by Rabbi Dr Raymond Apple
There is an eternal mystery about the parah adumah, the red heifer.
The paradox is that the mixture involving the ashes of the heifer purifies the impure but renders impure the pure. It is called a statute – chukkah – a category of law which is not susceptible to human analysis but is obeyed as a text of obedience to God. It sounds a bit like blind faith: I do it because God commanded me, regardless of whether I find meaning in its observance.
Generations of Jews have sought a rationale but with little record of success. The only possible way of handling the problem seems to be to have faith that God knows what He is doing even if we don’t. Where this leads us is either to reject the statutes or to embrace them.
Being prepared to do the latter, what do I say to myself? “I would like to know what is going on, but I am prepared to concede that some things are too big for me. If I understood every smallest thing that God does I would end up being greater than God, because it would mean that everything God says and commands had to be submitted for my approval. Since I’m not greater than God I must by definition be smaller. And being smaller than God means that I am bound to be mystified at some things. Why should I understand everything?”
http://www.oztorah.com/2013/06/why-should-i-understand/
13 Jun 2013
5 Jun 2013
A friend's support
Shelley Emling writes about 7 Ways To Impress People In 60 Seconds Or Less .
Her advice includes treating your spouse well, looking people in the eye and asking about a person's child.
3. Give compliments freely to those who deserve itI have a friend who always -- without fail -- says something nice to me as soon as she sees me. It's always something simple like "I love those earrings" but it always makes me feel good and it always makes me want to be around her. People may not always remember what you say, but they will remember how it feels to be around you.
4. Do what you say you're going to doI have another friend who, if she says she's going to meet you at 7 p.m., she's going to meet you at 7 p.m. and not a minute after. I have other friends who are habitually late or who make promises they can never deliver on. I'd rather have a friend tell me "no" than to tell me "maybe" and then renege on me later on. Be reliable and people will respect you for it.
Read full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shelley-emling/how-to-impress-people_b_3380181.html
When my mother was in the hospital, I very much appreciated those who asked me how she was doing.
This morning I heard a speaker talk about the words נְשָׁמָה which means soul and the word נָשַׁמָּה which means desolate. The first word has a kamatz under the letter shin while the second word has a patach under the letter shin. The kamatz has an extra line of support as opposed to the patach.
The difference between desolation and a soul which is alive comes from the support of people involved in an individual's life.
Her advice includes treating your spouse well, looking people in the eye and asking about a person's child.
3. Give compliments freely to those who deserve itI have a friend who always -- without fail -- says something nice to me as soon as she sees me. It's always something simple like "I love those earrings" but it always makes me feel good and it always makes me want to be around her. People may not always remember what you say, but they will remember how it feels to be around you.
4. Do what you say you're going to doI have another friend who, if she says she's going to meet you at 7 p.m., she's going to meet you at 7 p.m. and not a minute after. I have other friends who are habitually late or who make promises they can never deliver on. I'd rather have a friend tell me "no" than to tell me "maybe" and then renege on me later on. Be reliable and people will respect you for it.
Read full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shelley-emling/how-to-impress-people_b_3380181.html
When my mother was in the hospital, I very much appreciated those who asked me how she was doing.
This morning I heard a speaker talk about the words נְשָׁמָה which means soul and the word נָשַׁמָּה which means desolate. The first word has a kamatz under the letter shin while the second word has a patach under the letter shin. The kamatz has an extra line of support as opposed to the patach.
The difference between desolation and a soul which is alive comes from the support of people involved in an individual's life.
Machloket
Chabad Crown Heights info reports on two incidents in which young Jewish girls had glass bottles thrown at them while walking in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Click here to read the article.
The site also reports about Rabbi Yaakov Monsonego, the principal of the Ohr Hatorah school in Toulouse France, who also lost his 6-year-old daughter Miriam in a terror attack last year, is visiting New York, along with his wife, in an attmept to raise money for extra security at his school.
The speaker in the video below discusses Parshat Korach and Machloket. Towards the end, he discusses a time when Rabbis Eliezer and Akiva were called upon to pray for rain and how Rabbi Akiva's prayers were answered because he was a vatran, someone willing to forgive personal insults.
The site also reports about Rabbi Yaakov Monsonego, the principal of the Ohr Hatorah school in Toulouse France, who also lost his 6-year-old daughter Miriam in a terror attack last year, is visiting New York, along with his wife, in an attmept to raise money for extra security at his school.
The speaker in the video below discusses Parshat Korach and Machloket. Towards the end, he discusses a time when Rabbis Eliezer and Akiva were called upon to pray for rain and how Rabbi Akiva's prayers were answered because he was a vatran, someone willing to forgive personal insults.
4 Jun 2013
A Jewish mother
Caren Chessler writes about her experience having IVF treatment and the implications of using a donor egg in terms of Jewish law.
And of course our baby would be Jewish, given that I am. Under Jewish law, a baby’s religious identity is determined by his mother. Or so I thought. Since the 1990s, the consensus among Jewish authorities has been that the bearing mother, not the woman who provided the gametes, is the child’s mother. But recently the pendulum has begun to swing the other way. Some rabbis in Israel now say if the donor is not Jewish, then the child is not Jewish. Opinions coming out of Israel carry a lot of weight. “If the egg is from a non-Jew, then the DNA is from the other person,” said Rabbi Shaul Rosen, who founded A TIME, a support network for infertile Jewish couples. “In order for that child to be Jewish, it would have to go through a conversion ceremony like any other non-Jew.”
Read more of the fascinating opinions at http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/what-makes-a-jewish-mother/?hpw
And of course our baby would be Jewish, given that I am. Under Jewish law, a baby’s religious identity is determined by his mother. Or so I thought. Since the 1990s, the consensus among Jewish authorities has been that the bearing mother, not the woman who provided the gametes, is the child’s mother. But recently the pendulum has begun to swing the other way. Some rabbis in Israel now say if the donor is not Jewish, then the child is not Jewish. Opinions coming out of Israel carry a lot of weight. “If the egg is from a non-Jew, then the DNA is from the other person,” said Rabbi Shaul Rosen, who founded A TIME, a support network for infertile Jewish couples. “In order for that child to be Jewish, it would have to go through a conversion ceremony like any other non-Jew.”
Read more of the fascinating opinions at http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/what-makes-a-jewish-mother/?hpw
Mah Nishtanah
Mah Nishtanah, the 4 Questions of the Passover Seder, are typically asked by the youngest child present.
Free Beacon reports that Secretary of State John Kerry spoke the words at the AJC’s Global Forum in Washington D.C.
Perhaps he could have asked his brother how to pronounce the words. It is interesting to note how Cameron Kerry's ancestors converted from Judaism, only to have their grandson convert to Judaism.
In 1983, Cameron Kerry converted to Judaism before marrying Kathy Weinman.
During his brother's 2004 presidential campaign, it emerged that their grandfather, Fritz Kohn, was a Jewish immigrant from what is today the Czech Republic who had changed his name to Frederick Kerry and converted to Roman Catholicism.
Their paternal grandmother had also converted from Judaism to Catholicism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Kerry
Free Beacon reports that Secretary of State John Kerry spoke the words at the AJC’s Global Forum in Washington D.C.
Perhaps he could have asked his brother how to pronounce the words. It is interesting to note how Cameron Kerry's ancestors converted from Judaism, only to have their grandson convert to Judaism.
In 1983, Cameron Kerry converted to Judaism before marrying Kathy Weinman.
During his brother's 2004 presidential campaign, it emerged that their grandfather, Fritz Kohn, was a Jewish immigrant from what is today the Czech Republic who had changed his name to Frederick Kerry and converted to Roman Catholicism.
Their paternal grandmother had also converted from Judaism to Catholicism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Kerry
3 Jun 2013
The need to concede
First, a reminder, the Yahrtzeit of Rebbe Yonatan Ben Uziel - 26 Sivan - June 4.
Moshe Rabbeinu tells Korach that if he is right, Hashem will create a new phenomenon and the earth will open its mouth and all the sinners will be swallowed. If not, then we know that Hashem did not send Moshe. Where did Moshe get this idea from?
Moshe Rabbeinu tells Korach that if he is right, Hashem will create a new phenomenon and the earth will open its mouth and all the sinners will be swallowed. If not, then we know that Hashem did not send Moshe. Where did Moshe get this idea from?
Rav Shimshon Pincus explains that the Torah tells us (Korach 17:5), "V'Lo Sihiyeh K'Korach ViChaAdaso", we should not engage in Machlokes like Korach. The gemara (Sanhedrin 110a) says that if you enter a Machlokes, you are oveir a Lav. This issur, says Rav Shimshon, applies to both the side that is right and the side that is wrong.
Therefore he says, if the side that is right can win the machlokes unequivocally and unanimously, then he should do so. However if the side that is wrong refuses to yield and the argument continues, then even if you are right you must be Mivater and drop the machlokes. Not doing so would constitute an issur. Unfortunately in every machlokes the latter is always the case and the side that is wrong does not yield.
This explains what Moshe Rabbeinu told Korach. If Hashem creates an unprecedented Miracle and the argument will become null and void through the absolute demise of the other side, then it will be clear that I am right and you are wrong. But if you are still around in any shape or form and continue to argue, then I will need to concede and end the machlokes even though I am right. And so it was. The earth opened up and the machlokes disappeared!
We should not expect any such miracles in our own lives. We should make our point and move on, even if we are 100% right and the other side is 100% wrong, which is never the case.
Former leaders
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair discusses one of the world's religions in the wake of the stabbing attack in Woolwich.
There is not a problem with Islam. For those of us who have studied it, there is no doubt about its true and peaceful nature. There is not a problem with Muslims in general. Most in Britain will be horrified at Lee Rigby’s murder.
But there is a problem within Islam – from the adherents of an ideology that is a strain within Islam. And we have to put it on the table and be honest about it.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2334560/The-ideology-Lee-Rigbys-murder-profound-dangerous-Why-dont-admit--Tony-Blair-launches-brave-assault-Muslim-extremism-Woolwich-attack.html#ixzz2V6LBwTni
The Blaze reports on a speech former President Clinton is to make this month.
Senior Israeli media figures are voicing outrage at a revelation this weekend that former U.S. President Bill Clinton received $500,000 for a gala speech later this month in honor of Israeli President Shimon Peres’s 90th birthday.
...The Jewish National Fund paid the half-million dollar fee to secure the former president’s participation a year in advance, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
...Amir Mizroch who edits Israel Hayom’s English language edition tweeted, “Aren’t they supposed to plant trees with donor cash?”
Below is a short video related to this week's parsha, a man who wanted to replace Moses as leader of the nation of Israel.
There is not a problem with Islam. For those of us who have studied it, there is no doubt about its true and peaceful nature. There is not a problem with Muslims in general. Most in Britain will be horrified at Lee Rigby’s murder.
But there is a problem within Islam – from the adherents of an ideology that is a strain within Islam. And we have to put it on the table and be honest about it.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2334560/The-ideology-Lee-Rigbys-murder-profound-dangerous-Why-dont-admit--Tony-Blair-launches-brave-assault-Muslim-extremism-Woolwich-attack.html#ixzz2V6LBwTni
The Blaze reports on a speech former President Clinton is to make this month.
Senior Israeli media figures are voicing outrage at a revelation this weekend that former U.S. President Bill Clinton received $500,000 for a gala speech later this month in honor of Israeli President Shimon Peres’s 90th birthday.
...The Jewish National Fund paid the half-million dollar fee to secure the former president’s participation a year in advance, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
...Amir Mizroch who edits Israel Hayom’s English language edition tweeted, “Aren’t they supposed to plant trees with donor cash?”
“I guess money does grow on trees,” he quipped.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/02/bill-clintons-half-million-dollar-speech-is-drawing-outrage-in-israel/
Below is a short video related to this week's parsha, a man who wanted to replace Moses as leader of the nation of Israel.
2 Jun 2013
Rushing to mincha
Kikar Hashabat has an article about a Hasidic couple blessed with many children who won a two million shekel lotto this past Saturday evening. The buyer of the winning ticket said that he normally fills out the lotto card manually, but, because he was in a rush to get to mincha, he bought an automated ticket.
The couple would like to use the money to help buy apartments for their children when they marry.
Mincha, anyone?
Tzidkat Rashbi reminds us of the following yahrzheit.
Click here to fill out a kvittel.
The couple would like to use the money to help buy apartments for their children when they marry.
Mincha, anyone?
Tzidkat Rashbi reminds us of the following yahrzheit.
Amuka
Yahrtzeit of Rebbe Yonatan Ben Uziel
26, Sivan
Tuesday June 4
Tradition
has it that Rabbi Yonatan Ben Uziel gave a blessing to all those who are
unmarried that if they visited his resting place they would merit to meet their
soul mates and marry within the period of one year.
Click here to fill out a kvittel.
Farblondjet
The national spelling bee spelled it wrong.
Or so say mavens of Yiddish about the winning word, knaidel, in the widely televised Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night. Knaidel is the matzo ball or dumpling that Jewish cooks put in chicken soup.
Or so say mavens of Yiddish about the winning word, knaidel, in the widely televised Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night. Knaidel is the matzo ball or dumpling that Jewish cooks put in chicken soup.
But somebody may have farblondjet, or gone astray, the Yiddish experts say.
The preferred spelling has historically been kneydl, according to transliterated Yiddish orthography decided upon by linguists at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the organization based in Manhattan recognized by many Yiddish speakers as the authority on all things Yiddish.
1 Jun 2013
Not so good - thank G-d
Anthony Gottlieb has written an NYT article about Jewish humor.
The association between Jews and joking has become so powerful that Jewish humor is now all too easy to detect even where it doesn’t really exist. This phenomenon should perhaps be named the Mrs. Morgenbesser Effect. Once, when asked how she was faring, the mother of Sidney Morgenbesser, a New York philosopher, is reported to have replied, “Not so good — thank God.” At first, this sounds like glumness mocking itself. But once you know that religious Jews of a certain vintage are apt to thank God more or less as a matter of punctuation, it is not so clear any sort of humor was intended.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/books/review/no-joke-by-ruth-r-wisse.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
I have been reading an excellent book titled In Forest Fields by Rabbi Shalom Arush. The following is an excerpt from pg. 178.
The Holy Baal Shem TOv elaborated on King David's expression (Psalms 16:8), "I have set Hashem before me Always." How can one know that he has truly set Hashem before him? How can he know that he truly lives with emuna that there is "no one but Him?" The word in Hebrew shiviti - "I have set", can also be translated in conjunction with the root word shivyon, or equality, namely, that all is equal before him.
... When a person prays, the 'yes' and 'no' must stand equal before him to avoid despair and to continue to pray for the things he yearns for. He must seek the level of self composure until the 'yes' and 'no' is truly equal before him in all matters. He must contemplate that only Hashem knows what is best for him and therefore subjugate all his desires to Hashem. He should strive to be able to say to himself, "Everything is equal to me, whether I receive that which I ask for - in spiritual as well as material requests - or not.
The association between Jews and joking has become so powerful that Jewish humor is now all too easy to detect even where it doesn’t really exist. This phenomenon should perhaps be named the Mrs. Morgenbesser Effect. Once, when asked how she was faring, the mother of Sidney Morgenbesser, a New York philosopher, is reported to have replied, “Not so good — thank God.” At first, this sounds like glumness mocking itself. But once you know that religious Jews of a certain vintage are apt to thank God more or less as a matter of punctuation, it is not so clear any sort of humor was intended.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/books/review/no-joke-by-ruth-r-wisse.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
I have been reading an excellent book titled In Forest Fields by Rabbi Shalom Arush. The following is an excerpt from pg. 178.
The Holy Baal Shem TOv elaborated on King David's expression (Psalms 16:8), "I have set Hashem before me Always." How can one know that he has truly set Hashem before him? How can he know that he truly lives with emuna that there is "no one but Him?" The word in Hebrew shiviti - "I have set", can also be translated in conjunction with the root word shivyon, or equality, namely, that all is equal before him.
... When a person prays, the 'yes' and 'no' must stand equal before him to avoid despair and to continue to pray for the things he yearns for. He must seek the level of self composure until the 'yes' and 'no' is truly equal before him in all matters. He must contemplate that only Hashem knows what is best for him and therefore subjugate all his desires to Hashem. He should strive to be able to say to himself, "Everything is equal to me, whether I receive that which I ask for - in spiritual as well as material requests - or not.
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