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Essays on the weekly Torah portion, the holidays and Jewish thought.
Holidays Rosh Hashanah – Where’s My Head? Many of life’s challenges relate to the influence of others. Without realizing it, we follow blindly the fads that have been established by people we do not know or respect. The message of Rosh Hashanah-The Head of the Year is that we should truly be heads and not tails. We must use discernment as t Holidays Sukkos – Detachment The requirement of using detached branches to cover the Sukkah is to repudiate the pantheistic conception that equates G-d with nature. While G-d can be found in nature, and manifests Himself within it, G-d is not synonymous with nature. He created it and He transcends it. Holidays Sukkos – Global Warming of the Future Conceptually, each and every Mitzvah enables us to enter into G-d’s Sukkah, i.e., G-d’s abode, one Mitzvah at a time. However, a single Mitzvah gets us only part way into the Divine Sukkah. The Mitzvah of dwelling in a Sukkah allows us to enter G-d’s Sukkah completely. Holidays Sukkos – Sukkos: The Three Varieties The Sukkah that has three complete walls, but is open on one side—represents the individual who has a solid base— much like the letter chaf that has a bottom line that gives the letter support—but is nevertheless open to all the alien and threatening influences from the outside. This individual, whi Holidays Sukkos – Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Touching and Eating G-Dly Energy Judaism is simultaneously the least demanding and the most demanding religion. It is the least demanding because even one Mitzvah lasts a lifetime. Yet, Judaism paradoxically demands that we never limit ourselves. It demands of us to do everything with our “everything.” This paradox is represented b Holidays Sukkos – The Eternal Embrace Sukkos is when we celebrate the "victory" we enjoyed on our Day of Judgment. We carry the Lulav (Palm branch) because, our sages tell us, its scepter-like appearance is a symbol of victory. Sukkos is when we "throw a party" for all of the bounty we received from G-d during the High Holy Days. Holidays Sukkos – The Four External and Internal Lights The Sukkah is the symbol of the future Messianic Age. Its four walls are expressive of four agents that brings us to the period of Redemption. They are Teshuvah, Tefilah, Tzedakah and Torah. Hence the ideal four wall configuration construction of the Sukkah alludes to these four agents of Redemption Holidays Sukkos – The Four Meditations The Midrash connects each of these four species to G-d. The four species are four meditations about G-d. G-d I reveled through nature (Esrog), His commandments (Lulav), the existence of the Jewish people (Myrtle) and His support of the widow, orphan and the downtrodden (Willow). Holidays Sukkos – Outside in Whatever we experience through the sounding of Shofar on Rosh Hashanah manifests itself during the days of Sukkos. On Rosh Hashanah we ask G-d to be our King and show us His delight in maintaining an intimate relationship with us. During Yom Kippur we remove any and all impediments to our relationsh Holidays Sukkos – The Perfect Esrog The Esrog tree and its fruit have the same taste. This suggests that the means (the tree) should not be different from the end (the fruit). Much of our lives are spent on the means of things. Torah, however, does not separate between the means and the end. The means are also endowed with G-dly purpo Holidays Sukkos – The Season of Our Rejoicing Sukkos is the primary Festival of joy. True joy is experienced only when there is a spiritual component to it. Any other form of happiness is more like a drug that provides one with a fleeting sense of satisfaction. True joy is defined by the degree to which our inner-G-dly- self is allowed to surfa Holidays Sukkos – The Total Holiday Dwelling in the Sukkah is the only Mitzvah that involves the entire person. Even one’s clothing and boots are invited into the Sukkah. Although the water of the Mikveh envelops the entire person, we do not immerse ourselves while clothed and the immersion is of short duration. We certainly don’t “dw Holidays Sukkos – The Three Names of Sukkos When we leave our comfortable homes and enter the fragile Sukkah that is unprotected from the elements, we demonstrate that the commitments we made on Yom Kippur were genuine and enduring. When the Jew goes against the natural order of “ingathering” and goes out with his food and other needs into th Holidays Sukkos – Unity Within Unity In the Messianic Age we will experience two forms of unity in their fullest. We will all enter in one figurative Sukkah in which we are all seen as one. On the other hand, each of us will realize the fullness of his or her individual qualities. Yet, all of these qualities that reside in different cl Holidays Sukkos – We’ll Build This Fourth Wall and We’ve All Paid for It! The Midrash explains that the Torah begins with the letter beis to convey the message that the creation of the world is similar to the beis: it is contained on three sides, leaving the fourth side open. Knowing from the very outset that the world is incomplete because of the open side helps us under Holidays Sukkos – Where’s the Table? No nation’s existence seemed to be more precarious than ours. Yet, miraculously, no nation has enjoyed such G-dly protection and shelter. We have this incredible power of resiliency that is unmatched by any other group. We have seen G-d’s protective power in the most obvious and overt manner just as Holidays Sukkos – Yom Kippur and Sukkos: Three Links Both Yom Kippur and Sukkos enable us to “touch” the unknowable. The difference is that the cloud created on Yom Kippur was seen by the High Priest exclusively who alone entered into that inner precinct of the Temple. During the Holiday of Sukkos, however, the mystery of G-d’s hidden-ness and other-n Parsha Chayei Sarah – A Chain Reaction Ii In this week’s parsha, Eliezer, the servant of the Patriarch Abraham, is sent on a mission to Charan to find a suitable wife for… Parsha Chayei Sarah – A Taste of Infinity Whereas in the present day and age we experience intermittent spurts of growth and a taste of infinity, in the future Messianic Age infinite growth will become an integral part of our lives. Parsha Chayei Sarah – Always Ready Mincha takes place smack in middle of the work day. We have neither the luxury of the preparation of Shacharis nor the detachment of Ma’ariv. Our minds are racing with thoughts about what has transpired and what will happen in the next few minutes. One has to be on a much higher spiritual plane to b