Sparks
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Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny
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It was our first Masah...
Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron – Achieving Sacred Selfishness: Happiness through Holiness
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I had a student that once came into my office and said, "My father who passed away was an atheist and a fantastic human being. He was such a moral human being. He was such a good human being. I don't believe that had he been a believer, he would have been any better. He was the epitome of being a good person. So I have a problem with Torah because I really don't believe that it would have made a difference."
So I told him that it isn't the goal of Torah to merely become a moral person. There is a lot more to it.
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Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny
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The year, 2003. The sound of the train pulling in to the Kfar Saba station filled the air on another beautiful afternoon, as passengers made ready to embark on their journey...home?
Hundreds of people getting on and off a second train across the platform, beneath the beautiful new glass and stone ceiling of the modern, new station just opened only two weeks before.
An innocent scene, full of hellos and goodbyes, and the promise and potential of beginnings.
At the entrance to the crowded station any number of people coming in and going out, young and old, passing through the automatic doors, beneath the alert eyes of the security guard who, like thousands of other security guards across Israel, holds the line in the war against terror.
One teenager, a boy who looks like any other boy, with spiked, blond punk-style hair, perhaps on his way to a night out with friends, walks in the middle...
Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny – Thoughts On Pesach
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Sparks
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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 ...
Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny (Portion of Metzora)
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In September of 2000, after the Arabs renewed the fighting in Israel over Rosh Hashanah, my unit was called up in the middle of the night as part of the massive call up of reserves that occurred as fighting broke out all over the country. It was the first (and I hope the last) time I was ever called up on a ...
Sparks – Rabbi David Aaron – Sick Minds, Sick Bodies: The Power of Our Beliefs to Heal or Harm
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The Jewish Sages gave a spiritual rather than physiological explanation for the disease tsara'at (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:
R. 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'at 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...
Small Tastings of Torah, Judaism and Spirituality from Rav Binny (Portion of Tazria)
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