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Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny Freedman – Portion of Acharei-Mot

April 28, 2022 by admin Comment Closed

Some time ago, after a lecture on the ethical challenges of the seventh commandment (“Thou shalt not steal”), I was approached by a fellow from Vienna who was a Holocaust survivor. “Why do you assume stealing is always wrong?” asked the fellow, “Sometimes, it is even an obligation.” “I always had a strong desire to take things, and I never understood why,” he continued, “And it wasn’t that I necessarily needed the things I took, I just loved the prospect of being able to steal things out from under people’s noses. I became quite good at it, though my conscience always bothered me. Often, I was able to resist the temptation to take things that weren’t mine, but it was always a struggle. I often wondered why G-d had burdened me with this particular challenge. I knew it was wrong to steal, and never rationalized theft; I just loved the ‘thrill of the take’. Why did G-d create me with this challenge? It wasn’t...

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

April 13, 2022 by admin Comment Closed

Wonder Bread Tapping the Transformational Power of Faith During the seven days of Passover we are required to eat only Matza-- unleavened bread that looks somewhat like a cracker and is made of just water and flour. The Matza reminds us that we were slaves to the Egyptians who treated us as if we were subhuman and fed us brittle and tasteless unleavened bread. The Matza is therefore referred to as the “bread of affliction.” However, Matza also reminds us of how we left Egypt in an astounding record time, faster than it takes dough to leaven into bread. How can Matza be both a sign of our painful affliction and our joyous freedom? The Zohar, the Kabbalah classic, refers to Matza as the “Bread of Faith.” In other words, when we eat the Matza, we are internalizing the message of faith that it embodies. That message is -- know that even if you hit rock bottom and feel far and alienated from G-d, G-d is right there to help you and free you from...

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

April 13, 2022April 13, 2022 by admin Comment Closed

(Why) Does G-d test us? Yom Kippur; the Jewish day of Atonement; we must have needed a lot of atonement that year, because over those dark days of October in 1973, over two thousand of our boys would be the sacrifices the Jewish people offered to atone for … what, exactly? The position on Mount Bental had a commanding view of the entire Northern Golan Heights, and the Syrian forces that overran the Israeli positions on the Yom Kippur afternoon were well aware that capturing this position was critical to a successful advance in the Golan Heights. After an overwhelming and unabated Syrian artillery barrage that forced the small contingent of Israeli soldiers manning the position to take cover deep in the underground bunker, the men in the bunker suddenly heard shouts and dialogue in Arabic above their bunker and realized their position had been captured. Seven men, including one who was seriously wounded from the artillery barrage managed to barricade themselves inside...

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

April 7, 2022 by admin Comment Closed

Look Who’s Talking: The Truth About Gossip “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” ~~Jane Austen “Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it: it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.” ~~George Elliot Whoever speaks with an evil speech- lashon hara – is as if he denied G-d . . . Evil speech kills three people – the one who says it, the one who accepts it, and the one about whom it is said. (Maimonides Hilkhot Deot 7:3) A philosopher once said, “If a man finds himself, he has a mansion in which he can live for the rest of his life.” I would like to add: If a man does not find himself he can build mansion after mansion and try to compensate for the loss of self, but huge as his mansion may be, it won’t do the trick. The real...

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

April 7, 2022 by admin Comment Closed

Raymond Smulyan, in his book ‘5000 B.C….’, posits the question of two identical twin brothers, one who always lies, and the other who always tells the truth. The truth-teller always tells the truth and is always accurate; whatever is indeed true he actually believes to be true. The liar on the other hand, always lies, and his responses are always false, such that whatever is true he will always believe to be false and whatever is false he will always assume is true. Thus, posits Smulyan, each brother will always give the same answer to the same question, but for different reasons: “For example, suppose you ask whether two plus two equals four. The accurate truth-teller knows that it is and will truthfully answer yes. The inaccurate liar will believe that two plus two does not equal four (since he is inaccurate) and will then lie and say that it does; he will also answer yes.” (Much like the case in which...

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

March 31, 2022 by admin Comment Closed

Sick Minds, Sick Bodies The power of our beliefs to heal or harm The Jewish Sages gave a spiritual rather than physiological explanation for the disease tsara'as (generally translated as "leprosy") which affected not only the body but also clothing and the walls of houses. According to one source several sins could possible be the cause: Shmuel bar Nachmani said in the name of R. Yochanan: Because of seven things the plague of leprosy is incurred, namely, slander, the shedding of blood, a vain oath, incest, arrogance, robbery and envy. (Arakhin 16a) However, most Sages concur that the main cause for tsara'as was slander and gossip. HOW CAN WE UNDERSTAND THE PHYSICAL IMPACT OF OUR MORAL AND SPIRITUAL ACTIONS? The Kabbalah teaches that the world you and I live in is a product of our perception of reality. The philosopher Immanuel Kant probed this concept. He asked: Do we see reality or do we see our perception of reality? Kant's answer is that we do...

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

March 31, 2022 by admin Comment Closed

In 1948, things did not look promising for the Jews. The Arab armies of Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and forces from Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria prepared to attack the newly declared State of Israel as soon as the British pulled out in May of 1948, vowing to push the Jews into the sea. In Tzfat, where 80,000 Arabs surrounded approximately 3,000 Jews living in the Jewish quarter, the Jews were braced for the worst. One night, a few weeks before the pullout, the British told the Jewish community they were leaving Tzfat in the morning and had reliable intelligence that the Arabs were planning a massive attack immediately following their departure. Predicting a massacre, they urged the Jews to leave the city, even making room for them in the convoy. With eight hours’ notice, they assumed the Jews would panic, but not a single Jew left the city. Sure enough, as the empty British trucks pulled out of Tzfat, thousands of Arabs armed...

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

March 24, 2022 by admin Comment Closed

Why Eat Kosher? The Talmud tells a story about the famed author of the Mishna, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. The rabbi was walking down the street one day, when a little calf ran up to him and hid under his cloak. Apparently, the calf had run away from the slaughterhouse. The rabbi said to the calf, “Go back to be slaughtered, for this you have been created.” At this point, a Divine decree was made against him because he had not shown pity on the creature. As a result he become sick and suffered for many years, until one day he showed pity on a family of young rats and was suddenly healed. We know that Judaism permits us to eat meat as long as the animal was slaughtered properly, so what did Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi do that was so wrong? He incorrectly said, “for this you were created.” The Talmud is teaching us that, contrary to his declaration, animals were not created for...

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

March 24, 2022 by admin Comment Closed

Decision Moments: What Makes a Person a Leader Explosions; gunfire; the sounds of battle; ‘lashab’: (lechima be’shetach banui) urban warfare: fought in close quarters; no place to hide, nowhere to run, very little room to maneuver, and no time to think. There are many things the army teaches you, especially in officer’s training. One of the most valuable is the ability to make decisions, often of life or death, in seconds. Such was the moment Lieutenant Eitan (full name with-held for security purposes) of the elite recon unit of the Givati Infantry Brigade found himself in the summer of 2014 in Gaza. The point reconnaissance squad (Palsar Givati), led by Company Commander Benayah Sarel, had just located the entrance to a Hamas tunnel, on the edge of Rafiach in the Gaza strip. Almost immediately the men came under heavy fire from Hamas terrorists who most probably had been lying in wait, waiting for a patrol to come across the exposed tunnel....

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

March 16, 2022 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...

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