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שבת שלום - פרשת נשא
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Video Shiur
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Click play to watch the video shiur by
Rabbi Scott Kahn about ברכת החמה |
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News and Notes
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Last week, the yeshiva
celebrated Shavuot with
an intensive and enjoyable
tikun leil shavuot all
night on Thursday night.
The Beit Midrash was
packed immediately after
dinner all the way through
Shacharit and Musaf,
as students learned b'chavruta
with each other and with
the numerous rabbeim
who were present. Rabbeim
also offered chaburot
to groups of students,
and our former madrich,
Yossi Silverman, gave
a shiur entitled, "Where
is Har Sinai, Anyway?"
Even though our students
were up all night, davening
on Shavuot morning was
inspiring and meaningful,
and was followed by a
special yom tov breakfast.
Last
Tuesday Alan Rosenbaum,
the CEO of Davka Software,
offered our students
a presentation on the
use of computer software
for Torah research, as
part of the yeshiva's
course on Torah Research
Skills.
We
wish mazal tov to Dov
Muchnick on his completion
of Seder Taharot on Thursday.
This was Dov's eleventh
siyum of the year; he
will be completing Shas
Mishnayot for the second
time since Simchat Torah
in approximately two
weeks.
Finally,
we wish mazal tov to
Chaim Katz and Joshua
Freedman, who completed
Masechet Taanit on Tuesday.
We look forward to hearing
of many more siyumim
from them in the near
future!
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The New Zionism
By Rabbi Pesach Wolicki
"And it was - heb. "va'yehi" - on the day that Moshe completed the erecting of the Mishkan..." (Bamidbar 7:1)
The Hebrew word "va'yehi" is understood in Rabbinic literature (see Megila 10b) to imply that something negative is about to happen.Here, it seems that that explanation does not make sense. After all, this verse simply states that after Moshe completed the building and erecting of the Mishkan, the princes of the tribes brought generous offerings to G-d in celebration. What possible negative connotation could "va'yehi" have?
The Midrash Tanchuma responds:
"Va'yehi: "Vay!" (Woe!) "Hi!" (also implying a cry of pain) - on the day that Moshe completed erecting the Mishkan...' This is akin to a parable of a king who had an irritable wife. The king said toher: 'Make for me a beautiful woolen robe.' She began to work on it. For the entire time that she was working on it, she did not argue with him even once. After some time, the work was completed and she brought it to the king. The king saw the robe and he liked it. Immediately the king began to cry 'Woe! Woe!' His wife said to him, 'What is this? I worked hard to do your will and you say 'Woe!Woe!'?' The king answered, 'The work is beautiful. I like it very much. However, the entire time that you were busy with the work you never angered me or antagonized me. Now that you are not busy, I fear that you will get angry at me again.'
So said G-d: 'All the time that my children were busy with the work of the Mishkan they did not complain to me. Now they will start to complain again.'"
This perplexing and somewhat humorous Midrash makes a powerful point about human nature.
When there is a great and urgent cause before us we are often able to focus, band together, and remain idealistically devoted to the task at hand. Once the work is done, there is a tendency to drift into pettiness and spiritual malaise.
One unfortunate example is seen in the last century.
Throughout the formative years of the Zionist movement and through the opening decades of the State of Israel's existence, Idealistic Zionism was alive and well. A spirit of self-sacrifice and higher purpose permeated all of Israeli society. The idealism of the Zionist enterprise - "to build and to be built" - motivated the entire nation. Jewish pride and love of the land were taken as givens. Essentially, the Jewish people rallied around a mass project of building the land for its people.
Now, with G-d's help, thankfully the barn - so to speak - has been raised. The land is built. In terms of infrastructure, economy, military, communications, etc. Israel is more or less built.Unfortunately, as G-d fears in the Midrash quoted above, once the Mishkan is built the murmuring and complaining begin.
Post-Zionistic ideology that questions our purpose and right to be here is the order of the day and has tragically permeated the highest echelons of Israeli political leadership. Many Israeli young people are being raised without any sense of national pride or aspirations.
We can meet the challenge of retaining our idealistic drive to build only if we realize that the physical structure is only the first stage. There is a much more important public-works project that we must now undertake. We must fill the house that we have built with the Glory of G-d. This is our task at this present time in history.
We must rally our idealistic energy in the same way the pioneers who drained the swamps risked their lives to build the land physically. We must drain the spiritual swamps. When we do, we will find that the land is rich and fruitful and waiting for us to till its holy soil to bear its spiritual fruit.
"From Zion shall go forth Torah and the word of Hashem from Yerushalayim" (Yeshaya 2:3) With G-d's help we have built Zion. No we must fill her with Torah and the word of G-d.
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