I was listening to Rabbi Zecharia Wallerstein's latest lecture on Parshat Pinchas when he mentioned a short story about a stonecutter who yearned to be someone else. For those who don't know the story, here goes.
Once upon a time there was a stonecutter. Every day he went into the mountains
to hew stones from the rocks. While working, the stonecutter always sang merrily
as he was happy with his life, he had plenty to eat and no worries.
One day
he had to drop a load of stones at the villa of a very wealthy man. When he saw
the beautiful house, an agonizing yearning came over him for the first time in
his life. ‘How I would love to be that rich’, he sighed. ‘Then I wouldn’t have
to sweat like this anymore to earn my keep.’ He was absolutely amazed when he
heard a voice say, ‘Your wish will be fulfilled, from now on you will get what
you long for.’
Continue reading: http://www.meaningful-stories.com/taleweb/p000325/online_stories/the_stonecutter
Speaking about wealthy, click here at the Daily Mail to see a purple 'glow-in-the-dark' £350,000 Lamborghini that was impounded by police in Knightsbridge.
27 Jun 2013
A covenant of peace
I sometimes send birthday cards through 123greetings.com.
The other day I received an email message that a friend was celebrating her birthday the next day. I immediately selected a card from the site with instructions to send the card on her birthday.
This morning I received an email from my friend, thanking me for the card but she wrote that she felt bad that she had forgotten mine. She signed off the email, "Thank you, dear friend, for remembering."
Do I confess that I didn't remember but actually was reminded, or do I leave things be?
Below is a thought on the Parsha by Rabbi Dr. Raymond Apple.
In the narrative from which this week’s sidra gets its name, Pinchas boldly steps in to defend the honour of God when he sees blatant immorality happening in the camp.
By taking up a spear and physically attacking those who are responsible for the intolerable act, Pinchas technically commits a grave breach of the peace. Yet what does God do? He rewards him! He gives him “a covenant of peace”! It all seems so strange. How can “no-peace” be rewarded with peace?
Obviously it all depends on what we mean by “peace”. It becomes clear when we analyse the rabbinic idea (Ber. 56b) which distinguishes between the bird, the river and the kettle.
When there is a disturbance, the bird flies away. That’s one kind of peace, when you walk away, extricate yourself from conflict, and escape for the sake of a quiet life.
The river flows on, regardless of what is raging about it on both sides. That’s a second kind of peace, when you refuse to get involved, you maintain your equilibrium, you keep your cool, you don’t get worked up.
The kettle boils up, but a new entity emerges from all the activity. That’s also a category of peace, when the contents of the kettle grapple with each other and come out blended.
What then did Pinchas do? He did not run away or remain unaffected. He jumped into the fray, but when things settled down there came a new situation of calm and co-operation, which is another way of saying that there was peace in the camp.
http://www.oztorah.com/2013/06/the-bird-the-river-the-kettle-pinchas/
The other day I received an email message that a friend was celebrating her birthday the next day. I immediately selected a card from the site with instructions to send the card on her birthday.
This morning I received an email from my friend, thanking me for the card but she wrote that she felt bad that she had forgotten mine. She signed off the email, "Thank you, dear friend, for remembering."
Do I confess that I didn't remember but actually was reminded, or do I leave things be?
Below is a thought on the Parsha by Rabbi Dr. Raymond Apple.
In the narrative from which this week’s sidra gets its name, Pinchas boldly steps in to defend the honour of God when he sees blatant immorality happening in the camp.
By taking up a spear and physically attacking those who are responsible for the intolerable act, Pinchas technically commits a grave breach of the peace. Yet what does God do? He rewards him! He gives him “a covenant of peace”! It all seems so strange. How can “no-peace” be rewarded with peace?
Obviously it all depends on what we mean by “peace”. It becomes clear when we analyse the rabbinic idea (Ber. 56b) which distinguishes between the bird, the river and the kettle.
When there is a disturbance, the bird flies away. That’s one kind of peace, when you walk away, extricate yourself from conflict, and escape for the sake of a quiet life.
The river flows on, regardless of what is raging about it on both sides. That’s a second kind of peace, when you refuse to get involved, you maintain your equilibrium, you keep your cool, you don’t get worked up.
The kettle boils up, but a new entity emerges from all the activity. That’s also a category of peace, when the contents of the kettle grapple with each other and come out blended.
What then did Pinchas do? He did not run away or remain unaffected. He jumped into the fray, but when things settled down there came a new situation of calm and co-operation, which is another way of saying that there was peace in the camp.
http://www.oztorah.com/2013/06/the-bird-the-river-the-kettle-pinchas/
18 Jun 2013
Shema Yisrael
Shema Yisrael – "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One" – is perhaps the most famous of all Jewish sayings.
The Shema is a declaration of faith, a pledge of allegiance to One God. It is said upon arising in the morning and upon going to sleep at night. It is said when praising God and when beseeching Him. It is the first prayer that a Jewish child is taught to say. It is the last words a Jew says prior to death.
The Talmud says that when Jacob was about to reveal the end of days to his children, he was concerned that one of them might be a non-believer. His sons reassured him immediately and cried out, "Shema Yisrael."
Read full article: http://www.aish.com/jl/m/pb/48954656.html
In the past number of hours, the NYPost, NY DailyNews, the DailyMail, NBC and others have posted the words affirming the oneness of G-d because of a glitch on the tombstone of Ed Koch which is inscribed with the words of the Hebrew prayer.
How’s Ed Koch tombstone doin’.
Horrible!
In a major blunder, the former mayor’s tombstone at Trinity Church in Washington Heights was mistakenly engraved with the wrong birth date.
The date of birth given is Dec. 12, 1942 instead of 1924.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/wrong_birth_date_on_ed_koch_tombstone_XqfAwpuNus0uIBiJWbkpHP
The Shema is a declaration of faith, a pledge of allegiance to One God. It is said upon arising in the morning and upon going to sleep at night. It is said when praising God and when beseeching Him. It is the first prayer that a Jewish child is taught to say. It is the last words a Jew says prior to death.
The Talmud says that when Jacob was about to reveal the end of days to his children, he was concerned that one of them might be a non-believer. His sons reassured him immediately and cried out, "Shema Yisrael."
Read full article: http://www.aish.com/jl/m/pb/48954656.html
In the past number of hours, the NYPost, NY DailyNews, the DailyMail, NBC and others have posted the words affirming the oneness of G-d because of a glitch on the tombstone of Ed Koch which is inscribed with the words of the Hebrew prayer.
How’s Ed Koch tombstone doin’.
Horrible!
In a major blunder, the former mayor’s tombstone at Trinity Church in Washington Heights was mistakenly engraved with the wrong birth date.
The date of birth given is Dec. 12, 1942 instead of 1924.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/wrong_birth_date_on_ed_koch_tombstone_XqfAwpuNus0uIBiJWbkpHP
17 Jun 2013
Heeding the message
An Orthodox Jewish family in Toronto woke up this week to a swastika and the words “watch your children” scrawled on their garage door, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a news release Friday.
Read more: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/169006#.Ub9wISz8Lcc
Read more: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/169006#.Ub9wISz8Lcc
To see good
Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff answers questions about loshon hora over here.
Rav Chayim Pinchas Scheinberg zt”l noted that when people repeat the pasuk, mi ha’ish he’chafeitz chayim oheiv yamim lir’os tov, “Who is the man who wants life, loves his days to see only good,” they often pay little attention to the concluding words, liros tov, “to see good,” even though these words are the key to success in this mitzvah. If you view everyone with a good eye, you will be unable to believe derogatory information about them. As Rav Pam once said, “My mother was incapable of saying or accepting loshon hora; not simply because of her yiras shamayim, but because of her appreciation of what Jews are!” May we all reach the level of seeing the good and really appreciating our fellow Jews!
Rav Chayim Pinchas Scheinberg zt”l noted that when people repeat the pasuk, mi ha’ish he’chafeitz chayim oheiv yamim lir’os tov, “Who is the man who wants life, loves his days to see only good,” they often pay little attention to the concluding words, liros tov, “to see good,” even though these words are the key to success in this mitzvah. If you view everyone with a good eye, you will be unable to believe derogatory information about them. As Rav Pam once said, “My mother was incapable of saying or accepting loshon hora; not simply because of her yiras shamayim, but because of her appreciation of what Jews are!” May we all reach the level of seeing the good and really appreciating our fellow Jews!
16 Jun 2013
The Holocaust survivor dad
On Father's Day, a daughter's moving tribute to her dad who survived horrors of the Holocaust with help of German engineer
At 85, my father is full of optimism and humor. You would never guess that at the age of 16, he had been a victim of one of the greatest atrocities of the 20th century.
...On Father’s Day, I am thankful to the brave man who became a temporary father to a teenager in a desperate situation. I am also thankful to have such a strong, resilient father who somehow managed to emerge from that terrible darkness to live his life with generosity and love.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/lesson-hope-father-article-1.1373288?pgno=1#ixzz2WOzcw8kQ
At 85, my father is full of optimism and humor. You would never guess that at the age of 16, he had been a victim of one of the greatest atrocities of the 20th century.
...On Father’s Day, I am thankful to the brave man who became a temporary father to a teenager in a desperate situation. I am also thankful to have such a strong, resilient father who somehow managed to emerge from that terrible darkness to live his life with generosity and love.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/lesson-hope-father-article-1.1373288?pgno=1#ixzz2WOzcw8kQ
The hand of G-d
WND has an article about a Vietnam veteran who has written a book titled “The Day God Showed Up.”
On a bloody day in 1968, Army Sgt. Gordon Helsel lay bleeding to death in a Vietcong jungle. But as it would turn out, God had other plans.
After he made it to the medivac helicopter, he remembers talking to God.
“I laid there and I said to God, ‘God, if You will get me out of this, I will do whatever You want me to,’” Helsel said. “
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/god-holds-vietnam-vet-to-his-battlefield-promise/#yt1V9WPujYxRgGIy.99
It's a good thing I am not G-d because, instead of concentrating on the man's condition, I would have first explained to him the rules of grammar.
I would have pointed out to Mr. Helsel how the first conditional is formed.
Thus, Mr. Helsel should have said, "if you get me out of this" and not "if you will get me out of this."
I would have then pointed out to the Vietnam veteran the differences between "lie" and "lay."
But lie and lay seem to give people more difficulty than do all the other irregular verbs combined. Here's why: The past tense form of lie is lay, so it's indistinguishable from lay in the present tense except in usage.
The principal parts (most-common verb forms) of lie are:
lie (present,) lay (past) and lain (past participle).
The principal parts of lay are:
lay (present), laid (past) and laid (past participle).
Mr. Helsel should have said, "I lay there" as opposed to "I laid there."
I caught the video below at The Blaze.
Something extremely rare happened to pro golfer Carl Pettersson during the U.S. Open on Friday.
...While on the 5th fairway, an errant tee shot came in hot out of nowhere and smashed right into his golf ball mid-backswing.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/14/the-odds-of-this-happening-during-a-golf-tournament-are-incredibly-small/
What are the odds?
On a bloody day in 1968, Army Sgt. Gordon Helsel lay bleeding to death in a Vietcong jungle. But as it would turn out, God had other plans.
After he made it to the medivac helicopter, he remembers talking to God.
“I laid there and I said to God, ‘God, if You will get me out of this, I will do whatever You want me to,’” Helsel said. “
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/god-holds-vietnam-vet-to-his-battlefield-promise/#yt1V9WPujYxRgGIy.99
It's a good thing I am not G-d because, instead of concentrating on the man's condition, I would have first explained to him the rules of grammar.
I would have pointed out to Mr. Helsel how the first conditional is formed.
| IF | condition | result |
| present simple | WILL + base verb |
Thus, Mr. Helsel should have said, "if you get me out of this" and not "if you will get me out of this."
I would have then pointed out to the Vietnam veteran the differences between "lie" and "lay."
But lie and lay seem to give people more difficulty than do all the other irregular verbs combined. Here's why: The past tense form of lie is lay, so it's indistinguishable from lay in the present tense except in usage.
The principal parts (most-common verb forms) of lie are:
lie (present,) lay (past) and lain (past participle).
The principal parts of lay are:
I caught the video below at The Blaze.
Something extremely rare happened to pro golfer Carl Pettersson during the U.S. Open on Friday.
...While on the 5th fairway, an errant tee shot came in hot out of nowhere and smashed right into his golf ball mid-backswing.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/14/the-odds-of-this-happening-during-a-golf-tournament-are-incredibly-small/
What are the odds?
Lost item notice
My first reaction upon seeing the item below was to burst out in laughter. Upon reflection, I realize I should have burst out in tears.
14 Jun 2013
Parshat Chukat
THE mitzvah that we do not grasp is the parah adumah - the Torah calls it a chok, ie a mitzvah that we do not understand. The question is, though, WHY did HaShem set it up that this particular mitzvah should be the quintessential chok?
- See more at: http://www.shortvort.com/chukas-parasha/10728-i-know-its-a-chok-but-why-short#sthash.vyh8gREC.dpuf
- See more at: http://www.shortvort.com/chukas-parasha/10728-i-know-its-a-chok-but-why-short#sthash.vyh8gREC.dpuf
The owl and the Sabbath
There's a fascinating article at Chadrei Charedim about an owl that perched itself on the Ten commandments which is above an Aron Kodesh in a shul in Bayit Vegan this past Wednesday, the day of the petirah of Rav Yehoshua Neuwirth ZT"L, the author of Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchata. Efforts to remove the owl were to no avail.
An interesting gematria was found.
ינשוף(owl) = 446 מות (death) = 446
Additionally,
י'- ישעיהו, ישעיה
נ' - נויבירט
ש' - שבת (שמירת שבת כהלכתה
The first two letters of the Hebrew word "owl" correspond to Rav Neuwirth's name. The letter "shin" is the first letter of the word "Shabbat." The last two letters, the "vav" and the "peh," equal 86, the age at which the Rav was niftar.
Furthermore, the owl was perched on the side of the commandments which contained the one regarding keeping the Sabbath.
Click here to see a photo of the owl and to read the article in Hebrew.
Below is a poem taken from Wiki about a wise old owl.
A wise old owl lived in an oak
The more he saw the less he spoke
The less he spoke the more he heard.
Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?
An interesting gematria was found.
ינשוף(owl) = 446 מות (death) = 446
Additionally,
י'- ישעיהו, ישעיה
נ' - נויבירט
ש' - שבת (שמירת שבת כהלכתה
The first two letters of the Hebrew word "owl" correspond to Rav Neuwirth's name. The letter "shin" is the first letter of the word "Shabbat." The last two letters, the "vav" and the "peh," equal 86, the age at which the Rav was niftar.
Furthermore, the owl was perched on the side of the commandments which contained the one regarding keeping the Sabbath.
Click here to see a photo of the owl and to read the article in Hebrew.
Below is a poem taken from Wiki about a wise old owl.
A wise old owl lived in an oak
The more he saw the less he spoke
The less he spoke the more he heard.
Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)