The pasuk (Bamidbar 33:17) lists as one of Bnei Yisroel’s travels, “VaYis’u MiKivros HaTaava, VaYachanu BaChatzeiros”. The Chasam Sofer says that we see a Remez from these words that if you overcome your indulgence, you become more Kadosh and closer to Hashem. "VaYis’u MiKivros HaTaava", translates to, “they traveled from burying their desires.” VaYachanu BaChatzeiros, they encamped in the “courtyard”. The courtyard, he says, refers to Olam HaZeh. Like it says in Pirkei Avos (4:21), “Hasken Atzmicha B’Prosdor KDei SheDikaneis L’Traklin.” Once we bury our desires we then enter the courtyard to perform Mitzvos and Ma’asim Tovim to prepare ourselves for our entrance to the palace, Olam Habah.
http://revach.net/parshas-hashavua/quick-vort/Parshas-Masei-Chasam-Sofer-Straight-From-the-Burial-To-The-Courtyard/2562
And speaking of desires, click here to read an article by Rabbi Shais Taub titled Was the World Powerless to Stop Amy Winehouse?
25 Jul 2011
24 Jul 2011
Fool's gold
After reading Holy Woman by Sara Yoheved Rigler a number of years ago, I became an instant fan of the author. So, when I received an email from Aish.com with a link to an article written by Ms. Rigler, I immediately clicked and read about "living in a world where appearances mask reality."
...In a fool's gold world, if you win an argument with your spouse, you've won.
In reality, every time you argue with your spouse, you've lost.
...In a fool's gold world, if you give a large sum of money to charity, you have less.
In reality, if you give a large sum of money to charity, you have more. (As a wise woman said at the end of her life: "All I really have is what I gave away.")
Read full article: http://www.aish.com/sp/ph/Deception.html
This evening I read a post about a diamond bracelet which someone found. The person who found the bracelet contacted The Lakewood Scoop, which promptly posted that the person who lost the bracelet should contact...
The person who found the bracelet could just have easily kept it and been a few thousand dollars richer. But that person realized fulfiiling the mitzvah of hashavat aveida- returning a lost item - would make him/her infinitely richer.
...In a fool's gold world, if you win an argument with your spouse, you've won.
In reality, every time you argue with your spouse, you've lost.
...In a fool's gold world, if you give a large sum of money to charity, you have less.
In reality, if you give a large sum of money to charity, you have more. (As a wise woman said at the end of her life: "All I really have is what I gave away.")
Read full article: http://www.aish.com/sp/ph/Deception.html
This evening I read a post about a diamond bracelet which someone found. The person who found the bracelet contacted The Lakewood Scoop, which promptly posted that the person who lost the bracelet should contact...
The person who found the bracelet could just have easily kept it and been a few thousand dollars richer. But that person realized fulfiiling the mitzvah of hashavat aveida- returning a lost item - would make him/her infinitely richer.
The relevancy of Torah
INN has published two articles in which two individuals share their beliefs in the relevancy of the Bible nowadays.
Land of Israel activist Itamar Ben-Gvir was recently offered an opportunity many would love to have – a guaranteed spot on the next season of the popular reality TV show Big Brother. However, he has turned it down in favor of Sabbath observance and modesty.
Read full article: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/145989
The Bible is an “ancient holy book” that is irrelevant to the Palestinian Authority's aim to take over all of Judea and Samaria from the Jews, a PA activist said in a rare debate last week with a “settler” in a Washington synagogue.
Read full article: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/146005
Moshe emes v'Toraso emes. Moshe is true and his Torah is true.
Land of Israel activist Itamar Ben-Gvir was recently offered an opportunity many would love to have – a guaranteed spot on the next season of the popular reality TV show Big Brother. However, he has turned it down in favor of Sabbath observance and modesty.
Read full article: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/145989
The Bible is an “ancient holy book” that is irrelevant to the Palestinian Authority's aim to take over all of Judea and Samaria from the Jews, a PA activist said in a rare debate last week with a “settler” in a Washington synagogue.
Read full article: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/146005
Moshe emes v'Toraso emes. Moshe is true and his Torah is true.
23 Jul 2011
En route
by Rabbi Dr Raymond Apple
You can’t help listening in to people on mobile phones. In the street, on the train, in bank queues – wherever you happen to be people are making calls or answering them. Almost every call begins, “Where are you?” It is not meant as a philosophical question. Nor is there any philosophical implication in the other common question, “How are you doing?” But read today’s sidra and you see that questions like these ought – at least sometimes – to have a deeper content.
Mass’ei begins, “These are the journeys of the Children of Israel when they went out of the land of Egypt” (Num. 33:1). It is not so much the journeys that are enumerated but the stopping places. This leads to Rashi to ask why the list was necessary. Presumably the people needed no reminder of where they had been. But the Torah’s purpose was to show the lovingkindness of the Almighty. He not only ordained that they should move and migrate through the wilderness but also that they should have stopping places where they could settle, at least for a time, and enjoy some rest and stability.
“Where are you?” in those days would have been easily answered – “We are en route” or “We have arrived”. Today too, “Where are you?” can mean “Are you making progress in life? Have you settled down for the moment to take stock and recharge your energies?” “How are you doing?” is also a good contemporary question – not just, “what is happening?” but “How are you handling it?”
http://www.oztorah.com/2007/06/where-are-you-massei/
As we react to the death of Amy Winehouse at the age of 27 with shock, one can't help but regret the loss of a young talented singer who suffered from addictions.
Let's take time to ask ourselves if we are making progress in life and how are we handling it?
You can’t help listening in to people on mobile phones. In the street, on the train, in bank queues – wherever you happen to be people are making calls or answering them. Almost every call begins, “Where are you?” It is not meant as a philosophical question. Nor is there any philosophical implication in the other common question, “How are you doing?” But read today’s sidra and you see that questions like these ought – at least sometimes – to have a deeper content.
Mass’ei begins, “These are the journeys of the Children of Israel when they went out of the land of Egypt” (Num. 33:1). It is not so much the journeys that are enumerated but the stopping places. This leads to Rashi to ask why the list was necessary. Presumably the people needed no reminder of where they had been. But the Torah’s purpose was to show the lovingkindness of the Almighty. He not only ordained that they should move and migrate through the wilderness but also that they should have stopping places where they could settle, at least for a time, and enjoy some rest and stability.
“Where are you?” in those days would have been easily answered – “We are en route” or “We have arrived”. Today too, “Where are you?” can mean “Are you making progress in life? Have you settled down for the moment to take stock and recharge your energies?” “How are you doing?” is also a good contemporary question – not just, “what is happening?” but “How are you handling it?”
http://www.oztorah.com/2007/06/where-are-you-massei/
As we react to the death of Amy Winehouse at the age of 27 with shock, one can't help but regret the loss of a young talented singer who suffered from addictions.
Let's take time to ask ourselves if we are making progress in life and how are we handling it?
22 Jul 2011
Terror and security
After today's events in Norway, one can only ask, is Bruce Bawer prescient? Click here to read an article titled Oslo Car Fires Highlight Threat to Norway’s Future.
And while on the subject of terrorism, this morning I read an article which featured a video titled FEMA Partners with Homeland Security on Psyops campaign.
At the 3'02" mark, the words in the video read "aquiring funding and supplies."
I don't know about you, but, if the Department of Homeland Security is responsible for the misspelling of the word "acquiring", then I am quite nervous about the department's ability to identify people on no fly lists. Can you imagine allowing terrorists into the country because their names were misspelled? Thankfully, as one can see in the video, terrorists have easy names to spell like Jihad Jane and Timothy.
And while on the subject of terrorism, this morning I read an article which featured a video titled FEMA Partners with Homeland Security on Psyops campaign.
At the 3'02" mark, the words in the video read "aquiring funding and supplies."
I don't know about you, but, if the Department of Homeland Security is responsible for the misspelling of the word "acquiring", then I am quite nervous about the department's ability to identify people on no fly lists. Can you imagine allowing terrorists into the country because their names were misspelled? Thankfully, as one can see in the video, terrorists have easy names to spell like Jihad Jane and Timothy.
21 Jul 2011
The new host?
After giving a nearly six-month tryout for the Internet talk show host Cenk Uygur, the cable news channel MSNBC is preparing to instead hand its 6 p.m. time slot to the Rev. Al Sharpton. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/business/media/sharpton-close-to-being-msnbc-anchor.html?_r=3&partner=rss&emc=rss
Click here to read a 2003 article by Jeff Jacoby about Al Sharpton.
Click here to read a 2003 article by Jeff Jacoby about Al Sharpton.
U.S. Pledge
Evelyn Gordon writes an article titled By Israeli Left’s Standard, U.S. Pledge Would Be Fascist, Too.
Michelle Lancaster writes about a court which "decided that they no longer wanted the records to reflect that the Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation were said for fear it would give the perception that it is the courts official stance."
Just when I thought nothing could be as outrageous as my recent post “God Bless Our Military … just not at the Houston National Cemetery” where veterans are being censored for religious speech, I hear about what is happening in our furthest county of northeast Texas.
Seems the Bowie County Commissioners Court voted on June 13, 2011, to remove our country’s Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation from their county meeting minutes.
Read full article: http://biggovernment.com/mlancaster/2011/07/20/my-country-tis-of-thee-sweet-land-of-removing-the-pledge-of-allegiance/
Michelle Lancaster writes about a court which "decided that they no longer wanted the records to reflect that the Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation were said for fear it would give the perception that it is the courts official stance."
Just when I thought nothing could be as outrageous as my recent post “God Bless Our Military … just not at the Houston National Cemetery” where veterans are being censored for religious speech, I hear about what is happening in our furthest county of northeast Texas.
Seems the Bowie County Commissioners Court voted on June 13, 2011, to remove our country’s Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation from their county meeting minutes.
Read full article: http://biggovernment.com/mlancaster/2011/07/20/my-country-tis-of-thee-sweet-land-of-removing-the-pledge-of-allegiance/
20 Jul 2011
Teaching Judaism via Wikipedia?
And the award for quote of the day goes to the former IDF chief rabbi who said the following in response to the former head of IDF Personnel Directorate, Avi Zamir's recommendation of "transferring Jewish education matters from the Rabbinate to the Education Corps."
"Who are the officers in this corps? These are just guys from Tel Aviv! They can't teach Judaism – where will they get their information from, Wikipedia?"
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4097954,00.html
And here are two articles which highlight differences between religious and secular Jews.
Click here to see Kevin Collins' take on religious Jews versus secular Jews on Obama.
Click here to see what the president of the Orthodox Union says on the intermarriage statistics of secular versus Orthodox Jews.
"Who are the officers in this corps? These are just guys from Tel Aviv! They can't teach Judaism – where will they get their information from, Wikipedia?"
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4097954,00.html
And here are two articles which highlight differences between religious and secular Jews.
Click here to see Kevin Collins' take on religious Jews versus secular Jews on Obama.
Click here to see what the president of the Orthodox Union says on the intermarriage statistics of secular versus Orthodox Jews.
Never give up
After Bnei Yisroel returned from the war with Midyan with the spoils, Moshe taught them the Halachos of Hagalas Keilim, Kashering the utensils through boiling water and fire. The parsha begins with the words Zos Chukas HaTorah (Matos 31:21). What is so special about the Halachos of Hagala that the Torah uses the strong words Chukas HaTorah?
Rav Moshe Feinstein answers that from the ability to make treif utensils kosher by boiling them we learn that a person who sullies his neshama with aveiros can also kasher it and cleanse it as if he never sinned. This is a pillar of the Torah, as it teaches people never to give up no matter how far they have gone away from the Torah.
Moreover we see that keilim used in fire need to be kashered with fire, libun. And keilim used in boiling water become kasher with boiling water. This teaches us that we must do tshuva the same way we did the aveira. If a person sinned with the burning desire of taava, so too must be the tshuva. And if the taava was less passionate then the tshuva can be on the same scale.
http://revach.net/parshas-hashavua/quick-vort/Parshas-Matos-Rav-Moshe-Feinstein-Hagalas-Keilim-A-Pillar-of-The-Torah/5120
Rav Moshe Feinstein answers that from the ability to make treif utensils kosher by boiling them we learn that a person who sullies his neshama with aveiros can also kasher it and cleanse it as if he never sinned. This is a pillar of the Torah, as it teaches people never to give up no matter how far they have gone away from the Torah.
Moreover we see that keilim used in fire need to be kashered with fire, libun. And keilim used in boiling water become kasher with boiling water. This teaches us that we must do tshuva the same way we did the aveira. If a person sinned with the burning desire of taava, so too must be the tshuva. And if the taava was less passionate then the tshuva can be on the same scale.
http://revach.net/parshas-hashavua/quick-vort/Parshas-Matos-Rav-Moshe-Feinstein-Hagalas-Keilim-A-Pillar-of-The-Torah/5120
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