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Tishrei

Michael — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:29:57 GMT

Created page with 'We are entering the action packed month of Tishrei, many festivals occurring and also events in Jewish history. I will firstly briefly touch on some of the festivals taking place…'

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We are entering the action packed month of Tishrei, many festivals occurring and also events in Jewish history.
I will firstly briefly touch on some of the festivals taking place in this month. The 1st and 2nd of Tishrei comprise of the two days of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, this festival is related in the Torah, in parshat Emor and Pinchus. Before the festival, it is customary to go through a process of annulling all vows and asking for forgiveness to people whom one may have wronged during the course of the year or life. It is customary to eat apple with honey in this festival, too promote a ‘sweet’ new year. We most notably blow the ‘Shofar’ (Ram’s horn) on this festival.
This festival is followed the next day by the ‘Fast of Gedaliah’ (Tzom Gedaliah), this fast laments over the assassination of the righteous governor of Yehuda, his name was Gedaliah. His death ended Jewish rule and completed the destruction of the first temple.
The 10th of Tishrei features the festival of Yom Kippur, the day of atomement, a day one has to fast for 25 hours, if one is sincere, it is a day when transgressions can be atoned. Most of the day is spent praying in Shul, one may not wear lather shoes, no marital relations are allowed, no washing or bathing and one may not use perfumes. Much information on this festival is featured in parshat Acharei Mot.
This festival is followed by Succot, between 15th - 21st Tishrei, it is one of the three pilgramage festivals, blessings over the four species are made and one ideally should dwell in the shelter of a Sukkah. This festival is completed with the festivals of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. This takes place on the 22nd of Tishrei.
The month is packed out with happenings in Jewish history; it was on the 1st of Tishrei that Adam and Eve were created, according too commentators of Parshah Bereishit.
The first sin and repentance also took place on this day, after Adam and Eve transgressed due to eating from the tree, they were banished from the Garden of Eden, and death was brought about to the world, however they did repent.
The Matriarch, Sara, passed away on this day, as related in Parshat Chaya Sara, however in the previous parshah, Vayeira, we learn about the Binding of Isaac on the alter that took place on 1st of Tishrei, as Avraham was ready to sacrifice Yitzchak, on G-d’s command. This Torah portion is read on Rosh Hashanah.
The 1st Tishrei is also the day when the ‘Daf Yomi,’ was started by Rabbi Moshe Shapiro of Lubin, its goal is that one is able to complete learning the entire Talmud in seven years.
The 3rd of Tishrei, as I mentioned before, marks the anniversary of the death of Gedaliah.
The 5th of Tishrei is the day, when the great Talmudic sage, Rav Akiva, died as a martyr by the cruel Romans.
The first temple dedication celebrations started on the 8th of Tishrei, lasting for 2 weeks, ending with the finishing of Sukkot. The first temple would stand for 410 years.
The 10th Tishrei, as well as being the day of repentance, marks the anniversary of the date when Moshe came down from the heavenly realms with the second tablets, achieving forgiveness for the Jewish people because of the sin of the ‘Golden Calf,’ as related in Parshah Ki Tisa.
The 19th of Tishrei marks the passing of the great Vilna Gaon, in the English year 1797. The 25th Tishrei marks the death of the Chasam Sofer and the 29th Tishrei was the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Abarbanel, who was one of the leaders of the Spanish Jews at the time of the 1492 expulsion, he wrote many commentaries on the Torah that we use today.
Hope you all have a fantastic month and a happy and healthy new year!
Michael Zaroovabeli from Ohr Sameach Yeshiva in Israel.

Vayelech

Michael — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:18:28 GMT

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-	~~This week is a double torah reading and features the two shortest readings in the entire torah which have 40 and 30 verses in each Parsha respectively.~~	+	The Parshah of Vayelech is introduced as Moshe comforts the Jews regarding his impending death, as he was about to die at the age of 120 years, Moshe called his successor, Yehoshua, and honored him in the presence of all the Jews and clothed him in royal attire, seated him on his own chair and placed the crown on his head and in turn all the Jews accepted Yehoshua as their new leader. Yehoshua deserved to become Moshe’s successor as he was Moshe’s star pupil; he was always by his side learning Torah and even waited for him on the foot of Mount Sinai for 40 days!! This alone earned him the respect of Klal Yisrael!
-	The first of the two readings is Parshah Nitzavim, it is introduced as Moshe makes a covenant with the nation when entering the land, and the parshah continues with one of the main theme’s for the month of Ellul, ‘Teshuva’ (repentance), where Moshe promised that if the Jewish nation do Teshuva while in Exile, Hashem would redeem them, Hashem always listens to the sincere prayers of the Jewish people and one of the first steps in doing Teshuva is to have regret on the actions the person had previously made, there were countless individuals throughout the Tenach who did Teshuav including the first born of the twelve tribes, Reauven (after moving his fathers bed to his own mothers tent), the Jews after commiting the atrocity of the Golden Calf, Rachav after she commited years of Harlotry did teshuva and many other people throughout biblical history, there is even a concept of an individual who performs multiple transgressions and then has sincere regret in his prior actions, his original transgressions maybe transformed into mitzvahs. The Parshah of Nitzavim is concluded as Moshe emphasizes that by keeping the Torah a person acquires eternal life.	+	The Parshah continues with instructions of the ceremony of ‘Hakhail’ – this was where the national assembly gathered once every seven years to hear the King read the Torah, the king was required to read a number of passages from the book of Devarim. The aim of the mitzvah of ‘Hakhail’ was to strengthen the Jewish people in Torah and fear of G-d and it was a mitzvah observed by all the righteous kings. The righteous King Agrippa, always stood while reading the Torah, the sages gave him much praise for this act.
-	The Parshah of Vayelech is introduced as Moshe comforts the Jews regarding his impending death, as he was about to die at the age of 120 years, Moshe called his successor, Yehoshua, and ~~honoured~~ him in the presence of all the Jews and clothed him in royal attire, seated him on his own chair and placed the crown on his head and in turn all the Jews accepted Yehoshua as their new leader. Yehoshua deserved to become Moshe’s successor as he was Moshe’s star pupil, he was always by his side learning ~~torah~~ and even waited for him on the foot of Mount Sinai for 40 days!! This alone earned him the respect of Klal Yisrael! The Parshah continues with instructions of the ceremony of ‘Hakhail’ – this was where the national assembly gathered once every seven years to hear the King read the Torah, the king was required to read a number of passages from the book of Devarim. The aim of the mitzvah of ‘Hakhail’ was to strengthen the Jewish people in Torah and ~~observance~~ of G-d and it was a mitzvah observed by all the righteous kings. Further on in Parshah Vayelech, Moshe warned the Jews to acknowledge G-d’s justice for when in future times they were to be punished for idol worship. Vayelech concludes with the mitzvah for every Jewish man to write a sefer ~~torah~~ for himself, however in this day and age many people buy sefarim (books of ~~torah~~ literature) instead, and it is also customary to buy a share in a communal Sefer ~~torah~~ and it is the practice for the men of the community to trace in the last words of the Sefer Torah, binding them together in a symbolic way comparable to the binding of the whole Jewish nation together during the sacred ceremony of ‘Hakhail.’.	+	Moshe then petitioned to Hashem so that his death decree would be annulled, however it was to no avail as he was about to die. In fact it was on the 7th of Adar that Moshe would die, this was the same date that he was born. Several reasons are suggested why Moshe died, including, Moshe failed to sanctify Hashem’s name when he hit the rock instead of speaking to the rock to give forth water (as related in parshah Chukat) another popular reason is, is that Moshe had to die due to the ‘death decree,’ that G-d gave to all of man kind, after Adam ate from the tree as related in the first parshah in the Torah, Bereishit. However in a way Moshe never really died, just like a righteous man is always considered as living, because his good deeds are still being filtered on to other people and generations. The actions one does in this world effect many people, one could be in the physical sense dead, however if people learned from his good actions and performed these good deeds, the ‘physically dead’ person will get credit for every good action that was learned from him and whenever another performs these good deeds.
-	Have a Fantastic and Incredible Shabbat from Michael at Ohr Samaeach Yeshiva in Israel. Shabbat Shalom!!!	+	Further on in Parshah Vayelech, Moshe warned the Jews to acknowledge G-d’s justice for when in future times they were to be punished for idol worship. In fact, the Jews behaved very well during the 28 tenure of Joshua’s leadership, however as they failed to eradicate the wicked idolatress presence of the Canaanim during these years, many of these wicked people encouraged idol worship across Israel, and many faltered later on as related in the books of Shoftim, Samuel and Melachim.
		+	Vayelech concludes with the mitzvah for every Jewish man to write a sefer Torah for himself, however in this day and age many people buy sefarim (books of Torah literature) instead, and it is also customary to buy a share in a communal Sefer Torah and it is the practice for the men of the community to trace in the last words of the Sefer Torah, binding them together in a symbolic way comparable to the binding of the whole Jewish nation together during the sacred ceremony of ‘Hakhail.’. Have a Fantastic and Incredible Shabbat from Michael at Ohr Samaeach Yeshiva in Israel. Shabbat Shalom!!!
		+	The Haftorah for this week’s reading comes from three different prophets, Hosea, Micah and Joel, these three prophets make up a quarter of the total of the ’12 later prophets.’
		+	This Dvar Torah is dedicated to TZIVIA BAT RACHEL RAYA, who is undergoing surgery, may the surgery be very successful, please everyone include her in your prayers and thoughts when doing good deeds, may she be healthy and well!
		+	Have a fantastic Shabbat, Michael Zaroovabeli.

Nitzavim

Michael — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 16:14:52 GMT

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:14, 29 August 2010
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-	This week is a double torah reading and features the two shortest readings in the entire torah which have 40 and 30 verses in each Parsha respectively.	+	This week is a double torah reading and features the two shortest readings in the entire torah which have 40 and 30 verses in each Parsha respectively. The first of the two readings is Parshah Nitzavim, it is introduced as Moshe makes a covenant with the nation when entering the land, and the parshah continues with one of the main theme’s for the month of Ellul, ‘Teshuva’ (repentance), where Moshe promised that if the Jewish nation do Teshuva while in Exile, Hashem would redeem them, Hashem always listens to the sincere prayers of the Jewish people and one of the first steps in doing Teshuva is to have regret on the actions the person had previously made, there were countless individuals throughout the Tenach who did Teshuav including the first born of the twelve tribes, Reauven (after moving his fathers bed to his own mothers tent), the Jews after commiting the atrocity of the Golden Calf, Rachav after she commited years of Harlotry did teshuva and many other people throughout biblical history, there is even a concept of an individual who performs multiple transgressions and then has sincere regret in his prior actions, his original transgressions maybe transformed into mitzvahs. The Parshah of Nitzavim is concluded as Moshe emphasizes that by keeping the Torah a person acquires eternal life.
-	The first of the two readings is Parshah Nitzavim, it is introduced as Moshe makes a covenant with the nation when entering the land, and the parshah continues with one of the main theme’s for the month of Ellul, ‘Teshuva’ (repentance), where Moshe promised that if the Jewish nation do Teshuva while in Exile, Hashem would redeem them, Hashem always listens to the sincere prayers of the Jewish people and one of the first steps in doing Teshuva is to have regret on the actions the person had previously made, there were countless individuals throughout the Tenach who did Teshuav including the first born of the twelve tribes, Reauven (after moving his fathers bed to his own mothers tent), the Jews after commiting the atrocity of the Golden Calf, Rachav after she commited years of Harlotry did teshuva and many other people throughout biblical history, there is even a concept of an individual who performs multiple transgressions and then has sincere regret in his prior actions, his original transgressions maybe transformed into mitzvahs. The Parshah of Nitzavim is concluded as Moshe emphasizes that by keeping the Torah a person acquires eternal life.	+
-	The Parshah of Vayelech is introduced as Moshe comforts the Jews regarding his impending death, as he was about to die at the age of 120 years, Moshe called his successor, Yehoshua, and honoured him in the presence of all the Jews and clothed him in royal attire, seated him on his own chair and placed the crown on his head and in turn all the Jews accepted Yehoshua as their new leader. Yehoshua deserved to become Moshe’s successor as he was Moshe’s star pupil, he was always by his side learning torah and even waited for him on the foot of Mount Sinai for 40 days!! This alone earned him the respect of Klal Yisrael! The Parshah continues with instructions of the ceremony of ‘Hakhail’ – this was where the national assembly gathered once every seven years to hear the King read the Torah, the king was required to read a number of passages from the book of Devarim. The aim of the mitzvah of ‘Hakhail’ was to strengthen the Jewish people in Torah and observance of G-d and it was a mitzvah observed by all the righteous kings. Further on in Parshah Vayelech, Moshe warned the Jews to acknowledge G-d’s justice for when in future times they were to be punished for idol worship. Vayelech concludes with the mitzvah for every Jewish man to write a sefer torah for himself, however in this day and age many people buy sefarim (books of torah literature) instead, and it is also customary to buy a share in a communal Sefer torah and it is the practice for the men of the community to trace in the last words of the Sefer Torah, binding them together in a symbolic way comparable to the binding of the whole Jewish nation together during the sacred ceremony of ‘Hakhail.’.	+
-	~~Have a Fantastic and Incredible Shabbat from Michael at Ohr Samaeach Yeshiva in Israel. Shabbat Shalom!!!~~	+

LashonHara

Michael — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 14:29:25 GMT

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		+	People who should not speak ‘Constructive Lashon Hara’
		+	A person, who is going to relate information about another, should not say it, however constructive the information is, if he is also guilty of the same thing.
		+	For example, If a person witnesses another sinning and is just as bad as a sinner, sick with the same immoral behavior, it is forbidden to announce the incident. A person with similar transgressions does not have the intention of telling over the unknown out of goodwill and fear of G-d, but rather to derive pleasure from the disgrace of his fellow.
		+	This is derived from a verse in the Tanach in Hosea 1:4, "And I have accounted for the sins of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu."
		+	Jehu, was a Jewish king who fulfilled a mitzvah (positive commandment) by cutting off the house of Ahab (a King that caused widespread Idolatry in Israel) in Jezreel, for he was commanded by a prophet, and Jehu thereby was granted the kingship for four generations, as G-d told Jehu (Kings 2 10:30), "... as you have done to the house of Ahab according to what was in my heart, your fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel." However, G-d similarly gave out punishment upon the house of Jehu because he committed transgressions as Ahab had done. So, despite the fact that Jehu did initially eliminate the transgression of Ahab, he later on became guilty of the same transgressions as he caused idolatry also. It shows if someone is going to speak constructive Lashon Hara, they should not be guilty of the same sin and should later not do the sin of the man he himself spoke about, as he is proving he has not done it for love of G-d. He is just proving that he is a Hypocrite!
		+
	7 conditions needed in order to relate information about another		7 conditions needed in order to relate information about another