Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The Torah tells us that we should establish special Levite cities of refuge in the
. When someone murders someone else inadvertently, a relative (also known as the blood avenger) of the victim can take revenge on the inadvertent murderer according to Torah law. However, this can only happen if the inadvertent murderer is not in one of the 6 cities of refuge. (There were 3 east of the Jordan River and 3 west of the land of Israel Jordan River.)
We need to be very careful of who we chose to spend time with. If we surround ourselves with the Levites (great men) of our generation, we’ll be able to raise ourselves to the loftiest of spiritual heights.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
The seven weeks between Passover and Shavous represent the periods where we fulfill the mitzvah of counting the Omer, commemorate the time between when the Jews left
Egypt and received the Torah on Mount Sinai and finally a mourning period for the death of the students of Rabbi Akiva.
Omer – Counting the Omer is a biblical mitzvah that we fulfill when every night we acknowledge what day it is. This is day One. This is day Two, etc.
Passover to Shavous – We also recognize that when the Jewish people left
they were at an extremely spiritually low point. The Rabbi’s tell us that they were on the 49th level of impurity and they use each of these 49 days to raise themselves another level. There are 7 emotional traits that interact with each other with a different combination each day representing different aspects of our personality. It’s a good thing to work on ourselves every day so that we’re ready to re-accept the Torah on Shavous. Egypt
Rabbi Akiva’s Students - Whereas the first two periods are happy occasions, the third is both sad and confusing. The Rabbis tell us that during this period Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students all died. There are a few different opinions as to how they died, but the most popular one is that they died in a plague, because they failed to show each other the proper respect and honor. We commemorate this period by not shaving or having haircuts along with not listening to music.
Another explanation of how Rabbi Akiva’s students died is that they were killed in the Bar Kochba uprising.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Nadab and Abihu were great men. What did they do that was so wrong that would cause such a strong reaction from Heaven on such an important day?
There are a lot of questions and commentaries about what exactly is going on here. Here are some of them:
1. Rabbi Yishmael holds that they used a fire from the alter, but it was alien because they had not been bidden to offer it.
2. Rabbi Yishmael also says that Nadab and Abihu had been drinking wine and it is not permissible to enter the sanctuary after drinking wine.
3. Rabbi Akiva holds that the fire was alien, because it didn’t come from the alter.
4. Rabbi Eliezer holds that their actual offense is that they ruled the fire holy, but it was inappropriate to make a decision about Jewish law in front of their teacher, Moses.
5. They also did not consult their father, Aaron.
6. Only the high priest is permitted to enter the Holy of Holy’s and they were not the high priest, nor did they wear the high priests garments.
7. They didn’t wash their hands and feet before entering.
8. They weren’t married
9. They didn’t have children.
There are few incidents in Torah where there are so many different opinions about what happened in a particular situation.
The only thing that all of the commentators agree upon is that these were great men and they acted with the intention of serving G-d. They were judged so severely because they were so great.
The core of their mistake and the running theme throughout all of the explanations is that they served G-d in a manner in which they wished to serve him, not in a manner that he wished to be served.
If a vegetarian is hungry and you bring him a nice juicy steak, you didn’t do him a favor.
If a car has a flat tire and you bring gasoline, you didn’t help the situation.
If we really want to help someone or serve G-d, we need to do give them what they need, not what we feel like giving.
I recently read an article online about Conservative Judaism. The article was presenting the argument that Conservative Judaism should recognize Jews whose father is Jewish, but mother is Gentile. The foundation of the argument was Conservative Jews already drove on Shabbat, so if they broke that Torah law, why not break this one too. I found it almost amusing, in a strange sort of way, that the article never even considered that maybe they should actually stay true to the words of G-d’s eternal Torah as opposed to adjusting our practices to fit our needs.
The only way to truly serve G-d is by following the instructions of the Torah. Anything other than that is like brining a vegetarian a piece of meat and really only serving ourselves.