The need for money

Hi,

"A chassid of either the Lechevitcher or Kobriner Rebbe was with his rebbe for Rosh HaShanah. On the first night, he told his rebbe he needed money.

"The rebbe replied: If you had money, would you then repent?

"He answer: Rebbe! Without it, I definitely won't be able to repent!"

(Or Zoreiach, cited in Tziyyun Yekarim Vol. 2)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The merit of living in Israel

Hi,

"Rabbi Meir used to say: Israel atones for the sins of those who live there. It is written (Yeshayah 33:24), 'The nation that lives in the land is נשוא עון.'

"But that is still vague [because the term נשוא עון has multiple meanings]! We wouldn't know whether their sins are removed when they live there, or whether the people bear their sins when they live there! The question is resolved by another biblical sentence (Devarim 32:43): 'And His land will atone for His nation.' We see that their sins are removed when they live there."

(Sifri, Devarim 333)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Jealousy among the tribes

Hi,

[Leah named her son ראובן Reuven, which may be parsed as “ראו בן,” “See, a son.”]

“Leah declared, ‘See the difference between my son and the son of my father-in-law. My father-in-law’s son [Esav] sold his birthright with full knowledge… and regarding him it is written, ‘And Esav hated Yaakov’…

“But my son, even though Yosef took my son’s birthright from him against his will… he was not jealous, as it is written, ‘And Reuven heard, and saved [Yosef] from their hands.’”

(Talmud, Berachot 7b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Domestic disturbance

Hi,

"Bad behavior in one’s home is worse for a parent than the ultimate war of Gog and Magog. Regarding Avshalom’s rebellion it is written, “A psalm of David when he fled from his son Avshalom… HaShem, how great are my enemies, many rise against me!” But regarding the war of Gog and Magog it is written, “Why do the nations make noise, why do the nations speak emptiness,” but it does not say, “How great are my enemies.”"

(Talmud, Berachot 7b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Keep on learning!

Hi,

"So long as a person's soul is within him, one is obligated to continue to grow.

"Granted that one who learns when he is older is compared to ink on an erasure-marred paper, but because of the greatness of wisdom and its tremendous worth, the ink of wisdom on erasure-marred paper is of inestimable value, and there is no number that can be attached to its greatness."

(Chazon Ish, Emunah uBitachon 3:26)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

A horror - but this was their reality

Hi,

[Note: This story also appears in sources from the 13th century; I am using the later source because it's one I have at hand.]

"Once, [during the Crusades,] a rabbi slaughtered many children because he was afraid the invading enemy would make them leave their religion. Another rabbi present was angry at him and called him a murderer, but he did not listen.

"The opposing rabbi declared, “If I am correct, may that rabbi be killed in an abnormal way!” And so it happened; the non-Jews caught him, flayed his skin and placed sand between the flesh and the skin. The decree [of shmad] was then nullified, and it is possible that the children would have been saved and not killed, had he not slaughtered them."

(Rav Yosef Caro, Beit Yosef Yoreh Deah 157)

Be well,
Mordechai

The merit of our ancestors

Hi,

"If you are tested and you keep from sinning, do not take credit for yourself, saying, ‘I withstood the test.’ Perhaps your ancestors were tested, and when they did not sin they asked of Gd that when their descendants are tested, they also keep from sinning."

(R' Yehudah haChasid, Sefer Chasidim 160)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Slandering a community

Hi,

[The following was written in response to a writer who accused the Jews of Morocco of horrible crimes under the Almohad persecution of the 12th century.]

"If the great pillars of the world – Moshe, Eliyahu and Yeshayahu and the ministering angels – were so punished when they raised just a few words against the Jewish people, then how much more so the lightest of the world’s lightweights, who would loose his tongue upon the communities of Israel, sages and their students, Kohanim and Levites, to call them sinners and wicked people and non-Jews and people who are disqualified from testimony and deniers of the Gd of Israel!"

(Rambam, Iggeret haSh'mad, Part 2)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Heaven and Earth: Agents of reward and punishment

Hi,

"Rabbi Benayah would say: When a person is found guilty in court, his witnesses are the first to punish him, as it is written, ‘The hand of the witnesses will be against him first,’ and then others come along.

"So, too, when the Jews do not fulfill Gd’s will it is written, ‘And Gd’s anger will rise against you, and He will close the heavens,’ and then the other punishments will come. And when the Jews fulfill Gd’s will it is written, ‘And it will be on that day – this is the word of Gd – I will answer the heavens…’"

(Sifri Devarim 306)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Think before you speak, think before you write

Hi,

"A person should not speak and orate before the nation’s ears until he reviews that which he wishes to say once, twice, thrice and four times, studying it well, before speaking…

"This is regarding speech; when a person will engrave it by hand and write it on a book, it would be appropriate for him to review it one thousand times, were it possible…"

(Maimonides, Iggeret haSh'mad)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The tunes used for prayer, Part 2

Hi,

"Music itself is the essence of worship, as it is written, ‘And our lips will complete our bulls.’ This is prayer with humility and a pleasant voice and joy and trembling, with glory and beauty in the house of our Gd! If the sound they use when making music in the house of their idolatry is the sound which introduces humility into the heart, with its type of music and what people are accustomed to hearing…

"Could it be believed that because fools corrupted it and established it in the house of their prayers, we would be prohibited from using something our nature requires, one of the body’s five senses?!... In that case, we should also prohibit the cup of wine from havdalah, since they bless upon the wine of their libations in their churches!..."

(R' Yisrael Moshe Hazan, Krach shel Romi 1)

Have a great day,
Mordechai