Isralight Blog – Page 70

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

May 16, 2019 by admin Comment Closed

Dating the Divine Celebrating love “These are the appointed holidays of G-d, holy convocations, which you are to proclaim in their appointed times.” — Lev. 23.4 Henny Youngman, the comedian, once said, "I tried being an atheist, but I gave it up. There were no holidays." What is a holiday really about? Is it the same as a vacation? A vacation is a time to vacate, but a holiday is a time to celebrate. To vacate means to take off, get away from the everyday and clear yourself out from the tensions and challenges of the daily grind. Perhaps you'll suntan on a beach, play golf or catch a good concert. A holiday, however, is a holy day. It is not an escape from everyday life to paradise. Rather, it is a time to infuse paradise into the everyday. This is the power of celebration. My guess is that the word celebrate connects to the word celestial. And from a Jewish perspective that would make sense,...

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

May 16, 2019 by admin Comment Closed

Many years ago, when I was in High School, my mother arranged for me to get a ride up to school once a week with one of the teachers who taught there. We lived in Manhattan, and as the Mesivta High School I attended was in Riverdale, having a ride that morning saved me a good hour I would have spent on public transportation. It also meant leaving our apartment at 7:30am instead of 6:30 for which I was understandably grateful. In retrospect, I am not entirely certain the arrangement was purely practical, as the teacher would regularly engage me in a variety of Torah topics and philosophical and existential questions … One morning as we were driving up the West Side Highway, a car barreled down an entrance ramp and slammed into the front of our car. After being thrown across the highway, the rebbe managed to get control of the car as the engine puttered off, and we...

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

May 9, 2019 by admin Comment Closed

CAN YOU REALLY LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOUR SELF? After reading this essay, you'll never look at yourself — or others — the same way again. The actor Kirk Douglas once told me that when people compliment him on a performance, they often tell him how great he was at losing himself in the part. "You just became Vincent Van Gogh! You were so wonderful." And he answers, "No, you lost yourself in the part. I can't afford to lose myself in the part. I have to pay attention to the director, to the cues. I have to hit the mark just right so the action is in the camera frame. I must stay aware that I am an actor acting a part." So a good actor plays his part, but he doesn't get lost in his part. He can't even begin to think he is the character he is playing. On the other hand, it is not like he doesn't embrace that...

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

May 9, 2019 by admin Comment Closed

Recently, on a Pesach program, an elderly gentleman named Yaakov Gross asked a few of us if he could speak before the Yizkor service. He wanted to share the story of his bar mitzvah in Bergen Belsen. This is the story he shared: In January of 1945 the Nazis were still trying to convince the world that they were treating the Jews well. So, they invited a delegation of the Red Cross to visit the camp. As part of the ‘show’ that they prepared, they ‘invited’ a few of the boys from the kinder-lager, the children’s’ barracks, to celebrate their bar mitzvah in Bergen Belsen; true story. And for the occasion, they erected a platform (read: bimah) in the middle of the square where roll calls and hangings were normally held. And, no less incredible, they secured a Sefer Torah for the event! And so, young Yaakov Gross, who was thirteen, along with five other boys, ascended to receive an Aliyah...

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

May 2, 2019 by admin Comment Closed

Achieving Sacred Selfishness Happiness through holiness 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. Morality is important, but morality is a stage in the journey. The destination is holiness — being whole. Morality is an aspect of that, but it is not that. So I asked him, "Do you think your father might have been more holy?" That shocked him, he never even thought about holiness. What...

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

May 2, 2019May 2, 2019 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...

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

April 18, 2019 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 18, 2019 by admin Comment Closed

What makes a leader? This is a question that consumes countless books, seminars and leadership training programs in countless Universities and business training models. But it’s worth noting that there are two different types of leaders. One, the more commonly considered, is the type of person who leaps forward under challenging circumstances, who inspires others less bold to follow behind. In fact, I have a vivid memory of hearing just that at the end of the IDF’s Officer training course, from a Commander whom I greatly respected: “The measure of an officer is whether he (or she) can become the man whom others will follow, anywhere…” And yet, there is a second type of leader who accomplishes much more than having others follow behind; he or she inspires others to leap ahead. Such leaders do not lead; they inspire… Such a person was Cantor (Chazzan) Sherwood Goffin, who first taught me to read from the Torah and whose beautiful Shabbat tunes and guitar playing...

Sparks – by Rabbi David Aaron

April 11, 2019April 11, 2019 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 11, 2019 by admin Comment Closed

Is there a point past which a person can no longer change; can no longer be forgiven? On the one hand, Jewish law clearly teaches that for some transgressions, such as murder, a person is put to death, suggesting that such a person can no longer redeem him or herself in this world. On the other hand our tradition also teaches us in the name of Rabbi Eliezer (Avot 2:10) “repent the day before you die “ and in the Talmud (Shabbat 153) he explains this to mean that a person should always repent as he never knows when he might die, the clear implication being everyone can repent. Rav Ephraim Oshry one of the last rabbis of the Kovno Ghetto, in his powerful responsum from the holocaust, Mima’amakim, shares that a fellow came over to him in the DP camp, after the war, with an intense question. He had been a Chazan (cantor) before the war, and some of his fellow former...

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