Showing posts with label Israel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Israel. Show all posts

Monday, May 19, 2014

Thanking Gd for the land

Hi,

Regarding thanking Gd for our land in the blessing recited after a meal:

"Even for us today – for the scattered Israel that dwells in other countries – the fact that the land of Israel was once granted to us by G-d and, since lost, will one day again be ours, is of holy significance. This fact demonstrates G-d as the Sustainer of our physical existence and teaches us to see in all possessions and enjoyments a G-d-granted means to His service. 

"In these Berachot, the Land of Israel takes its appropriate pride of place among the other facts that form the foundation of Israel – namely, the Divine covenant with Abraham, the Exodus, and the Revelation at Sinai."

(Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Horeb 677)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Tzedakah Priorities: Local and Israel

Hi,

Devarim 15:7 says, "When there is a pauper, from one of your brethren, in one of your gates, in your land which HaShem your Gd gives you, do not harden your heart and do not tighten your hand from your brother, the pauper."

"'In one of your gates' - Dwellers of your city precede dwellers of other cities.

"'In your land' - Dwellers of the land [Israel] precede dwellers of areas outside the land."

(Midrash, Sifri, Devarim 116)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Monday, December 24, 2012

Israel is beloved to all



Hi,

"From the way all of the nations build great cities and name them after the  mountains of Israel, we see how beloved the land of Israel is to all of the nations of the world."

(Talmud, Chullin 60b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Monday, May 14, 2012

Why did the Torah begin with Creation? Part 2

Hi,

[Continued from two posts ago]

"R' Yitzchak said: The Torah did not need to begin other than from "This month is, for you, the first…," the first mitzvah in which the Jews were instructed. Why did it begin with Bereishit? Because, "He told His nation the power of His deeds, to give them the portions of nations."

"Lest the nations say to the Jews, "You are a nation of bandits, for you conquered the lands of the seven nations," they could respond, "All of the land belongs to Gd. He created it and gave it to the one who was righteous in His eyes. At His will He gave it to them, and at His will He took it from them and gave it to us.""

(Rashi to Bereishit 1:1)

To be continued...

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Why did the Torah begin with Creation? Part 1

Hi,

"R' Yehoshua of Sichnin began, citing R' Levi: "He told His nation the power of His deeds. (Tehillim 111:6)" Why did Gd reveal to Israel that which was created on Day 1 and that which was created on Day 2?

"Because of the idolaters, lest they oppress Israel, saying, "You are a nation of despoilers!" Israel could respond to them and say, "What about you? It is despoiled by you, for 'Caphtorim who departed from Caphtor destroyed them and settled in their place! (Devarim 2:22)' All of it belongs to Gd; when Gd wished, he gave it to you, and when He wished, He took it from you and gave it to us."

"Thus it is written, "To give them the portions of nations." Thus He told them of all of the generations."

(Midrash, Bereishit Rabbah 1:2)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Israel and the Diaspora - A more positive side

Hi,

"Isaiah 27:6 says, 'Israel will bloom and flower.' Rav Yosef taught: These are the scholars of Babylon, who produce blooms and flowers for Torah."

(Talmud, Shabbat 145b)

[Note: Rav Yosef was in Israel.]

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Animosity between Israel and Diaspora

Hi,

"Mishnah: They made a ramp for him [the person transporting the scapegoat on Yom Kippur], for the Babylonians would pull his hair, saying, 'Take it and go! Take it and go!'

"Rabbah bar bar Chanah said: They were not Babylonians; they were Alexandrians, but because the Israelis hated the Babylonians they identified this group by their name."

(Talmud, Yoma 66b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Burial in Israel - on the other hand

Hi,

"Ulla regularly travelled to Israel, but he died outside Israel. When they told R' Elazar, he said, 'You, Ulla, will die on tamei soil?!'

"They then told R' Elazar, 'The casket has arrived.' He said to them, 'There is no comparison between being absorbed while alive and being absorbed posthumously.'"

(Talmud, Ketuvot 111a)

המצפה לישועה,
Mordechai

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Moshe's love for Israel

Hi,

"Why did Moshe long to enter the land of Israel? Did he need to eat her fruit, or did he need to be sated from her goodness? Rather, Moshe said: Israel was commanded to perform many mitzvot, which may be fulfilled only in the land of Israel. I will enter the land, so that all of them will be fulfilled by me."

(Talmud, Sotah 14a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Thursday, November 11, 2010

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

Saturday, October 16, 2010

All help comes from Israel

Hi,

"“He will send your help from the sacred place (Tehillim 20:3).”

"R’ Levi said: All of the benefits, blessings and comforts Gd will provide for Israel will only be from Tzion, as it is written… (the midrash goes on to cite numerous biblical passages in which aid and blessings come from Tzion)"

(Midrash, Vayyikra Rabbah 24:4)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Living in Zion and Longing for Zion

Hi,

“[Psalms 87:5 says:] And regarding Zion it will be said: A person and a person have been born there, and Gd will establish it above.

"Rabbi Meisha, grandson of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, explained this passage: This refers to a person born in Zion, or a person who hopes to see Zion.

"Abayye said: One of them [Israelis] is worth two of us [Babylonians].”

(Talmud, Ketuvot 75a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Monday, April 19, 2010

The Joy of Israel at our return home

Hi,

"It is known from the Sages that our mother, Zion, cries and wails for us; we are her children, and she waits for us to return to her.

"‘With my own flesh I saw my Gd.’ In 1942, before Pesach, a horrifying decree was issued by the accursed wicked ones in in Slovakia, to kidnap Jewish girls from age 16 and up and bring them to a cruel land, an unknown place. Until today, the fate of thousands of pure Jewish souls who were brought there is unknown; Gd will avenge them quickly. There was then a great fear in the Jewish camp, and I know of one who wished to save his young daughters lest they fall into this wicked trap, and he tried to cross the border with his daughters. This was Chol haMoed Pesach, and he promised his wife that he would send a message by telegraph from across the border when he arrived, letting her know that he and his children had arrived safely at their destination. The mother sat in her house with her eyes failing with worry, anticipating at every moment the arrival of the happy news that they had crossed the border in peace and arrived in a safe place. But the father and his daughters were caught before they could cross the border, and they were brought to a city near the border and jailed all through chol hamoed and through the end of Pesach, and they were in great danger of being sent to a cruel land, in accord with their practice of punishing for flight. Anyone who fled and was caught was sent to a cruel land, in a manner which was yet more cruel than that used for others sent there. This became known to his wife, to the mother of the daughters, and we can only imagine the bitter emotion that overtook their mother and turned her joy at their flight into grief, and her Yom Tov was turned to mourning, Gd save us, for her husband and daughters. She sat and wept all through Yom Tov without halt, and the world actually turned dark for her; one cannot put into words her depressed state, when she learned what had happened to her husband and daughters. She knew what awaited them.

"But remember this man for the good: The great and righteous man, who served Gd with true self-sacrifice in the fullest sense of the world, who in this time endangered his life, the great and pious Rav Shmuel Dovid Unger, head of the Nitra community, who did not rest and was not silent until he had redeemed these three captives at a great price. They went free and could return home to their house without any obstacle, on the last day of Pesach. They let this woman of bitter spirit know immediately, by telephone, that her husband and daughters had emerged free, and would return home the next day, isru chag, in peace, and without obstacle.

"There is no need to tell the effect this great news had on the spirit of that bereft woman, knowing that her husband and daughters had emerged from between the lions’ teeth in peace. From that moment she waited with eyes failing with worry for the moment when the father and daughters would return to her home. The next day she did not have the strength to wait for them at home; she sat at the entrance to the yard, her eyes looking out for the moment they would come, and when they came and she saw them she burst out in a cry, pouring out all of the awesome emotion in her heart. She could not produce words of thanks to Gd for the magnitude of the miracle performed for her and for them, from the outpouring of feeling in her heart. One who did not witness the moment they actually met and saw each other again, mother with her daughters, after they returned from such a horrific captivity, and the mother’s weeping when she saw that her daughters had returned home, and the joy of the mother of children at that moment, never saw a feeling of joy.

"Therefore, since I know of that illumination which occurred in our days, so I imagine and describe the joy of our mother, the Land of Israel, when all of us will return to her after such a horrific captivity which we have experienced at this time, and the amazing joy which the mother will experience with her children, meaning Israel with us and us with her. Therefore I have named my book, “The joyous mother of children.”"

(R' Yissachar Techtel, Em haBanim Semeichah, Prologue)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Women's love of Israel

Hi,

"Alternatively, this is why the Torah specified that the Spies [who rejected the land of Israel] were men: The sages said that the men hated the land of Israel, and they said, ‘Let us set our heads in the other direction and return to Egypt.’ The women were the ones who loved the land, and they [the daughters of Tzelafchad] said, ‘Give us a share in the land.’

"Gd said to Moses: In My opinion, knowing what I see in the future, it would be better to send women, for they love the land and they won’t speak disgracefully about it. Send them for yourself, though, according to your opinion, for you believe these men are righteous."

(Kli Yakar to Bamidbar 13:1)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Building up the Land of Israel

Hi,

"It appears to me that a simple person who builds Israel without any altruistic intent, but only for his own good, still performs a greater Tikkun, improvement, in the upper heavens, than any righteous person, even the most righteous of Tzaddikim, with his Tikkun Chatzot prayers and crying and wailing for the Shechinah in its exile. Certainly, the Tzaddik’s prayers have an enormous effect, but all of that does not reach the effect caused by a simple person with his actions of building up Israel, regardless of his motive."

(R' Yissachar Teichtel, Em haBanim Semeichah, pg. 58, based on Sanhedrin 102b)

Chag kasher v'sameach,
Mordechai

Monday, March 22, 2010

Israel longs for you

Hi,

"Yirmiyah said: When I ascended to Yerushalayim, I raised my eyes and saw a woman sitting atop a mountain, wearing black clothing and with her hair undone, crying out, seeking one who would console her. I cried out as well, and sought one who would comfort me.

"I drew close to her and spoke with her, and told her, “If you are a woman, speak with me. If you are a spirit, leave me.”

"She replied, “Do you not recognize me? I am the one who had seven sons whose father left to go overseas. While I was yet crying for him, it was prophesied to me, ‘The house has collapsed upon your seven sons and killed them.’ I don’t know for whom to cry, and for whom to release my hair!”

"I replied and told her, “You are no greater than my mother, Zion, who has been turned into grazing for the wild animals of the field.” To which she replied and said to me, “I am your mother, Zion.”"

(Midrash, Pesikta Rabti 26)

Have a good day,
Mordechai

Sunday, December 20, 2009

The importance of establishing Jewish life in Israel

Hi,

"The sages taught: One may even write up a deed to purchase land in Israel on Shabbat.

"Do you really believe one could do this on Shabbat?! Rather, it is as Rava taught in another circumstance, that one may ask a non-Jew to do certain things on Shabbat, so in this case one may ask a non-Jew to do it. Although the sages prohibited asking a non-Jew to perform melachah on Shabbat, they did not create their decree in a case where that would prevent settlement of the land of Israel."

(Talmud, Gittin 8b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Monday, October 26, 2009

Why send meraglim [spies] to Israel?

Hi,

"It appears that Gd's essential intent was to send Gd-fearing, complete people, whose entire goal was the service of Gd. Gd-forbid, it was not for them to tour the land and see its material aspects, but rather Gd instructed Moshe to send people who already served Gd in order for them to make their mark as servants of Gd there, through Torah and prayer, in order to draw life and spiritual influence from the heavenly Israel to the earthly Israel, so that the land of Israel itself would long for the arrival of the children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov."

(R' Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, Kedushat Levi to Parshat Sh'lach)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Sunday, July 19, 2009

The beauty of Israel

Hi,

"The Torah says (Vayyikra 19), 'When you come into the land, you will plant trees producing every kind of food.'

"What does this teach?... That Israel does not lack anything, as it is also written (Devarim 8), 'The land in which you will not lack anything.'"

(Talmud, Succah 35a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Monday, May 11, 2009

The beginnings of redemption, in the land of Israel itself

Hi,

"It is true - the beginning of redemption definitely continues to appear before us. However, this revelation did not begin today, but from the time when the revealed end began to be revealed, from the time when the mountains of Israel began to produce branhes and bear fruit for the Jewish nation which had come closer. That is when the beginning of redemption was initiated."

(R' Avraham Yitzchak haKohen Kook, Igrot Ra'ayah 3:155, based on Yechezkel 36:8 and Sanhedrin 98a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai