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Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny Freedman – Portion of Vayakhel-Pekudei

March 23, 2017 by admin Comment Closed

They were all so different; how would I ever be able to turn them into a cohesive unit? It was my first command, and this was my first mission. After finally completing Officer’s course I was assigned to the 430th battalion of the 500th armored Brigade which at the time was still stationed in the Jordan valley. Given a few days to rest up after 11 grueling months of infantry officer’s training and then tank officer’s course I reported for duty to my new base with visions of commanding men under fire. After meeting first the battalion commander and then my new company commander, I was assigned my quarters, where I met Chaim and Ohad, my two fellow platoon commanders. Having spent most of the past year sleeping in the field or in a tank it was awesome to have my own bed and cupboard in an actual room in officer’s quarters. It was late evening by the time I got my...

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

March 16, 2017 by admin Comment Closed

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’t do on Shabbat: you don’t tear toilet paper, you don’t drive, you don’t write, you don’t turn on lights, you don’t shop, etc. But they don’t know why, and they don’t know what it is you, in fact, do on Shabbat. And of course, when you just focus on what you don’t do on Shabbat, the experience—which is supposed to be joyous and fulfilling—basically ends up sounding like torture. You have to ask yourself, “Is this the way I want to celebrate a holiday? Is this how I want to spend my weekend after working hard all week long?” In order to understand the real meaning of Shabbat, let’s explore the first place it is mentioned in the Torah. This paragraph is from the Book of Genesis and...

Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny Freedman – Portion of Ki Tisah

March 16, 2017 by admin Comment Closed

Jerusalem; 722 BCE: the mightiest army on the face of the earth has surrounded the city; bent on conquest and determined to put an end to the Jewish people once and for all. Approximately 35,000 people, all that remain of the Jewish people after the destruction and conquest of the North and the exile of the ten tribes, are crowded inside the city walls as the Assyrian army lays siege to Jerusalem. The Assyrian general Saragon, also known as Sanhereb, the Destroyer, has never been defeated, and has amassed the largest army the world has ever known: 185,000 men. Hizkiahu, the Jewish king, has no army to speak of; it would seem we are in the verge of the final solution to the Jewish people, 2,700 years ago. And then G-d performs a miracle, and according to the book of Kings, on the first night of Passover, an Angel smites the Assyrian army and all 185,000 Assyrian soldiers die, saving the city of Jerusalem....

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

March 9, 2017 by admin Comment Closed

Purim: Secrets Behind the Purim Mask Purim celebrates the salvation of the Jews from the wicked Haman's scheme to exterminate all the Jewish men, women, and children living in the Persian empire in the year 357 B.C.E., which essentially meant all the Jews in the world. Some of the commandments of Purim, such as hearing Megillat Esther, which recounts the Purim story, and enjoying a festive meal, are obvious ways to commemorate this deliverance. Other commandments and customs have no apparent connection to what happened on Purim. Why are we required to give charity to the poor, send two food items to a friend, and get so drunk that we do not know the difference between Haman, the villain, and Mordechai, the righteous hero of the story? (This last commandment, I understand, is very rigorously kept in college dorms all year round.) What is behind the customs to dress up in costume and to eat hamentaschen, delicious, sweet tarts named literally, "Haman's...

Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny Freedman – Purim

March 9, 2017 by admin Comment Closed

A few weeks ago I joined about 35 students from Yeshivat Orayta for a week in Poland. We had a remarkable guide named Rav Yitzchak Rubenstein who shared the following story with us: The Nazis understood the power of hope. They always left the glimmer of a possibility that it might get better, perhaps because it often kept the Jews from risking it all in rebellion. (In the army they teach you in Officer’s course to always leave the enemy an avenue of retreat; you don’t want him to feel he has to make a last stand….) In the ghetto, this meant that work was life. If you had a job (and the papers to prove it) that was deemed vital to the Nazi war effort, you were exempt from the transports to the East; no one really believed it was desirable to be on board one of those transports…. Before the war there were 250,000 Jews in Lodz, which was 40% of...

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

March 2, 2017 by admin Comment Closed

The Simple Art of Ecstasy How to See Divine Presence Here and Now “ And let them make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell amongst them.” — Exodus 25:8 In this week's Torah Portion we encounter the precise design and magnificent beauty of the holy tabernacle and its' vessels. What is the relationship between this physical construct and feeling the presence of G-d dwelling amongst us? YOU CAN SEE G-D Once I was giving a seminar, and I asked everyone to look around the room and point to beauty. The first interesting result was that everyone pointed to something different. One man pointed to his wife. A woman named Bea pointed to a glass menorah (a Hanukkah candelabra) that was sitting on a windowsill. I asked Bea how she saw beauty in that menorah. Did she see beauty with her physical eyes? "Well," she answered, "the glass is translucent and its delicacy has an ethereal quality. The shape is pleasing to the eye and because...

Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny Freedman – Portion of Terumah

March 2, 2017 by admin Comment Closed

This week's byte is dedicated in memory of Mr. Ernest Kan, Eliyahu ben Moshe v'Rochel, z"l, beloved father of Susan Rotsztajn. As a child in Germany, Mr. Kan saw the worst that man was capable of, but chose to live life seeing instead all the beauty people could share. Among the very many special things his life represented, Mr. Kan was privileged as an adult, to return to the high school from which he was expelled (after Kristallnacht) to give the commencement address and share life lessons with the next generation of German children. He is greatly missed, and the world is a better place for his having been here.... Yehi zichro baruch (may his memory be a blessing for us all...) Sometimes inspiration comes in the simplest of moments, like a good cup of coffee. In the fall of 2000, my unit was called up on special emergency orders (known as a ‘Tzav Shmoneh’). I still recall the middle of the night phone call from...

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

February 23, 2017February 23, 2017 by admin Comment Closed

The Divine Wants You to be Happy When Rules Become Delicious Recipes for Your Soul “And these are the judgments that you shall place before them.” — Exodus 21:1 "You shall place before them, that is, like a table that is set and ready for eating." — Rashi “Taste and see that G-d is good.” — Psalms 34 LAWS YOU CAN EAT, ENJOY AND SAVOUR The job of a teacher of Torah is not to be a philosopher, ethical guide or law giver but rather a gourmet chef. A gourmet chef has the ability to bring the taste out of every ordinary cabbage, every simple bean sprout, as well as present it all in a delicious tantalizing way. Once, I went to someone's home to raise funds for my institute. I thought we would have about a ten minute discussion. Instead, we were talking for five or six hours. I hadn't eaten all day, and I was starving. Finally I decided that instead of asking for a...

Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny Freedman – Portion of Mishpatim

February 23, 2017 by admin Comment Closed

This week I am writing to you from a bus somewhere in Poland in the middle of a week with the students of Yeshivat Orayta, seeing what was taken from us in the destruction of European Jewry. When new prisoners arrived in Auschwitz, if they survived the infamous selections on the train platforms, within an hour they were robbed, stripped, shaved (and had their hair cut), and deloused. Their humiliation had begun. Then they got uniforms and were given numbers, and by the time they were allowed into their barracks to attempt their first night of the sleep of the damned, they barely recognized themselves. Primo Levi recalls the thought he had that horrible night realizing that had he had access to a mirror, a strange face would have looked back at him; but he could see that stranger’s face in the faces all around him…. But some were stranger than others. One of the things that gave some concentration camp inmates a huge advantage...

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

February 16, 2017 by admin Comment Closed

Ready to HotSync Your Soul? Secrets to a Super-Natural Life of Freedom and Synchronicity Years ago, I saw these sandals I really liked. At the time, I knew nothing about these shoes other than I just liked the way they looked. So I went into a store and I tried on a pair, but they didn't feel right. They had all these funny bumps inside of them. I told the salesman, "There is something wrong with these shoes." He said, "No there is something wrong with your feet. You must understand that these shoes are designed to support the shape of a natural foot." "What's unnatural about my feet. They're in their natural place — at the end of my legs." He laughed. "You don't understand. Your feet have taken the unnatural shape of the shoes you've been wearing. And the shoes you've been wearing are good for killing cockroaches in tight corners, but they are not meant to contain feet." I felt insulted so I took...

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