The Reform “Rabbi” who discovered the
Talmud and became an Orthodox Rabbi (from a story I brought down 6 or more
years ago)
Most of the members of the Reform “Temples” with the organs and
choirs like a church are completely ignorant of what real Judaism is all about.
My grandfather was a 4th generation Reform from the very first
families who became Reform from Germany and moved to the States and my
grandmother also a few generations removed from the Torah. They knew that they
were Jewish rarely went to services perhaps for a Yahrzeit but not much more.
As a child I was impressed by the service as the speech of the “Rabbi” as I still
had the pure belief.
One of the people who grew up in the Reform Congregations like
myself also was impressed and became a Reform “Rabbi”. He was curious and not
satisfied with just his knowledge of fundraising, oratory ability and fund
raising. He was also politically active or pressing issues for “Progressive
Judaism” such as intermarriage ceremonies and homosexual rights. That is until
one day he came across in his more intensive studies as he dug to satisfy his
soul Mishnah and Talmud. These books were antiquated for the Reform and not
used to become a “Rabbi” and the knowledge of Halacha as the Conservatives and
Orthodox know it was antiquated too. Suddenly, he began to learn. The more he
learned the more knowledge he got. The more knowledge he got the closer he got
to the truth and true Judaism.
As he began to observe Shabbos and Kashrus he suddenly realized
the hypocrisy of his Synagogue having a Kiddush on Yom Kippur during the break,
mixed marriages and the violations of the abominations describe in Vayikra
18:22 and 20:10. He realized that he could no longer be their “Rabbi”. So he
began in earnest to study to become an Orthodox Rabbi. After a few years of
learning he took the test and was ordained. He left his Reform “Temple” and
began looking for a job. Eventually, he did have to compromise for income and
became a Rabbi of a Conservative Schul. However, he is Shomer Shabbos stresses
Halacha to his Congregation and teaches them insights which they never had
before.
In short the original “Rabbi” was an ignoramus a boor and Am
HaAretz but by honest investigation and learning he achieved the path to truth
and to real Torah Judaism and became a real G-D fearing Rabbi.
After the hacking attack on my Computer last week and the loss
despite the saving of the data from the Drasha; I just hope that the Hacker
read my mention about destruction coming about through the Robbery. Rabbi
Shmuel Blinsky Shlita said in the name of his great-granddaughter who is around
15 years old that the reason the flood rain was 40 days because of robbery. In
Hebrew Gezel which is Gimmel = 3, Zayin = 7, and Lamed = 30 or a grand Gematria
total of 40.
I remember writing about the animals coming to the Teva and the
lions and tigers defending Noach from the panicking populace trying to storm
the ark.
Parsha Lech Lecha
This week’s Parsha starts off when Avram is 75 years old and
childless. Rashi mentions that a person traveling usually cannot settle down to
have a family, get rich but that might not stop him for making a name for
himself. Chabad had a great introduction
to Parsha Vayeira which is good to use here too:
Condensed theme of these two Parshiyos revised with my ideas also:
We see Avram introduced to us at the end of Parsha Noach and his life story
continues on to and through Parsha Chaya Sara but the main historical part and
trials and action take place in Lech Lecha and Vayeira. Both Parshiyos open up
with Avram and then Avraham experience a revelation from G-D. (And although I
have used HASHEM in my commentary, he only knows ELOKIM and KALE SHA- this is
throughout the patriarchs and up until the time Moshe will be 80 years old).
Both Parshiyos start with Avraham getting a revelation from G-D
one Chutz LaAretz in a dream and one in Eretz Yisrael with a meeting with the
Malachim. In Lech Lecha Avram confronts human assailants and in Vayeira he
confronts the Angel sent to destroy Sodom. Both Parshiyos open up with a
promise of progeny and in both he is confronted with the immoral behavior of
his dearly beloved nephew, Lot. The first Pasha ends with the physical
circumcision of Avraham and his son and the second with the physical binding of
his son on the Mizbayach.
I was talking with Rebbitzen Marsha London today and she mentioned
that HASHEM sending the super-storm to the NE is a message about repenting just
as in the days of Sodom. For HASHEM sent them for 26 years rainbows to warn
them that the world was not destroyed for their sins but they continued to sin.
Valerie - As in
the Days of Noah:
Sandy's rain, wind and floods will devastate 6 states and DC that have legalized same-sex marriage with 2 other states voting. Six Northeast states have legalized same-sex marriage and two vote on the issue November 6: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, the District of Columbia, with Maryland and Maine voting November 6 on referendums on same sex marriage. New Jersey offers civil unions granting rights similar to marriage. Pennsylvania's state statute bans same-sex marriage.
Laws that would legalize same-sex marriage in Washington and Maryland were passed in 2012, but each will be subject to a referendum during the November 2012 elections, while Maine will also vote on a citizens' initiative to establish same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage has been legalized through court rulings and legislative action, but not via popular vote. The words in English Sodomy and Sodomize come from this second Parsha I bring down.
Sandy's rain, wind and floods will devastate 6 states and DC that have legalized same-sex marriage with 2 other states voting. Six Northeast states have legalized same-sex marriage and two vote on the issue November 6: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, the District of Columbia, with Maryland and Maine voting November 6 on referendums on same sex marriage. New Jersey offers civil unions granting rights similar to marriage. Pennsylvania's state statute bans same-sex marriage.
Laws that would legalize same-sex marriage in Washington and Maryland were passed in 2012, but each will be subject to a referendum during the November 2012 elections, while Maine will also vote on a citizens' initiative to establish same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage has been legalized through court rulings and legislative action, but not via popular vote. The words in English Sodomy and Sodomize come from this second Parsha I bring down.
Sometimes the Goyim can see what is blind to the Jew who turned
away from HASHEM for all the pleading of the frum Jews for protection in
greater NY area. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4299464,00.htm
12:1 Now the LORD said unto Abram: 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee. 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing. 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curses thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.'
and I will bless you:
with money (Genesis Rabbah 39:11). and [you shall] be a blessing: The blessings
are entrusted into your hand. Until now, they were in My hand; I blessed Adam
and Noah. From now on, you may bless whomever you wish. (Gen. Rabbah) (ad
loc.). Another explanation: "And I will make you into a great
nation": This is [the basis] of saying the God of Abraham. "And I
will bless you": This is [the basis] of saying the God of Isaac. "And
I will aggrandize your name": This is [the basis] of saying the God of
Jacob [in the initial benediction of the Silent Prayer.] You might think that
[the first benediction of the Silent Prayer] should be concluded [by mentioning]
them all. Therefore, Scripture states: and [you shall] be a blessing with you
they will conclude, and not with them. [i.e., The closing of the blessing is
the shield of Abraham, and not the shield of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.] [from
Pes. 117b] shall be blessed in you: There are many aggadoth, but this is its
simple meaning: A man says to his son, May you be like Abraham. And so is every
instance of [the words] “shall be blessed with you” in Scripture. And the
following [text] proves this (below 48:20):“With you, Israel shall bless,
saying: May God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.” - [from Sifrei, Naso
18]
This blessing and curse has not been annulled and will continue unto this day. Our punishment is that the curse is delayed but it will come.
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him; and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
Year after year I have wondered about all the souls that he had converted in Haran. Some speculate that these are the righteous Gentiles who aid Am Yisrael others the true Bnei Noach in their behavior others some of the Gerim while other Gerim come from those who were forced to convert over the centuries.
and the souls they had
acquired in Haran: whom he had brought under the wings of the Shechinah.
Abraham would convert the men, and Sarah would convert the women, and Scripture
ascribes to them [a merit] as if they had made them (Gen. Rabbah 39:14).
(Hence, the expression אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ, lit. that they made.) The simple meaning
of the verse is: the slaves and maidservants that they had acquired for
themselves, as in [the verse] (below 31:1): “He acquired (עָשָׂה) all this
wealth” [an expression of acquisition]; (Num. 24:18): “and Israel acquires,” an
expression of acquiring and gathering.
6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the terebinth of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
until the place of
Shechem: to pray for Jacob’s sons when they would come to wage war in Shechem.
[from unknown midrashic source, also quoted by Redak] until the plain of Moreh:
That is Shechem. He showed him Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, where Israel
accepted the oath of the Torah. [from aforementioned midrashic source] and the
Canaanites were then in the land: He [the Canaanite] was gradually conquering
the Land of Israel from the descendants of Shem, for it fell in Shem’s share
when Noah apportioned the land to his sons, as it is said (below 14: 18):“And
Malchizedek the king of Salem.” Therefore, (below verse 7): And the Lord said to
Abram: To your seed will I give this land. I am destined to restore it to your
children, who are of the descendants of Shem. [from Sifra, end of Kedoshim]
7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said: 'Unto thy seed will I give this land'; and he built there an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. 8 And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Ai on the east; and he built there an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD. 9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.
continually traveling:
lit. going and traveling. [He traveled] in intervals, staying here for a month
or more, traveling from there, and pitching his tent elsewhere. And all his travels
were southward, to go to the south of the Land of Israel, and that is to the
direction of Jerusalem, (The meaning is that Jerusalem was in the middle of the
world and the end of the Land of Israel. So it is explained in Isaiah.) which
is in the territory of Judah, who took [his portion] in the south of the Land
of Israel, to Mount Moriah, which was his [Judah’s] heritage. (Gen. Rabbah
39:16). [Note that the parenthetic addendum appears in several editions of
Rashi , but its connection to this verse is obscure, because the location of
Jerusalem in the middle of the world is irrelevant.]
He did not stay too long in one place and travelled the land
from Turkey (Haran) until Egypt (Pharaoh lived by the Nile). This was the
length of the land we see the western part of the width by going into Turkey
and on Pasuk 6 is where Rashi brings down: And Abram passed through the land: He entered
there. Avram travels would indicate coming from the eastern side
either over the Yarden or from the River going up the mountains unto Schem for
we see him chasing the kings later on up to Dan which is on the other side of
Kinneret and the Yarden.
10 And there was a famine in the land; and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was sore in the land. 11 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife: 'Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon. 12 And it will come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they will say: This is his wife; and they will kill me, but thee they will keep alive. 13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy sake, and that my soul may live because of thee.'
Killing the husband and taking the wife was not only prevalent then. One of Saddam’s General’s divorced his wife when the dictator started smiling at her. He made it public knowledge to keep his head about him. All the more so by kings and powerful leaders in ancient times! Even in Eastern Europe the right of the Noble to have the first night with any maiden before she married led to the shaving of the head and Jewish maidens wading in filth and stinking that gave us the names of dirty stinky Jews. This theme will repeat itself in our second Parsha and with Yitzchak in Parsha Toldos both with Avimelech (which seems to be a title like Pharaoh literally father-king).
13:1 And Abram went up out of Egypt, he,
and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the South. 2 And Abram was very rich in cattle,
in silver, and in gold. 3 And he
went on his journeys from the South even to Beth-el, unto the place where his
tent had been at the beginning, between Beth-el and Ai; 4 unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the
first; and Abram called there on the name of the LORD. 5 And Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and
tents. 6 And the land was not
able to bear them, that they might dwell together; for their substance was
great, so that they could not dwell together.
And…did not bear: It
was unable to supply enough pasture for their cattle, and this is an
abbreviated expression, and an additional word is needed. [It is to be
explained] as: “And the pasture of the land could not bear them.” Therefore,
וְלֹא נָשָׂא is written in the masculine gender.
7 And
there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of
Lot's cattle. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land.
And there was a
quarrel: Since Lot’s herdsmen were wicked, and they pastured their animals in
fields belonging to others, Abram’s herdsmen rebuked them for committing
robbery, but they responded, “The land was given to Abram, who has no heir; so
Lot will inherit him, and therefore this is not robbery.” But Scripture states:
“And the Canaanites and the Perizzites were then dwelling in the land,” and
Abram had not yet been awarded its possession. [from Gen. Rabbah 41:5]
The servants of Lot
viewed is as an inheritance for their master as one who raises somebody was if
he had father’s him for Lot was the orphan of Haran who died while jumping into
the oven rather than commit idol worship.
8
And Abram said unto Lot: 'Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and
thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen; for we are brethren. 9 Is not the whole land before thee? Separate
thyself, I pray thee, from me; if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go
to the right; or if thou take the right hand, then I will go to the left.'
if [you go] left, I
will go right: Wherever you dwell, I will not distance myself from you, and I
will stand by you as a protector and a helper. And he ultimately needed him, as
it is said (below 14:14): “And Abram heard that his kinsman had been captured,
etc.” I will go right: [Grammatically, this means] “I will go towards the
right,” like וְאַשְׂמְאִילָה, “and I will go towards the left.” Now if you say
that it should have been vowelized וְאַיְמִינָה, we find the same in another
place (viz., II Sam. 14:19): “if anyone can turn to the right (לַהֵמִין),” and
it is not vowelized לְהַיְמִין.
At this point Lot is the heir to Avraham so having the land
before him, he saw what was greener and down in Sodom and perhaps over the
Yarden and Dead Sea.
10 And
Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of the Jordan, that it was
well watered everywhere, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the
garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou go unto Zoar.
If anybody has been to Ein Gedi by the Dead Sea where there is
sufficient water and other spots the land is reasonably fertile. Even in the
hotel area, we see the land when given water in the Ein Bokek area quite green
despite the saltiness for it was covered with the Dead Sea at the time of
Avraham. It also could be since there are a lot of towns and farms on the
Yarden side that there are springs of water in large quantity there and Sodom
might have been more in that direction and Zohar on the western bank. For the
600,000 men plus women, children and animals moved up via the current Jordanian
side of the Sea until opposite Yericho.
11 So Lot
chose him all the plain of the Jordan; and Lot journeyed east; and they
separated themselves the one from the other. 12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities
of the Plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against the LORD
exceedingly.
Lot was drawn by his baser instincts. He did not fully lose his
influence of Avram but it was more fun getting in the Olam HaZeh stuff of Sodom
– perhaps not all. It can be compared to a person who visits Las Vegas today.
Some come to see the various hotel displays others pass through or spend a
Shabbos like myself while traveling to the Nation Parks and still others take
in the shows or gamble a little for fun. However, others gamble heavily and are
influenced by loose women or even complete bimbos. It is very easy to
deteriorate in a place like Las Vegas and the same in Lot’s time was Sodom. He
was saved by the grace that they needed a Judge when he entered and made him a
Judge.
14 And
the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him: 'Lift up now
thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and
eastward and westward;
Lot was a bad influence on Avram for once he left, Avram gets
again a prophetic vision. Avram had modesty, Shem and Ever lived in Shalem at
the time the land was holy.
15 for
all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for
ever. 16 And I will make thy
seed as the dust of the earth; so that if a man can number the dust of the
earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. 17 Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the
breadth of it; for unto thee will I give it.' 18 And Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the terebinths
of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.
14:1 And it came to pass in the days of
Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and
Tidal king of Goiim, 2 that they
made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king
of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela--the same is Zoar.
I mentioned in past years that this section deals with the wars
which are a sign for the war of Gog and Magog which ends miraculously.
… 13 And there came one that had
escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew--now he dwelt by the terebinths of Mamre the
Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; and these were confederate
with Abram. 14 And when Abram
heard that his brother was taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in
his house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued as far as Dan. 15 And he divided himself against them
by night, he and his servants, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which
is on the left hand of Damascus.
According to the Medrash the army of millions or hundreds of
thousands are defeated by these non-professional group of 318 and there is a
commentary that says only Avram and Eliezer (318 in Gematria).
… 18 And
Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine; and he was priest of
God the Most High. 19 And he
blessed him, and said: 'Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Maker of heaven and
earth; 20 and blessed be God the
Most High, who hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.' And he gave him a
tenth of all.
Shem was the first Cohain after Noach and received the Teruma
and Maaser.
15:1 After these things the word of the
LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying: 'Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield,
thy reward shall be exceeding great.' 2
And Abram said: 'O Lord GOD, what wilt Thou give me, seeing I go hence
childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?' 3 And Abram said: 'Behold, to me Thou
hast given no seed, and, lo, one born in my house is to be mine heir.' 4 And, behold, the word of the LORD
came unto him, saying: 'This man shall not be thine heir; but he that shall
come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.' 5 And He brought him forth abroad, and
said: 'Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if thou be able to count
them'; and He said unto him: 'So shall thy seed be.' 6 And he believed in the LORD; and He counted it to him for
righteousness. 7 And He said
unto him: 'I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give
thee this land to inherit it.' 8
And he said: 'O Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?' 9 And He said unto him: 'Take Me a
heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of
three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.' 10 And he took him all these, and
divided them in the midst, and laid each half over against the other; but the
birds divided he not. 11 And the
birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. 12 And it came to pass, that, when the
sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a dread, even a
great darkness, fell upon him.
Mishnayos Ayduyos (witnesses of tradition) Chapter 2 Mishnah 9
(R. Akiva) used to say: A father endows his son with beauty, strength, wealth,
wisdom, (length of) years and the number of generations (that have been his
progenitors) before him, and (of them) he is the end, as it is said, He that called the generations from the
beginning, (Yeshaya 41:4) although it is said 13 And He said unto Abram: 'Know of a surety that thy seed
shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and
shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; 14 and also that nation, whom they
shall serve, will I judge; and afterward shall they come out with great
substance.15 But thou
shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. 16 And in the fourth generation they shall come back
hither; for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.' 17 And it came to pass, that, when the
sun went down, and there was thick darkness, behold a smoking furnace, and a
flaming torch that passed between these pieces. 18 In that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: 'Unto
thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river,
the river Euphrates; 19 the
Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, 20 and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, 21 and the Amorite, and the Canaanite,
and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.'
This appears to me to be all of Lebanon, Syria and Yarden in the
future but right now their iniquity is not complete and our merits are not
complete and neither is our population. What will be of the Kurds? Druze?
Lebanese Christians? – Probably some sort of a covenant or the population
movement on their own accord. For if the Druze are truly from Yisro, no harm
will come to them and there has been in the past a lose covenant with Lebanese
Christians and also with the Kurds and this can continue either via citizenship
or some sort of autonomy or federation.
16:1 Now Sarai Abram's wife bore him no
children; and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
This portion deals with the
birth of Yishmael and the miracle involved with the Angel and Hagar. The next
section is the foundation of holiness for the birth of Yitzchak. The Bris for
now after the Bris, Avraham could give birth to a spiritual heir. He was not
supposed to have children but by his Chessed and Tzeduka, HASHEM also made
Tzeduka and allowed him to have a proper heir.
17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old
and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him: 'I am God Almighty;
walk before Me, and be thou wholehearted. 2 And I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply
thee exceedingly.' 3 And Abram
fell on his face; and God talked with him, saying: 4 'As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be
the father of a multitude of nations. 5
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham;
for the father of a multitude of nations have I made thee. 6 And I will make thee exceeding
fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of the. …
14 And the uncircumcised male
who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off
from his people; he hath broken My covenant.' 15 And God said unto Abraham: 'As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt
not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 16 And I will bless her, and moreover I will give thee a son of
her; yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of
peoples shall be of her.' 17
Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart: 'Shall a
child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is
ninety years old, bear?' 18 And
Abraham said unto God: 'Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee!'
We learn from this that after Yishmael, Avraham was so satisfied
with his portion that he could not imagine better.
If only Ishmael will live:
If only Ishmael will live! I do not deserve to receive such a reward as this.
will live before You: [This means]: [“Let him] live in fear of You,” as in
(verse 1): “Walk before Me,” [which Onkelos renders:]“Serve Me.” [following
Targum Jonathan]
19 And
God said: 'Nay, but Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son; and thou shalt call
his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting
covenant for his seed after him. 20
And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee; behold, I have blessed him, and will
make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he
beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But My covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall
bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.' 22 And He left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
23 And Abraham took Ishmael his
son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his
money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh
of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.
on that very day: On
the very day that he was commanded (Mid. Ps. 112:2), during the day and not at
night. He was afraid neither of the heathens nor of the scorners. [He
circumcised in the light of day] so that his enemies and his contemporaries
would not say, “Had we seen him, we would not have allowed him to circumcise
and to fulfill the commandment of the Omnipresent” (Gen. Rabbah 47:9). and he
circumcised: Heb. וַיָמָל, an expression in the וַיִפְעַל form, (the active
[kal] form.)
He did not delay with speed. This is also to be in the future
when the Moshiach comes we will have no time to do Teshuva or even prepare any
more for his coming but he will be revealed.
24 And
Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of
his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his
son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his
foreskin. 26 In the selfsame day
was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.
On that very day: when
Abraham reached the age of ninety-nine and Ishmael [reached the age of]
thirteen,“Abraham was circumcised, and [so was] Ishmael his son.”
The repetition of “self-same” is emphasized to show how much
pleasure HASHEM took from Avraham in his fulfillment of the Mitzvos. From this
we can also imply how disappointed HASHEM is if we do not perform a Mitzvah or
all the more so commit a sin!!!
27 And
all the men of his house, those born in the house, and those bought with money
of a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
This indicates that the souls that he made and his servants made
the Bris too.
Parsha Vayeira
Although for G-D the time is continuous from Avraham’s birth
until now for a human a gap of 24 years is a tremendous time for Avraham. He
has been working through love, with his money, heroism and Sara with the women
to raise the level of base idol worshippers of the land of Canaan to the
holiness of Eretz Yisrael.
18:1 And
the LORD appeared unto him by the terebinths of Mamre, as he sat in the tent
door in the heat of the day;
Here is where we learn
the laws of visiting the sick and inquiring about the patient: And [the Lord] appeared to him: to visit the sick (Tan. Buber,
Vayera 1). Said Rabbi Chama the son of Chanina: It was the third day from his
circumcision, and the Holy One, blessed be He, came and inquired about his
welfare (B. M. 86b). ... was sitting:
It is written יֹשֵׁב [without a “vav,” and may therefore be read: “he sat”]. He
wished to stand. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, “Sit and I will
stand, and you will be a sign for your children that I am destined to stand in
the congregation of the judges, and they will sit,” as it is said (Ps. 82: 1):
“God stands in the Divine assembly.” - [from Gen. Rabbah 48:7] ... when
the day was hot: (B.M. 86b) The Holy One, blessed be He, took the sun out of
its sheath so as not to trouble him with wayfarers, but since He saw that he
was troubled that no wayfarers were coming, He brought the angels to him in the
likeness of men. — [from Gen. Rabbah 48:9, Exod. Rabbah 25:2]
2 and he
lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood over against him; and
when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed down to the
earth,
and behold, three men:
One to bring the news [of Isaac’s birth] to Sarah, and one to overturn Sodom,
and one to heal Abraham, for one angel does not perform two errands (Gen.
Rabbah 50:2). You should know that [this is true] because throughout the entire
chapter, Scripture mentions them in the plural, e.g., (below verse 8): “and
they ate” ; (ibid. verse 9): “and they said to him.” Concerning the
announcement, however, it says (ibid. verse 10): “And he said: I will surely
return to you.” And concerning the overturning of Sodom, it says (below 19:22):
“For I will not be able to do anything”; (ibid. verse 21): “I will not
overturn” (Gen. Rabbah 50:11). And Raphael, who healed Abraham, went from there
to save Lot. This is what is stated: “And it came to pass when they took them
outside, that he [the angel] said, ‘Flee for your life.’” You learn that only
one acted as a deliverer. were standing beside him: Heb. עָלָיו, lit. over him.
Before him, like (Num. 2:20): “And next to him (וְעָלָיו), the tribe of
Manasseh,” but it is a euphemism in reference to the angels. and he saw: Why is
וַיַרְא written twice [in this verse?] The first is to be understood according
to its apparent meaning [i.e., and he saw], and the second means
“understanding.” He observed that they were standing in one place, and he
understood that they did not wish to burden him. And although they knew that he
would come out toward them, they stood in their place out of respect for him,
to show him that they did not wish to trouble him, and he went out first and
ran toward them. (This is the reading in an old Rashi ms.) In Bava Metzia (ad
loc.) it is written: “standing beside him,” and then it is written: “and he ran
toward them!” When they saw that he was untying and tying [his bandages], they
separated from him. Immediately, “he ran toward them.”
3 and
said: 'My lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray
thee, from thy servant.
We begin to see the personality of Avraham here with his
hospitality and his begging on behalf of the souls in Sodom.
4 Let
now a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and recline yourselves under
the tree.
and bathe your feet: He thought that they
were Arabs, who prostrate themselves to the dust of their feet, and he was
strict not to allow any idolatry into his house. But Lot, who was not strict,
mentioned lodging before washing, as it is said (below 19:2): “and lodge and
bathe your feet.” - [from Gen. Rabbah 54:4]
Later on Lot is to say
stay the night and then he says wash your feet. Lot got his priorities mixed
up.
5 And I
will fetch a morsel of bread, and stay ye your heart; after that ye shall pass
on; forasmuch as ye are come to your servant.' And they said: 'So do, as thou
hast said.' 6 And Abraham
hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said: 'Make ready quickly three measures
of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.'
A little different from our politicians he promises a morsel of
bread and gives them cakes from the best wheat.
7 And
Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it unto
the servant; and he hastened to dress it. 8 And he took curd, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed,
and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
The tradition has it that he served at first an introductory milk
dish while they “men” waited for the main meal that was 3 complete whole
tongues according to the Medrash. The Pshat shows only one calf and not three.
9 And
they said unto him: 'Where is Sarah thy wife?' And he said: 'Behold, in the
tent.' 10 And He said: 'I will
certainly return unto thee when the season cometh round; and, lo, Sarah thy
wife shall have a son.' And Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.—
He made a line where the shadow of the sun was. However, the
Jewish Calendar goes by the moon and it appears to be from Pessach to Pessach.
11 Now
Abraham and Sarah were old, and well stricken in age; it had ceased to be with
Sarah after the manner of women.-- 12
And Sarah laughed within herself, saying: 'After I am waxed old shall I have
pleasure, my lord being old also?'
because she was
afraid… but you laughed: The first כִּי serves as an expression of “because,”
for it gives the reason for the matter:“And Sarah denied…because she was
afraid,” and the second כִּי serves as an expression of “but.” And He said,“It
is not as you say, but you did laugh.” For our Sages said: כִּי has four
different meanings: if, perhaps, but, and because. — [from R.H. 3a]
13 And
the LORD said unto Abraham: 'Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying: Shall I of a
surety bear a child, who am old? 14
Is anything too hard for the LORD. At the set time I will return unto thee,
when the season cometh round, and Sarah shall have a son.'
The Angels hide the fact that she said words implying Avraham was
old rather they talk about her being old. On the same Hebrew date she shall
give birth. Sara is now fearful and denies her statement and laughing but it is
too late for that.
15 Then
Sarah denied, saying: 'I laughed not'; for she was afraid. And He said: 'Nay;
but thou didst laugh.' 16 And
the men rose up from thence, and looked out toward Sodom; and Abraham went with
them to bring them on the way. 17
And the LORD said: 'Shall I hide from Abraham that which I am doing; 18 seeing that Abraham shall surely
become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be
blessed in him? 19 For I have
known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after
him, that they may keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice;
to the end that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of
him.' 20 And the LORD said:
'Verily, the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and, verily, their sin is
exceeding grievous. 21 I will go
down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it,
which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know.' 22 And the men turned from thence, and went toward Sodom; but
Abraham stood yet before the LORD. 23
And Abraham drew near, and said: 'Wilt Thou indeed sweep away the righteous
with the wicked?
And Abraham approached
and said: We find [the expression]“ approaching” for war (II Sam. 10:13): “And
Joab drew forward, etc.” ; and “approaching” for placating (below 44:8): “And
Judah approached him” ; and “approaching” for prayer (I Kings 18:36):“And
Elijah the prophet came near.” For all these, Abraham approached: to speak harshly
[i.e., when he requested justice], to placate, and to pray. — [from Gen. Rabbah
49:8] Will You even destroy: Heb. הַאַף. Will You also destroy? And according
to the translation of Onkelos, who rendered אַף as an expression of wrath, this
is its interpretation: Will wrath entice You that You should destroy the
righteous with the wicked?
Avraham prayers for the men of the city of Sodom as he remembers
proper behavior to his face of the men he saved. He cannot fathom that it is
99.999% wicked. He is sure that that for a city that size thee must be at least
50 righteous and cannot fathom less. But as the Angels continue marching
towards the city Avraham concludes that there are less than 50 righteous men in
the city so he continues to make an appeal on their behalf.
24
Peradventure there are fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou indeed sweep
away and not forgive the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
Avraham is now pleading for a lower number and will continue until
he gets to a Minyan. Once there is less than a Minyan of righteous men against
the 10 Siferos there is nothing really left to talk about.
25 That
be far from Thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the
wicked, that so the righteous should be as the wicked; that be far from Thee;
shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly?'
|
If you ever wonder
form where Moshe had the gumption to argue with HASHEM for Am Yisrael, he got
it from Avraham: Far be it from You: And if You say that the
righteous will not save the wicked, why should You kill the righteous?- [from
Gen. Rabbah 49:8] Far be it from You: Heb. חָלִילָה. It is profane (חוּלִין)
, [i.e., unfitting] for You. They will say, “So is His craft. He inundates
everyone, righteous and wicked.” So You did to the Generation of the Flood
and to the Generation of the Dispersion. — [from Tan. Vayera 8] a thing such
as this: Neither this nor anything similar to it. — Far be it from You: for the World to Come. — [from Tan. Buber]
Will the Judge of the entire earth: The “hey” of הֲשֹׁפֵט is vowelized with a
“chataf pattach,” as an expression of wonder: Will He Who judges not perform
true justice?!
|
26 And
the LORD said: 'If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will
forgive all the place for their sake.'
"If I find in
Sodom, etc., the entire place”: [Sodom refers to] all the cities, but because
Sodom was the metropolis and the most important of them all, Scripture ascribes
[the fifty righteous men] to it
27
And Abraham answered and said: 'Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto
the LORD, who am but dust and ashes.
Although I am dust and
ashes: I was already fit to be dust at the hands of the kings and ashes at the
hands of Nimrod, were it not for Your mercies that stood by me.
28
Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous; wilt Thou destroy
all the city for lack of five?' And He said: 'I will not destroy it, if I find
there forty and five.'
Perhaps there are
fifty righteous men: ten righteous men for each city, because there were five
places. — [from Targum Jonathan]
29 And he
spoke unto Him yet again, and said: 'Peradventure there shall be forty found
there.' And He said: 'I will not do it for the forty's sake.'
Perhaps forty will be
found there: And four cities will be saved, and so thirty will save three of
them, or twenty will save two of them, or ten will save one of them. — [from
Zohar, vol. 1, omissions, 255b]
30 And he
said: 'Oh, let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak. Peradventure there
shall thirty be found there.' And He said: 'I will not do it, if I find thirty
there.' 31 And he said: 'Behold
now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the LORD. Peradventure there shall be
twenty found there.' And He said: 'I will not destroy it for the twenty's
sake.'
Behold now I have
desired: Heb. הוֹאַלְתִּי. I have desired, as in (Exod. 2:21):“And Moses was
willing (וַיוֹאֶל) .”
32 And he
said: 'Oh, let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak yet but this once.
Peradventure ten shall be found there.' And He said: 'I will not destroy it for
the ten's sake.'
perhaps ten will be found
there: For fewer [than ten] he did not ask. He said, “In the Generation of the
Flood, there were eight: Noah and his sons, and their wives, but they did not
save their generation.” And for nine, together with counting [God] he had
already asked, but did not find.
33 And
the LORD went His way, as soon as He had left off speaking to Abraham; and
Abraham returned unto his place.
We learn from these actions a number of things. 1) One should make
an effort to accompany his guests 4 Amos to see that the path is safe for them
to travel. 2) Since the Angels were greater in Torah learning or Creation
learning at his time, one should accompany a scholar on his way out of the city
for one can learn more things from him. 3)
That often those who accompany a scholar on the way get a Chiddush in Torah. 4)
That one should not give up trying to pray for saving the wicked and their
repentance until they are beyond all hope. The same goes for praying for a sick
person.
19:1 And the two angels came to Sodom at
even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom; and Lot saw them, and rose up to meet
them; and he fell down on his face to the earth; 2 and he said: 'Behold now, my lords, turn aside, I pray you, into
your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall
rise up early, and go on your way.' And they said: 'Nay; but we will abide in
the broad place all night.'
Lot put the Gashmiyous of the
hospitality before the Ruchaniyos of washing.
The Parsha continues on with
destruction of Sodom and the wickedness therein and the progenitor of the
Moshiach by the creation of Moav and lastly the incident of Avraham going to
live among the Plishtim.
21:1 And the LORD remembered Sarah as He
had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as He had spoken. 2 And Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at
the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him,
whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. 4
And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had
commanded him. 5 And Abraham was
a hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. 6 And Sarah said: 'God hath made
laughter for me; every one that hears will laugh on account of me.' 7 And she said: 'Who would have said
unto Abraham, that Sarah should give children suck? for I have borne him a son
in his old age.' 8 And the child
grew, and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was
weaned.
People were rumoring that she adopted the baby
but she gave suck on the last day to other children in front of the women to
prove that Yitzchak was hers.
9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the
Egyptian, whom she had borne unto Abraham, making sport.
Our Sages tell us that he was teasing Yitzchak
with Idols so that Avraham would reject his younger brother alternatively he,
himself was worshipping idols. Whatever he did with idols was not kosher and
Sara asked Avraham to cast out his oldest son who was a teenager already.
10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham:
'Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not
be heir with my son, even with Isaac.' 11
And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight on account of his son. 12 And God said unto Abraham: 'Let it
not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman;
in all that Sarah saith unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall
seed be called to thee. 13 And
also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.'
14 And Abraham arose up early in
the morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar,
putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away; and she departed,
and strayed in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
Did Avraham give a sufficient amount of water
and food for the journey? I would think so. Then what happened? HASHEM wanted
to show to Hagar that Yishmael was protected by the merit of Avraham and that
he would become a great nation as HE had promise Avraham.
15 And the water in the bottle was
spent, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. 16 And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off,
as it were a bow-shot; for she said: 'Let me not look upon the death of the
child.' And she sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept. 17 And God heard the voice of the lad;
and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her: 'What
aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he
is. 18 Arise, lift up the lad,
and hold him fast by thy hand; for I will make him a great nation.' 19 And God opened her eyes, and she
saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave
the lad drink. 20 And God was
with the lad, and he grew; and he dwelt in the wilderness, and became an
archer. 21 And he dwelt in the
wilderness of Paran; and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt. … Avimelech
realizes that Avraham is blessed and therefore makes a Bris. Avraham does not
rely unto a miracle when confronted with members of the court of Avimelech and
part of the army and makes a Bris. 30 And he said: 'Verily, these
seven ewe-lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that it may be a witness unto me,
that I have digged this well.' 31
Wherefore that place was called Beer-sheba; because there they swore both of
them. 32 So they made a covenant
at Beer-sheba; and Abimelech rose up, and Phicol the captain of his host, and
they returned into the land of the Philistines. 33 And Abraham planted a tamarisk-tree in Beer-sheba, and called
there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God. 34 And Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days.
22:1 And it came to pass after these
things, that God did prove Abraham, and said unto him: 'Abraham'; and he said:
'Here am I.' 2 And He said:
'Take now your son, I have two sons your only
son, both are only children for their mother
whom thou loves, both I love even Isaac, now it is clear
and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a
burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.' 3 And Abraham rose early in the
morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac
his son; and he cleaved the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up, and went
unto the place of which God had told him.
He did this post haste for the Mitzvah which he
was commanded without delay.
4 On the third day Abraham lifted up
his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 5
And Abraham said unto his young men: 'Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the
lad will go yonder; and we will worship, and come back to you.'
You Yishmael and my servant Eliezer are concerned
more with the status of this material world (Chomer) remain here with the
donkey (Chamor) and we who are on a spiritual level will continue with our
mission.
6 And Abraham took the wood of the
burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the
fire and the knife; and they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac spoke unto Abraham his
father, and said: 'My father.' And he said: 'Here am I, my son.' And he
said: 'Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a
burnt-offering?' 8 And Abraham
said: 'God will provide Himself the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son.' So they
went both of them together.
This is unbeknown to Avraham a prophecy or he
really believed this.
9 And they came to the place which
God had told him of; and Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in
order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched forth his
hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and
said: 'Abraham, Abraham.' And he said: 'Here am I.' 12 And he said: 'Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou
any thing unto him; for now I know that thou art a God-fearing man, seeing thou
hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.' 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind
him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son.
This is the fulfillment of the prophecy and then
comes the promise from G-D.
14 And Abraham called the name of that
place Adonai-jireh; as it is said to this day: 'In the mount where the LORD is
seen.' 15 And the angel of the
LORD called unto Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: 'By Myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, because thou
hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, 17 that in blessing I will bless thee,
and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as
the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his
enemies; 18 and in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast hearkened to
My voice.' 19 So Abraham
returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba;
and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba. 20
And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying:
'Behold, Milcah, she also hath borne children unto thy brother Nahor: 21 Uz his first-born, and Buz
his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram;
The town that UZ found and we read about this
in the book of Iyob.
22 and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash,
and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.' 23
And Bethuel begot Rebekah; these eight did Milcah bear to Nahor, Abraham's
brother. 24 And his concubine,
whose name was Reumah, she also bore Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maacah.
All this for the sake of Rivka who is mentioned
here upon hearing from the Satan that Yitzchak went upon the Altar and Avraham
took his knife, she passes away. As Avraham and Yitzchak return triumphantly
home, they hear of her passing. Here is great Chessed from G-D as he diverted
Avraham’s attention from Sara and took her without supplications for continuing
her life and the possibility of Avraham passing away.
Free a 24 page e-booklet on Life after this life: http://www.aish.com/sp/ph/Soul--the-Afterlife-Aishcom-eBook.html
Hilchos Deyos of the Rambam http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/910344/jewish/Chapter-Four.htm
Halacha 7
A person who desires to
eat poultry and meat in one sitting, should eat the poultry first. Similarly,
if he desires to eat both eggs and poultry, he should eat the eggs first. If
[he desires to eat] both meat of large cattle and that of small cattle, he
should eat the meat of small cattle first; [i.e.,] he should always eat the
lighter fare first and the heavier fare afterwards.
Halacha 8
In the summer, one
should eat unseasoned foods without many spices and use vinegar. In the rainy
season, one should eat seasoned foods, use many spices, and eat some mustard
and chiltit.
One should follow these
principles in regard to cold climates and hot climates, [choosing the food]
appropriate to each and every one of them.
Halacha 9
There are foods which
are extremely harmful and it is proper that one should never eat them, for
example: large fish that are aged and salted, cheese which is aged and salted,
truffles and mushrooms, meat which is aged and salted, wine from the press,
cooked food which has been left over until it produces an odor, and any food
with a bad smell or a very bitter taste. These are like poison to the body.
There are [other] foods which are harmful, but
their harmful effects do not compare to those first [mentioned]. Therefore, a
person ought to eat them only sparingly and after intervals of many days. He
should not eat them regularly as his main fare or constantly as a sidedish with
his food.
[They are] large fish, cheese and milk which has
been left over for more than twenty-four hours after the milking, the meat of
large oxen or he-goats, horse-beans, lentils, chickpeas, barley bread, matzot,
cabbage, leeks, onions, garlic, mustard and radishes. All of these are harmful
foods. It is fitting that he should eat them very sparingly and only in the
rainy season, abstaining entirely in the summer. [Of these], horse-beans and
lentils alone, should not be eaten either in the summer or winter. Squash may
be eaten in the summer season.
Halacha 10
There are foods which
are harmful, but less so than these. They are water fowl, young pigeons, dates,
bread roasted in oil or kneaded in oil, flour which has been sifted so well
that no bran is left, fish brine and pickled fish oil. They ought not to be
eaten in quantity.
A man who is wise,
overcomes his desires, is not drawn by his appetites and eats nothing of the
aforementioned unless he needs them for a medical reason, is [indeed] heroic.
Halacha 11
One should always avoid
fruits. He should not eat of them in quantity even [when] dried and, it goes
without saying [when they are] fresh. When they are not sufficiently ripe, they
are like swords to the body. Carobs, too, are always harmful.
All pickled fruits are
harmful and should be eaten only sparingly in summer weather and in hot
climates. Figs, grapes and almonds are always beneficial, both fresh and dried.
One may eat of them as much as he requires. However, he should not eat them
constantly even though they are the most beneficial of fruits.
Halacha 12
Honey and wine are
harmful to the young and wholesome for the old. Certainly, this applies in the
rainy season. In summer, one should eat two-thirds of what he eats in the
winter.
A story about Rav Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld
Zal as told by Rav Yacov Lustig Shlita
While Rav Yosef Chaim was a student at the Katsav Sofer’s
Yeshiva, there was a rich lady who every year donated a large sum of money for
people to say Kaddish for Jews that had passed on and had no one to say Kaddish
for them. She continued this year after year for many years until her husband
passed on and her fortune turned. She went to the Rosh Yeshiva and begged him
to continue the custom until she could again get back on her feet. At that time
came time that her daughter had grown up and she needed money to marry off the
girl to get a nice Shidduch. However, she was in no means able to support her
daughter.
One day as she passed by the Yeshiva an old man who had heard
her plight came up to her and told her that he would give her a check to cover
her expenses to marry off her daughter, get back on her feet and even take care
of her Tzeduka needs. The old man insisted on having two Yeshiva Bochurim come
and witness the check so that such a sum would be honored at the bank. One of
the witnesses was Rav Yosef Chaim, who would go on to be the Chief Rabbi of
Yerushalayim, and another fellow.
The lady proceeded to the bank and went to cash the check or
deposit into her account. When the teller saw the check and the signature and
the date, he went to the president of the bank. The president saw the check,
the sum and the date and fainted. When he came to he asked who gave her the
check. She said an elderly gentleman. He asked her to describe the man and she
described him. She also said that she had two witnesses who saw the man and he
fainted again. He then asked her to bring the two witnesses. She produced them
and he asked them to describe the man. On the wall of his office were portraits
or photographs of the past presidents of the bank. One of the boys said “You
see that man in photograph, that is him!” The bank president was flabbergasted
for that was his late father who had passed away 3 years ago. The bank
president had been too busy with his business to take time out to say Kaddish
for his father. By the merit of the Tzeduka of this lady, the soul of the man
was able to rest and in heaven there is a measure for measure and the bank
president honored the check!
The relationship to our Parsha as Avram was unable to have
children his Chessed and Tzeduka merited that he become Avraham and the father
of many nations.
We must
grow spiritually just as we do in the gym: http://www.aish.com/sp/pg/Vertical-Success-Lessons-from-the-Gym.html
Very
Sad: I guess some Israelis will return home now after a total loss: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/161505#.UI_AfYYopN8
Charge
the Jews extra: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/161194#.UI_BYYYopN8
Orthodox
anti-abortion group after the murder of more Jewish fetuses
than the Holocaust is under fire from the left: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4297669,00.html
From Meira: Hurricane Sandy miracle! Mazel
Tov! http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/hurricane-sandy-miracle-mom-birth-storm-article-1.1195026
Via Rabbi A. L. This week was a great reminder. By Rabbi B. Blech
Here in New York as well as in most of the Northeast of the
United States hurricane Sandy, in all of its fury, canceled our schools, closed
our bridges, tunnels and transportation systems, shut down the stock market and
disrupted our lives in countless ways we never would’ve thought possible.
Ask millions of us yesterday what we were going to do today
and staying home would’ve been the most unthinkable answer. After all we had so
many plans that simply couldn’t be changed. And yet we suddenly learned the
truth of the adage that man proposes and God disposes.-There’s a remarkable
passage in the Talmud that gives us a unique insight into the laws of nature.
Science has convinced us that the laws of nature are immutable, constant and
highly predictable. We can know with certainty exactly when the sun will rise
and when it will set in every portion of the globe, not only for today and
tomorrow but for years to come. G-d wanted us to be able to regulate our lives
and endowed us with the intellect to make the necessary computations for most
of the laws that govern our reality.
But there are three things that G-d chose to keep hidden
from us. These were meant to remain the great mysteries of mankind.
“Rabbi Yochanan taught, there are three keys in the hands
of G-d that are not entrusted to an agent. They are: the key to rain, the key
to conception, and the key to revival of the dead.”
G-d intended for the world to retain some reminders of the
limits to our own power.
Why is it that we can split the atom and land on the moon
but still have the weather forecaster get it wrong with almost the same
frequency as the result of a toss of the coin? Because G-d intended for the
world to retain some reminders of the limits to our own power.
Three times a day in our prayers we praise G-d by
acknowledging that it is He who “is responsible for life,” “resuscitates the
dead” and “makes the wind to blow and the rain to descend.” Much as we try to
control these events, our efforts are overshadowed by the Divine will that
invariably makes the final decision.
It is a truth we need to remember when we hope for a child
and turn to fertility doctors. Their knowledge is vital - but it is far from
determinative. It is G-d who decided to keep everlasting control over the key
to conception.
It is a fact that physicians are entrusted with the mission
to heal. But whether their efforts will succeed and the patient will live or
die is a second key retained by the Almighty.
And remarkably enough, rain - the gift from the heavens
that is necessary for human survival but can turn deadly when granted in
excessive measure - is the third key that G-d chose to maintain for constant
personal supervision rather than to turn into a predictable law of nature.
As we unexpectedly sit at home during hurricane Sandy,
perhaps we ought to reflect upon the Divine message of a storm that has the
power to make us change plans that we thought were unalterable.
Where Are You Going?
There is a classic Jewish tale about an old rabbi in
Russia, who would visit a synagogue near the town square every morning. Not a
day passed that he skipped this routine. An anti-Semitic policeman who hated
the sight of the rabbi desperately sought to find a reason to justify imprisoning
him.
One morning, as the rabbi approached the town square, the
policeman walked up to him and asked, “Sir, may I know where you are going?”
The rabbi replied, “I don’t know.”
The policeman seized on this and said, “Old man, you are
lying to me. I know you are going to that synagogue over there. I have seen you
every day. I’m going to arrest you for lying to a member of the police force.”
The policeman took the rabbi to the nearest police station
and put him in one of the cells. As he was locking the door, the policeman
proudly remarked, “Now you foolish man you will realize never again to lie to
me.”
The rabbi replied, “My son, I have no idea why you claim I
lied to you. I told you I didn’t know where I was going. Indeed I did not - I
thought I was going to synagogue but, as you can see, it turned out I was going
to jail.”
It is more than a story; it is a parable of our lives. We
think we know where we are headed but in truth we can never be certain. And
every so often we need to be reminded: G-d runs the world. G-d decides whether
our appointment calendar will be kept. G-d has the power to suddenly transform
our lives.
And perhaps, in the aftermath of perceiving how disruptive
unexpected storms can be, we will also be moved to appreciate in much greater measure
how grateful we must be to G-d when nature returns to its regular laws that
normally guarantee us so much blessing.
"Life is not
about waiting for the storms to pass... it's about learning how to dance in the
rain."
"For those who
understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not
understand, no explanation is possible."
One of my neighbors
who was working for the establishment of the State of Israel during the
beginning had stopped voting back in 1959 went out to early voting yesterday
and voted for Romney not that he liked Romney but because he loves Israel.
Inyanay Diyoma
I had
an article about Jews leaving Norway due to increased Muslim anti-Semitism and
also on Holland, England, France and of course Belgium. Anti-Semitism from
Muslims and some hard hatred by extremist Christians have made life miserable
for the Jews more and more throughout Europe. The Israeli Synagogue and Embassy
Security Teams are more and more confounded by larger and larger Moslem
Populations.
From
Barry - Israeli Police and their sting against innocent people caught in the
act. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/160805#.UITWzcVX2nw
This would never happen in Israel as 95% or higher of the
store owners in Israel except women owners served in the armed forces and close
to 100% know somebody injured in a terrorist attack. This is shameless and
disgusting. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2223059/Marine-lost-legs-Afghanistan-forced-restaurant-cruel-taunts-rival-football-fans.html
We are
a thick-necked people warned time and time again about terrorist in Sinai and
yet: http://www.debka.com/article/22465/Egypt-handed-over-to-Israel-the-body-of-an-Israeli-man-with-gunshot-wound
Iran is
no longer mocking Israel: http://www.debka.com/article/22479/Khartoum-threatens-Israel-after-Iranian-generals-examine-missile-factory-rubble
Iran
can now hit Europe: http://www.debka.com/article/22483/Iran-develops-Ababil-T-%E2%80%93-a-2-000-km-range-stealth-attack-drone
Can
Romney win next week? http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/29/Romney-Rasmussen-win-election
Debka
Intelligence alert on Syria: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD5XDc1G-2o&feature=player_embedded
One
killer murders the other killer before they want to kill us: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=289938
Politics
is one thing and these people need to bring a massive cry to the center of the
country to move the politicians as children live in fear from day to day: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4299559,00.html
Dimona
comes under attack but it hushed up: http://www.debka.com/article/22481/Hamas-aims-Grad-at-Dimona-reactor-–-payback-for-Khartoum-raid
Iran
and US rumors: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/161626#.UJLcPoYpHGA
Tunisian
terror plot to hold Tunisian Jews for ransom. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4300207,00.html
Sudan and
the control of Sinai and Egypt by the Iranian extremists: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=290187
The limits of US power By CAROLINE
B. GLICK http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=289347
Monday’s
US presidential debate on foreign policy came and went. And we are none the
wiser for it.
Not surprisingly, at the height of the campaign season, neither US President Barack Obama nor his Republican challenger Gov. Mitt Romney was interested in revealing his plans for the next four years.
But from what was said, we can be fairly certain that a second Obama term will involve no departure from his foreign policy in his current term in office.
As far as Iran and its nuclear weapons program is concerned, that policy has involved a combination of occasional tough talk and a relentless attempt to appease the mullahs. While Obama denied The New York Times report from last weekend that he has agreed to carry out new bilateral negotiations with Iran after the US presidential elections, his administration has acknowledged that it would be happy to have such talks if they can be arranged.
As for Romney, his statements of support for tougher sanctions, including moving to indict Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the crime of incitement of genocide were certainly welcome.
But they were also rather out of date, given the lateness of the hour.
If there was ever much to recommend it, the “sanction Iran into abandoning its nuclear weapons” policy is no longer a relevant option. The timetables are too short.
On the other hand, Romney’s identification of Iran as the gravest national security threat facing the US made clear that he understands the severity of the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
And consequently, if Romney defeats Obama on November 6, it is likely that on January 21, 2013, the US will adopt a different policy towards Iran.
The question for Israel now is whether any of this matters. If Romney is elected and adopts a new policy towards Iran, what if any operational significance will this policy shift have for Israel? The short answer is very little.
To understand why this is the case we need to consider two issues: The time it would take for a new US policy to be implemented; and the time Iran requires to become a nuclear power.
In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, jihadist attacks on the US, then-president George W. Bush faced no internal opposition to overthrowing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The US military and intelligence arms all supported the operation. Congress supported the operation. The American public supported the operation. The UN supported the mission.
And still, it took the US four weeks to plan and launch Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. That is, under optimal conditions, the US needed nearly a month to respond to the largest foreign attack on the US mainland since the War of 1812.
Then of course there was Operation Iraqi Freedom which officially began on March 20, 2003, with the US-British ground invasion of Iraq from Kuwait.
Bush and his advisers began seriously considering overthrowing Saddam Hussein’s regime in the spring of 2002. They met with resistance from the US military. They met with a modicum of political opposition in Congress, and more serious opposition in the media. Moreover, they met with harsh opposition from France and Russia and other key players at the UN and in the international community. So, too, they met with harsh opposition from senior UN officials.
It took the administration until November 2002 to get the UN Security Council to pass Resolution 1441 which found Iraq in material breach of the cease-fire that ended the 1991 Gulf War. The US and Britain began repositioning ground forces and war materiel in Kuwait ahead of a ground invasion that month. It took more than four months for the Americans and the British to complete the forward deployment of their forces in Kuwait.
During those long months, other parties, unsympathetic to the US, Britain and their aims had ample opportunity to make their own preparations to deny the US and Britain the ability to win the war quickly and easily and so avoid the insurgency that ensued in the absence of a clear victory. So, too, the four months the US required to ready for war enabled Iran to plan and begin executing its plan to suck the US into a prolonged proxy war with its surrogates from al-Qaida and Hezbollah protégés.
A CLEAR Anglo-American victory would have involved the location, presentation and destruction of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. And this Saddam denied them. By the time US ground forces finally arrived, despite massive telltale signs that such weapons had been in Iraq until very recently, no smoking gun was found.
In the long lead up to the US invasion, then-prime minister Ariel Sharon warned that satellite data indicated that Iraq was transporting its chemical weapons arsenal to Syria. Sharon’s warnings fell on deaf ears. So, too, a report by a Syrian journalist that WMD had been transferred to Syria was ignored.
According to a detailed report by Ryan Mauro at PJMedia.com from June 2010, after the fall of Saddam’s regime, the Iraq Survey Group, charged with assessing the status of Iraq’s WMD arsenal, received numerous credible reports that the chemical weapons had been sent to Syria before the invasion.
The stream of reports about the pre-invasion transfer of Iraq’s WMD to Syria have continued to intermittently surface since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war last year.
In short, at a minimum, the time the US required to mount its operation in Iraq enabled Saddam to prepare the conditions to deny America the ability to achieve a clear victory.
THIS BRINGS us to Iran. In the event that Romney is elected to the presidency, upon entering office he would face a military leadership led by Gen. Martin Dempsey that has for four years sought to minimize the danger that Iran’s nuclear weapons program poses to the US. Dempsey has personally employed language to indicate that he believes an Israeli preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear weapons sites would be an illegal act of aggression.
Romney would face intelligence, diplomatic and military establishments that at a minimum have been complicit in massive leaks of Israeli strike options against Iran and that have so far failed to present credible military options for a US strike against Iran’s uranium enrichment sites and other nuclear installations.
He would face a hostile media establishment that firmly and enthusiastically supports Obama’s policy of relentless appeasement and has sought to discredit as a warmonger and a racist every politician who has tried to make the case that Iran’s nuclear weapons program constitutes an unacceptable threat to US national security.
Then, too, Romney would face a wounded Democratic base, controlled by politicians who have refused to cooperate with Republicans since 2004.
And he would face an electorate that has never heard a cogent case for military action against Iran. (Although, with the goodwill with which the American public usually greets its new presidents, this last difficulty would likely be the least of his worries.)
At the UN, Romney would face the same gridlock faced by his two predecessors on Iran. Russia and China would block UN Security Council action against the mullocarcy.
AS FOR the Arab world, whereas when Obama came into office in 2009, the Sunni Arab world was united in its opposition to a nuclear-armed Iran, today Muslim Brotherhood-ruled Egypt favors Iran more than it favors the US. Arguably only Saudi Arabia would actively support an assault on Iran’s nuclear weapons sites. All the other US allies have either switched sides, or like Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain are too weak to offer any open assistance or political support. For its part, Iraq is already acting as Iran’s satrapy, allowing Iran to transfer weapons to Bashar Assad’s henchmen through its territory.
All of this means that as was the case in Iraq, it would likely take until at least the summer of 2013, if not the fall, before a Romney administration would be in a position to take any military action against Iran’s nuclear installations.
And it isn’t only US military campaigns that take a long time to organize. It also takes a long time for US administrations to change arm sales policies.
For instance, if a hypothetical Romney administration wished to supply Israel with certain weapons systems that would make an Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear installations more successful, it could take months for such deals to be concluded, approved by Congress, and then executed.
This then brings us to the question of where will Iran’s nuclear weapons program likely stand by next summer?
In his speech before the UN General Assembly last month, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that by next spring or at the latest next summer Iran will have reached the final stage of uranium enrichment and will be able to acquire sufficient quantities of bomb-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon within a few months or even a few weeks.
Netanyahu said that the last opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons will be before it reaches the final stage of uranium enrichment – that is, by the spring. At that point, a hypothetical Romney administration will have been in office for mere months. A new national security leadership will just be coming into its own.
It is extremely difficult to imagine that a new US administration would be capable of launching a preemptive attack against Iran’s nuclear installations at such an early point in its tenure in office.
Indeed, it is hard to see how such a new administration would be able to offer Israel any material support for an Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear installations by next spring.
So this leaves us with Israel. Over the past several weeks, there has been a spate of reports indicating that Israel’s military and intelligence establishments forced Netanyahu to take a step back from rhetorical brinksmanship on Iran. Our commanders are reportedly dead set against attacking Iran without US support and still insist that Israel can and must trust the Americans to take action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
There is great plausibility to these reports for a number of reasons. The intelligence and military brass have for years suffered from psychological dependence of the US and believe that Israel’s most important strategic interest is to ensure US support for the country. Then, too, in the event that an Israeli strike takes place against the backdrop of a larger military confrontation with Iran’s proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, Israel would likely require rapid resupply of arms to ensure its ability to fend off its enemies.
But when we consider the political realities of the US – in the event that Obama is reelected or in the event that Romney takes the White House – it is clear that Israel will remain the only party with the means – such as they are – and the will to strike Iran’s nuclear installations.
Israel is the only country that can prevent this genocidal regime with regional and global ambitions from acquiring the means to carry out its goals.
Not surprisingly, at the height of the campaign season, neither US President Barack Obama nor his Republican challenger Gov. Mitt Romney was interested in revealing his plans for the next four years.
But from what was said, we can be fairly certain that a second Obama term will involve no departure from his foreign policy in his current term in office.
As far as Iran and its nuclear weapons program is concerned, that policy has involved a combination of occasional tough talk and a relentless attempt to appease the mullahs. While Obama denied The New York Times report from last weekend that he has agreed to carry out new bilateral negotiations with Iran after the US presidential elections, his administration has acknowledged that it would be happy to have such talks if they can be arranged.
As for Romney, his statements of support for tougher sanctions, including moving to indict Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the crime of incitement of genocide were certainly welcome.
But they were also rather out of date, given the lateness of the hour.
If there was ever much to recommend it, the “sanction Iran into abandoning its nuclear weapons” policy is no longer a relevant option. The timetables are too short.
On the other hand, Romney’s identification of Iran as the gravest national security threat facing the US made clear that he understands the severity of the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
And consequently, if Romney defeats Obama on November 6, it is likely that on January 21, 2013, the US will adopt a different policy towards Iran.
The question for Israel now is whether any of this matters. If Romney is elected and adopts a new policy towards Iran, what if any operational significance will this policy shift have for Israel? The short answer is very little.
To understand why this is the case we need to consider two issues: The time it would take for a new US policy to be implemented; and the time Iran requires to become a nuclear power.
In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, jihadist attacks on the US, then-president George W. Bush faced no internal opposition to overthrowing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The US military and intelligence arms all supported the operation. Congress supported the operation. The American public supported the operation. The UN supported the mission.
And still, it took the US four weeks to plan and launch Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. That is, under optimal conditions, the US needed nearly a month to respond to the largest foreign attack on the US mainland since the War of 1812.
Then of course there was Operation Iraqi Freedom which officially began on March 20, 2003, with the US-British ground invasion of Iraq from Kuwait.
Bush and his advisers began seriously considering overthrowing Saddam Hussein’s regime in the spring of 2002. They met with resistance from the US military. They met with a modicum of political opposition in Congress, and more serious opposition in the media. Moreover, they met with harsh opposition from France and Russia and other key players at the UN and in the international community. So, too, they met with harsh opposition from senior UN officials.
It took the administration until November 2002 to get the UN Security Council to pass Resolution 1441 which found Iraq in material breach of the cease-fire that ended the 1991 Gulf War. The US and Britain began repositioning ground forces and war materiel in Kuwait ahead of a ground invasion that month. It took more than four months for the Americans and the British to complete the forward deployment of their forces in Kuwait.
During those long months, other parties, unsympathetic to the US, Britain and their aims had ample opportunity to make their own preparations to deny the US and Britain the ability to win the war quickly and easily and so avoid the insurgency that ensued in the absence of a clear victory. So, too, the four months the US required to ready for war enabled Iran to plan and begin executing its plan to suck the US into a prolonged proxy war with its surrogates from al-Qaida and Hezbollah protégés.
A CLEAR Anglo-American victory would have involved the location, presentation and destruction of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. And this Saddam denied them. By the time US ground forces finally arrived, despite massive telltale signs that such weapons had been in Iraq until very recently, no smoking gun was found.
In the long lead up to the US invasion, then-prime minister Ariel Sharon warned that satellite data indicated that Iraq was transporting its chemical weapons arsenal to Syria. Sharon’s warnings fell on deaf ears. So, too, a report by a Syrian journalist that WMD had been transferred to Syria was ignored.
According to a detailed report by Ryan Mauro at PJMedia.com from June 2010, after the fall of Saddam’s regime, the Iraq Survey Group, charged with assessing the status of Iraq’s WMD arsenal, received numerous credible reports that the chemical weapons had been sent to Syria before the invasion.
The stream of reports about the pre-invasion transfer of Iraq’s WMD to Syria have continued to intermittently surface since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war last year.
In short, at a minimum, the time the US required to mount its operation in Iraq enabled Saddam to prepare the conditions to deny America the ability to achieve a clear victory.
THIS BRINGS us to Iran. In the event that Romney is elected to the presidency, upon entering office he would face a military leadership led by Gen. Martin Dempsey that has for four years sought to minimize the danger that Iran’s nuclear weapons program poses to the US. Dempsey has personally employed language to indicate that he believes an Israeli preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear weapons sites would be an illegal act of aggression.
Romney would face intelligence, diplomatic and military establishments that at a minimum have been complicit in massive leaks of Israeli strike options against Iran and that have so far failed to present credible military options for a US strike against Iran’s uranium enrichment sites and other nuclear installations.
He would face a hostile media establishment that firmly and enthusiastically supports Obama’s policy of relentless appeasement and has sought to discredit as a warmonger and a racist every politician who has tried to make the case that Iran’s nuclear weapons program constitutes an unacceptable threat to US national security.
Then, too, Romney would face a wounded Democratic base, controlled by politicians who have refused to cooperate with Republicans since 2004.
And he would face an electorate that has never heard a cogent case for military action against Iran. (Although, with the goodwill with which the American public usually greets its new presidents, this last difficulty would likely be the least of his worries.)
At the UN, Romney would face the same gridlock faced by his two predecessors on Iran. Russia and China would block UN Security Council action against the mullocarcy.
AS FOR the Arab world, whereas when Obama came into office in 2009, the Sunni Arab world was united in its opposition to a nuclear-armed Iran, today Muslim Brotherhood-ruled Egypt favors Iran more than it favors the US. Arguably only Saudi Arabia would actively support an assault on Iran’s nuclear weapons sites. All the other US allies have either switched sides, or like Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain are too weak to offer any open assistance or political support. For its part, Iraq is already acting as Iran’s satrapy, allowing Iran to transfer weapons to Bashar Assad’s henchmen through its territory.
All of this means that as was the case in Iraq, it would likely take until at least the summer of 2013, if not the fall, before a Romney administration would be in a position to take any military action against Iran’s nuclear installations.
And it isn’t only US military campaigns that take a long time to organize. It also takes a long time for US administrations to change arm sales policies.
For instance, if a hypothetical Romney administration wished to supply Israel with certain weapons systems that would make an Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear installations more successful, it could take months for such deals to be concluded, approved by Congress, and then executed.
This then brings us to the question of where will Iran’s nuclear weapons program likely stand by next summer?
In his speech before the UN General Assembly last month, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that by next spring or at the latest next summer Iran will have reached the final stage of uranium enrichment and will be able to acquire sufficient quantities of bomb-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon within a few months or even a few weeks.
Netanyahu said that the last opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons will be before it reaches the final stage of uranium enrichment – that is, by the spring. At that point, a hypothetical Romney administration will have been in office for mere months. A new national security leadership will just be coming into its own.
It is extremely difficult to imagine that a new US administration would be capable of launching a preemptive attack against Iran’s nuclear installations at such an early point in its tenure in office.
Indeed, it is hard to see how such a new administration would be able to offer Israel any material support for an Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear installations by next spring.
So this leaves us with Israel. Over the past several weeks, there has been a spate of reports indicating that Israel’s military and intelligence establishments forced Netanyahu to take a step back from rhetorical brinksmanship on Iran. Our commanders are reportedly dead set against attacking Iran without US support and still insist that Israel can and must trust the Americans to take action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
There is great plausibility to these reports for a number of reasons. The intelligence and military brass have for years suffered from psychological dependence of the US and believe that Israel’s most important strategic interest is to ensure US support for the country. Then, too, in the event that an Israeli strike takes place against the backdrop of a larger military confrontation with Iran’s proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, Israel would likely require rapid resupply of arms to ensure its ability to fend off its enemies.
But when we consider the political realities of the US – in the event that Obama is reelected or in the event that Romney takes the White House – it is clear that Israel will remain the only party with the means – such as they are – and the will to strike Iran’s nuclear installations.
Israel is the only country that can prevent this genocidal regime with regional and global ambitions from acquiring the means to carry out its goals.
President
Romney from the Bible Codes? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg8yeYDf8gc&feature=player_embedded
For
those who wonder about the Yeti and Big Foot: http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/bigfoot-does-exist-claim-scientists/?cat_orig=world
Now for M. Wolfberg’s “Going Home”
Good Shabbos Everyone. In our Torah portion this week Vayeira , we read about the greatness of the mitzvah of Hachnasas Orchim, welcoming guests into our homes. The Torah tells us that Avrohom Avinu "was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day." (Bereishis 18:1) Rashi explains that Avrohom was waiting to see if travelers would pass by, so that he could invite them into his home.
When Avrohom saw that three men were approaching, Avrohom ran towards the men in order to offer them hospitality. When the guests arrived, Avrohom was in the middle of receiving the Shechina - the Divine Presence of Hashem. Hashem had come to visit Avrohom who was still recovering from his bris milah which had taken place three days earlier. The Torah quotes Avrohom as saying "My L-rd, If I find favor in Your eyes, please pass not away from Your servant."(Bereishis 18:3) The Talmud explains this verse to mean that Avrohom Avinu asked the Divine Presence to wait for him, so that Avrohom could take care of the guests. Avrohom and Sorah then quickly prepared a large meal for the travelers. (Stone Chumash, p.79 citing Shabbos 127a and Shevuos 35b)
The fact that Avrohom put the needs of his guests over receiving the Divine Presence, shows the greatness of the mitzvah of Hachnasas Orchim.(ibid.) As the Sages tell us, "let your house be open wide" (Avos 1:5) Bartinurah explains that a Jew's house should be like Avrohom Avinu's home, which had entrances on all four sides in order to make it easy for guests to enter.
Several years ago observant Jews began to attempt to close Meah Shearim Street in Jerusalem to traffic on Shabbos. The observant Jews were offended by the blatant violation of Shabbos which disturbed the holy atmosphere of the neighborhood. In those early years, the locals set up trash bins before Shabbos which blocked the street from traffic. Needless to say, there was anger and indignation all around.
Secular elements from across Israel, formed a committee with the goal of opposing the closure of the street, a move which the secular Jews saw as "religious coercion." This committee against religious coercion used to bus into Jerusalem ruffians from kibbutzim and other places, to attack and beat up the "Ultra Orthodox."
Once such ruffian who went up to Jerusalem to beat up the Ultra Orthodox was named Kobi Levy (not his real name.) One Shabbos, Kobi was in Jerusalem with his own automobile and decided to show those Ultra Orthodox a thing or two. He drove his car down Meah Shearim Street "like a Roman charioteer," as he described it, with pedestrians scattering in panic; pregnant women sprinting from the street, women with baby carriages bouncing across the uneven pavement. All this to show them that they cannot impose their "Shabbos" on him.
One man a local teacher had the presence of mind to memorize the number of his license plate and look him up the next day at the motor vehicle licensing bureau. That way, he eventually tracked down Kobi's telephone number. Then he called up Kobi and invited him home for Shabbos, explaining that he wanted him to see what Shabbos is and "why it means so much to us."
The driver declined, explaining that he would not want to spend the whole of Shabbos. The Meah Shearim resident pleaded with Kobi and said to him "I am inviting you to be my guest, not my prisoner. You are free to leave whenever you want. Just do me the courtesy of parking your car outside the neighborhood."
Kobi could find no honorable way of refusing an invitation which was so reasonably presented, so he agreed to go for Kiddush and the meal Shabbos evening. Kobi enjoyed himself and was intrigued at the beautiful singing, tasty food and inspiring words of Torah. When Kobi left, his host invited him to return for another Shabbos. To reinforce the invitation, the host called Kobi during the week.
Eventually, Kobi came again for Shabbos. And again. And again. Over the next year or so, he became first an occasional Shabbos guest, then a frequent Shabbos guest and finally a regular Shabbos guest. Over period of two to three years, he became a ba'al teshuvah! (From (http://www.nishmas.org)
We see from here the power of welcoming guests into our homes. The mitzvah of making others feel comfortable in our homes is a tremendous mitzvah. Let us all seek out guests, especially for Shabbos and Yom Tov meals. By doing so, we will all merit the great spiritual influences which Hashem imparts on those who perform this mitzvah. Good Shabbos Everyone. M. Wolfberg is sponsored by: In memory of R' Yaakov ben Naftoly, of blessed memory Refuah Shleima to Reb Mordechai Menachem Mendel ben Tziporah Yitta Refuah Shleima to Tsviah bas Bracha Leah
A blessed and healthy Shabbos to all,
Rachamim Pauli
