My Jewish Guide » torah

Elul – Getting Ready

RabbiArnie — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 14:04:49 +0000

A Chassidic story:
A wealthy merchant would regularly visit the Baal Shem Tov and would donate large sums of money for the Rebbe’s charitable causes. Eventually his fortune changed and his business failed, leaving him nearly penniless. When he went to visit the Rebbe again the Baal Shem, undoubtedly aware of the man’s dire straits, asked him for a huge donation of 400 rubles to aid the victims of an earthquake in the holy city of Tzvat. The man left upset and angry. How could the Rebbe be so insensitive as to request such a huge sum from him knowing of his financial hardships?

The man returned home and told his wife what happened. He then went out to think of a plan to raise the funds. While he was gone his wife gathered all the silver utensils in the house and went to the market to sell them. She brought back the coins and spent the entire evening polishing them. When the man returned home his wife presented him with a bag of coins. The next morning the man brought the coins and gave them to the Rebbe. When the Baal Shem emptied the coins onto the table he was taken aback by their shining brilliance. He blessed the man and asked how the coins had gotten so shiny. The man had no answer.

When the man returned he told his wife what had happened at the Rebbe’s and asked her where she had found such shiny coins. The wife answered that the coins weren’t shiny when she got them. However, since she knew that they would be in the presence of the Rebbe she stayed up for hours polishing them until they sparkled.

In a few weeks we will all stand in the presence of the All Mighty…Our Father, Our King. Even though we might be a bit dirty we should take this opportunity to polish ourselves up a bit so that we can shine before Him. Let’s pick one or two things that we feel we can “polish” in ourselves and work on them for the next couple of weeks. Even if we feel we won’t be able to keep it up for the long term at least we will be shiny and polished for the High Holy Days. It’s not hypocritical; it’s just taking one small step at a time and being the best we can be right now.

** This essay can be found in Deep Waters: Insights into the Five Books of Moses and the Jewish Festivals

Abraham’s Legacy

RabbiArnie — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:08:02 +0000

The first word God spoke to our forefather Abraham was “go!” Move. Leave your comfort zone, where you feel in control of your fate. Go to a place that is foreign, unfamiliar, a total mystery to you. Face new challenges. Form new alliances, teach new students, make new friends. Create a legacy for yourself that will make you proud. Pursue the calling hidden deep within your soul no matter what those around you say. Discover your faith, your true destiny.

Abraham never stopped moving, teaching, building, caring, loving, striving, achieving, and fulfilling his mission, his destiny. His legacy to us is the same message that God first spoke to him.

What are you waiting for?

Parshat Bo – The Big Difference

RabbiArnie — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:49:35 +0000

The Torah and the Sages teach that the Jews were spared the hardships of the plagues. For example, while the Egyptian was stricken with boils the Jew standing beside him was completely healthy. The final plague, however, presented a different scenario. God tells Moses to tell the Jews to place the blood of the slaughtered paschal lamb on the doorposts of their homes as a sign for Him to pass over them when smiting the first born of Egypt. It follows that those Jews who chose not to place this sign upon their doors were smitten along with the Egyptians. Why was this final plague different than the first nine where the Jews were spared from the fate of the Egyptians? Why was blood chosen to be the sign that would save the Jews from the fate of the Egyptians?
The Torah teaches that God unleashed his complete destructive power (Mash-cheet) against the Egyptians in the final plague. This terminology is not used regarding the other plagues possibly because the other plagues were intended not to kill the Egyptians, but to make them accept God’s supremacy. The Jews already accepted and believed in God so they didn’t need to experience the plagues. The final plague was no longer to teach. Rather it was to destroy and punish. When God’s attribute of strict judgment is unleashed it makes no exceptions. All are judged equally. There is no mercy.
The Sages teach that the Jews were on the forty ninth level of impurity in Egypt, with fifty being the absolute lowest. If they had reached fifty they would not have been redeemed. At the splitting of the sea the angels asked God why he would choose to save the Jews and kill the Egyptians, since both nations worshipped idols and were not much different. Therefore, it is clear that were they to be judged with the attribute of strict judgment the Jews might very well be liable to suffer the same punishment as the Egyptians.
Why was blood chosen as the sign to save them? The Sages teach that the original cause of the Egyptian bondage was the “lashon hara” or “evil speech” that Joseph spoke against his brothers, which began the chain of events that brought the Jews to Egypt. They also teach that the Jews

were redeemed from Egypt because they did not speak Lashon Hara. The Midrash says that the Jews didn’t change their language to that of the Egyptians meaning, I think, that they didn’t speak Lashon Hara.
The Hebrew word for blood is “Daam” which is also the root of the Hebrew word for “silence”. Therefore, the blood that the Jews placed on their doorposts represented their merit that differentiated them from the Egyptians: they didn’t speak Lashon Hara.