My light and my salvation

Hi,

Tehillim 27:1 says, "For David - Gd is my light and my salvation, from whom will I fear?"

"The sages explained this sentence to refer to Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur - Gd is my light on Rosh HaShanah and my salvation on Yom Kippur."

(Midrash, Vayyikra Rabbah 21:4)

Good chodesh,
Mordechai

A Divine promise

Hi,

"If only My nation would listen to me, if Israel would walk in My ways. In a moment I would humble their enemies, and put My hand upon their foes."

(Tehillim 81:14-15)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

אתה זוכר מעשה עולם - You remember the deeds of al

Hi,

The following parable is meant to explain the praise expressed in the sentence, "You [Gd] remember the deeds of all," from the Rosh haShanah davening:

"This may be compared to a man whose young son says something wise, so that the father turns to him and enjoys his wisdom. Granted that the father's grasp and wisdom is incomparably greater than the child's, still, he lovingly reduces himself to the intellectual level of the child, to appreciate and enjoy the child's accomplishment.

"'You remember the deeds of all - You lower Yourself, as it were, to enjoy and be satisfied with our small deeds and service."

(Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev, Kedushat Levi for Rosh HaShanah, as cited in Shaarei Armon pg. 242)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The seriousness of the Ten Days of Repentance

Hi,

"Once, during the Ten Days of Repentance, they inquired in the synagogue regarding an object that had been lost. They invoked a cherem [decree excommunicating anyone who knew the object's whereabouts and did not tell]. Mahari Segal was outraged at the person who did this, saying that it is not appropriate to investigate with a cherem during that time period, when people's lives are in jeopardy."

(Maharil, Hilchot Aseret Yemei Teshuvah 5)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Martyrdom, and punishment through one's descendants

Hi,

I'm really not sure what to say about this source, but it provides considerable food for thought:

"Some people sin in their lifetimes, and are punished for all of their sins only posthumously.

"For example: There was a learned person in a certain place where it was decreed that the community either adopt another religion or be killed. He told the population to adopt the other religion and then repent later. He adopted the other religion, as did they, and then the community returned to Judaism.

"Because they adopted that other religion upon his ruling, his descendants abandoned Torah, and he was punished as though he had caused all of them to sin."

(R' Yehudah haChasid, Sefer Chasidim 197)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Disciplining children

Hi,

"To nibble at sweets, to take pins, a pen, pieces of paper or ribbons, to read a book without the owner's permission, these things - which are properly theft - are often done by children unwittingly. You to whom a childish soul is entrusted must therefore watch over it, accustom it in its small world to justice, and it will surely practice it in the larger world."

(Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, Horeb, paragraph 343)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

On promiscuity

Hi,

"The results of lechery are unspeakable. The powers of the body become exhausted. Everything better and nobler in the man dies out. Man becomes a brute and knows only pleasure - and animal pleasure. Children, who should be the offspring for the future, from whom the future of the human race is built, enter the world - and have no father and mother to educate them to become true human beings! They have no home in which their noblest and most Divine part, their spirit and heart, may be cultivated and may develop, through the living parental example, into a useful and godly life.

"Woe to the time when the sexes do not keep themselves holy! Countries and States in vain seek for the cause of their decline - and do not see that they cease to be States as soon as their homes are ruined."

(Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, Horeb, paragraph 437)

Have a great day,
Mordechai