Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality From Rav Binny (Portion of Pekudei)
Sometimes, it's that one extra word that makes all the difference. It was only a fraction of a moment of my time in the army, but it was a lesson I never forgot, though to this day I am undecided as to whether I agree with it.
I was desperate to get a day off; we were still in basic training, and I had barely been in the army three months, but my folks were landing at the airport the next afternoon, and I was hoping my commanders would give me a break as I had not seen head or hair of any family in the two months since I had joined up.
My folks had done me the enormous favor of landing on a Thursday afternoon, which was the best possible day of the week for a tank crewman to get extra leave. Thursday...
Sparks – Rabbi David Aaron -Vayakhel
Successful People are Unaccomplished
Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of solemn rest to the Lord. (Exodus 35:2)
During the forty years that the Israelites wandered in the desert they carried with them a portable temple referred to as the Tabernacle or the Mishkan. The creative acts that are forbidden on Shabbat are those acts similar to the skills that went into building or assembling the Mishkan. The Talmud outlines 39 different categories of such creative acts that are forbidden to do on Shabbat. They represent our ultimate power of creativity which is to build a temple that accommodates the presence of G-d on earth. Of course we know that G-d does not literally dwell in the Mishkan, however, the Mishkan symbolizes our ability to serve G-d and infuse every moment and every place with the presence of G-d. In other words the greatest accomplishment of a...
Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality From Rav Binny – Vayakhel
There are sounds that you hear and things that you see that will always make you stop whatever you are doing. People yelling, the sound of an ambulance racing down a Jerusalem street, or even the backfire of a car, if you...
Sparks – Rabbi David Aaron – Portion of Ki Tisa
Shabbat: Rest Assured
Keep the Shabbat for it is holy unto you.....
because in six days G-d made heaven and earth: and on the seventh day
He abstained from work and rested. (Exodus 31: 14-17)
Most people know what you don...
Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality From Rav Binny- Portion of Ki Tisa
Sabra and Shatilla; for most of us, the names of these Arab refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon evoke images of controversy and confusion as the sites where Christian Phalange soldiers massacred over seven hundred civilians: men, women and children in September of 1982. Most people will associate this controversy with the question of whether Israeli troops controlling the area should have or even could have prevented these terrible events.
But for the men of the 202nd battalion of the Israeli paratroopers, including my older brother, these names and that time recall a very different memory. I only got the full story a few months later, when my brother and I managed to get together for Shabbat in our rented apartment in Jerusalem. Late Friday night, I awakened to strange, muffled sounds coming from his room, and discovered him, in the midst of a nightmare. The sounds of...
The Gift of Giving: Love
In this week...
Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality From Rav Binny Freedman Portion of Tetzaveh
Sometimes, the experiences that impact us the most are the ones we almost miss.
After finishing my regular army service, I was back in Yeshiva (An institute of higher learning), having recently begun my studies for the Israeli Rabbinate. I was on my way up the stairs to the Beit Midrash (study hall) when I noticed a student whose face I did not recognize coming out of one of the telephone booths in the hall. He appeared to be upset, and looked as though he had been crying. I asked him if he was OK, and he nodded in the affirmative, and as I didn...
Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality From Rav Binny- (Portion of Terumah)
There are some lessons you learn the hard way, and they are never forgotten.
In Infantry Officer...
Sparks by Rabbi David Aaron – Is G-d Beyond Us or Within Us?
The Torah recounts that G-d instructed the Israelites to build a sanctuary, telling Moses, ...