News and Notes
On Wednesday, the yeshiva
welcomed its wonderful
class of incoming shana
alef students. After
Rav Kahn, Rav Wolicki,
Rav Arnold, and Rav Krohn
greeted the students
at Ben Gurion Airport,
everyone returned to
the yeshiva for a day
of meeting new friends,
unpacking, orientation,
and placement bechinot.
The day concluded with
our annual opening day
barbecue next to the
Upper Gardens dormitory.
On
Thursday morning, Rav
Wolicki offered his opening
shiur, "Ain Habyshan
Lamed", and the students
purchased their sefarim
at a booksale in the
Otzar Sefarim. Regular
shiurim began with afternoon
seder.
On Thursday
night, Rav Kahn gave
the sicha ruchanit on
the topic of, "The Hashkafa
of Yesodei HaTorah".
After maariv and the
delicious cholent, there
were three mishmar shiurim
from which to choose:
Rav Wolicki spoke about
the deeper meaning of
the opening words of
the berachot, Rav Kahn
gave a shiur on "The
Chidush that Changed
the World", and Rav Arram
offered his continuing
series on the Chassidic
thought of Rabbi Nachman
of Breslov.
On
Friday, our students
went to the Kotel for
Shacharit, and afterwards
participated in a trip
to Ir David and Chizkiyahu's
Tunnels. We thank Rav
Meir Arnold for joining
the yeshiva on its opening
tiyul.
This
Shabbat is an in-Shabbat,
featuring Rav Yaakov
Arram as the in-Shabbat
rabbi. Along with joining
the yeshiva for the inspiring
tefillot (including a
Carlebach-style Kabbalat
Shabbat with Rav Moshe
Lichtman) and delicious
meals, Rav Arram will
be offering several shiurim,
including, "Bikkurim:
The Right Place, the
Right Time, and You",
and "Rejection and Replacement:
The Tragedy of Shaul
HaMelech". There will
also be a "Relax, Shmooze,
and Eat Really Good Cake"
on Friday night, and
Seudah Shlishit will
include "Learn everything
you ever wanted to know
about every Yesodei guy
in forty minutes flat!"
session.
Dear Friends,
Yeshivat Yesodei HaTorah, now entering its seventh year, is renowned for helping students become strong and independently skillful bnei Torah, who are eminently capable of becoming the future leaders of the Jewish People.
We are proud of never having turned away a qualified student because of an inability to pay tuition, and hope to continue to do so in the future. We cannot make this commitment, however, without your help.
Accordingly, Yeshivat Yesodei HaTorah is excited to announce that we are now selling tickets for the first ever Yesodei HaTorah Raffle, with a grand prize of two round-trip tickets to Israel, as well as other valuable first and second prizes, with proceeds going to support the Yesodei HaTorah Scholarship Fund.
The ticket prices are
$36 - 1 ticket
$60 - 2 tickets
$80 - 3 tickets
$100 - 5 tickets
Every ticket beyond five costs an additional $15.
The drawing will be held on Chanuka.
To buy tickets, please click here to connect to our Paypal site.
Please indicate in the comments section how many tickets you are purchasing.
Please contact our office at yeshiva@yesodei.org
to purchase tickets by any other means.
With your help, we will continue to offer the finest yeshiva education to every student who stands to benefit from it.
Thank you for your continued assistance, and good luck!
Sincerely,
Rabbi Scott Kahn
Rabbi Pesach Wolicki
Roshei Yeshiva
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Weekly Wisdom
"You will be a parable..."
By Rabbi Pesach Wolicki
Among the many frightening and disturbing punishments listed in the Torah if Bnei Yisrael fail to live according to G-d's law, this one is particularly difficult to understand.
"You will be a source of astonishment, a parable, and a conversation piece among all the peoples where G-d will lead you." (Devarim 28:37)
What does it mean to be "a parable", "mashal" in Hebrew?
Rashi comments: "A parable: When a terrible affliction smites a person, they will say 'This is like the affliction of so-and-so'."
In other words, to be a parable is to be a paradigm or figure of speech for the purposes of exaggeration. Seen this way, the curse or punishment in the verse means that our suffering will be so bad that it will be the figure of speech used when describing suffering, i.e. "Like the suffering of the Jews."
We have unfortunately seen this fulfilled in our day when it seems that every tragedy is compared to the Holocaust - often inappropriately due to the extent of the exaggeration.
I'd like to suggest another understanding of this phrase "a parable". The verse specifically points out that this punishment takes place "among all the peoples where G-d will lead you." In other words, this punishment is carried out not in Israel but in the exile. This is notable as most of the punishments in the list are carried out in the land of Israel.
The word mashal implies not only a parable in the sense mentioned above, i.e. exaggeration. It refers also to parable in the sense of a fable or myth. Fables and myths are parables. They are stories that although they teach something are not factually true.
The Jewish people have a fairly unique relationship to history. Most peoples in the world today - certainly in the modern western world - do not see themselves as the direct descendants of any ancient person or persons in particular. For example, when people study the history of the Phoenicians, Vikings, or Ancient Romans there is nobody alive today who is conscious of their own descendance from these peoples. We are used to simply saying that these peoples vanished.
While it is an obvious point that everyone in the world today is a descendant of somebody from the ancient world, most people do not think that way. When Italian children study Roman history they don't find themselves saying "we" even though genealogically speaking it is true.
The Jewish people know themselves to be direct descendants of an ancient people. We are aware that Avraham is our great-grandfather, our ancestors left Egypt, and David and Shlomo were once our kings. More to the point, we know that Israel is our ancestral homeland and we have always stated that as a clear and open fact.
When we make these claims the rest of the world does not quite take it all seriously. If a leader of the State of Israel were to point out in the international media that our claim to Israel is due to the simple fact that our grandparents had the land stolen from them 1900 years ago, how many skeptics would laugh at that claim? It does not seem realistic to people because they see no connection between themselves and their own ancestors many centuries ago.
They look at our history - the Exodus, the Torah, the People of Israel in Temple times, - as a nice collection of fables. The see our own history as "a parable".
For this reason the Torah states that this punishment only occurs in the exile. Were we to have remained on our land since ancient times - like the Chinese and a few other peoples - our claims would be viewed differently.
The very fact of the exile and the ensuing dispersion leads to the perception of our lack of genealogical connection to our ancestors who inhabited the land many centuries ago.
I'd like to suggest that this weakening of connection to our own history is, in fact, a terrible punishment. This is the meaning of the words, "You shall be a parable."
Our task is clearly understood. We must reconnect ourselves to the reality of our claim to our land and our history. We must solidify our own feelings of connection to the generations of long ago.
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