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An Empowered Emissary - Chayei Sarah 5786

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I’m writing this in Brooklyn. We were blessed with the bris of a grandson in Philadelphia, born to our dear children Rivkie and Rabbi Sholom Ber Brownstein, and this weekend is the International Shluchim Convention. You have probably seen the famous annual picture of over 5,000 bearded Rabbis standing in front of Chabad Headquarters. There will be another one this week. Last year I stood next to a lamppost so that I would be able to find myself in the crowd. Well the picture was so big and intricate that they had to use seven different shots and put it together, and they photoshopped the lamppost out, so I never did find myself in the picture. But yes, I was there.  This group is like no other (if I say so myself). It’s easy to think of this group as a great monolith of Chassidic rabbis, and I guess on some level it is. But while we all look similar and do similar things, each Shliach is serving a group of Jews with different needs and wants. While we represent the world, literal...
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A Caring host - Vayeira 5786

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There is an interesting Talmudic style question on one of the most famous stories in the Torah.  First the story:  Three angels in the form of people came to visit Avraham. They came to heal him after his circumcision at age 99, to tell Sarah the great news that she was going to have a child at age 90, and to destroy the city of Sodom. Avraham thought they were men, and in the fulfillment of his great kindness, he ran to them to invite them into his tent.  This was especially striking since at that moment Hashem had appeared to Avraham, and, according to many interpretations of the story, Avraham asked Hashem to wait while he welcomed the guests. He gave them water to wash their feet, asked Sarah to bake bread, and prepared three tongues with mustard (a five star delicacy) for them to eat.  This is actually quite shocking. When we say Shema we cover our eyes to block the world out. When we say the Amidahstanding with our feet together, we don’t look up from the...
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Just Desserts - Lech Lecha 5786

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In the middle of recounting the history of the world and of the Jewish people, the Torah seems to digress.  Suddenly we are in the middle of a very interesting story about four kings and five kings and their people.  These were nations in the Middle East, and the four powerful kings controlled the whole area.  After 12 years of subjugation, five kings rebelled and went to war against the four, but they were no match for the power of the four.  “In the days when King Amrafel of Shin’ar, King Aryoch of Elasar, King Kedorla’omer of Eilam, and King Tid’al of Goyim waged war against King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shin’av of Admah, King Shem’ever of Tzevoyim, and the king of Bela, which is Tzo’ar, and subdued them...” (Bereshit 14:1,2.) On their way to the battle with the five kings, the four kings devastated and captured many nations along the way.  Then the main battle happened: “They made war with King Kedorla’omer of Eilam, King Tid’al of Goyim,...
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Where there's a Will... - Noach 5786

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The Great Flood had happened.  Noach and his family were back on dry land, and in appreciation, Noach offered sacrifices to Hashem.  The Torah tells us Hashem’s reaction (Bereshit 8:21): “G-d [figuratively] smelled the appeasing fragrance (i.e., He acknowledged Noah’s appreciation), and in response, G-d said to Himself, “[I hereby swear that] I will never again curse the soil because of humanity, for the inclination of a person’s heart is [challenged by his] evil [inclination] from his [earliest] youth. Never again will I strike down all life as I have done.” Because the evil inclination challenges us from our youth, Hashem will be merciful and never again destroy all life. Now, let’s take a look at a remarkably similar statement in last week’s Parsha, and the end of Bereshit (Bereshit 6:5):  “And the L-rd saw that the evil of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of his heart was only evil all the time.”  Therefore, "I will blot out man, whom I created, ...
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Sparks Everywhere - Bereshit 5786

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One of the descriptions in the Torah for Sukkot, the holiday we just celebrated, is “Chag Ha’asif” - the Harvest Festival. The literal translation of the words is “holiday of ingathering.“ Another verse says: “Make for you a holiday of Sukkot when you gather in [the produce of] your granary and your wine press.” As the Midrash tells us: Although it is a Mitzvah to be joyous on all the festivals, the Torah does not tell us explicitly to be joyous on Pesach, it says once “you shall be joyous” on Shavuot, and three times “you shall be joyous” on Sukkot.  This is because on Pesach the crops are still in the fields and we don’t know yet what the harvest will be like. By Shavuot we are celebrating the successful grain harvest but the fruits are not yet ripe. On Sukkot, however, the Torah tells us three times to be joyous, because now all the fruits have been harvested and we can enjoy all the produce.  (Jews around the world celebrated this holiday the ingathering of the remaining l...
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A Joyous sukkot - 5786

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We connected to Hashem in Elul, we accepted Him as our King on Rosh Hashanah, we did Teshuvah over the Ten Days of Repentance, and we bonded with Him and started with a clean slate on Yom Kippur.  This all brings us tremendous joy, like a child reunited with his or her parents after a period of distance.  We can imagine what joy both parents and child feel. This joy is expressed in the next phase of our holidays, the “Time of our Joy,” Sukkot.  It is a beautiful holiday with many wonderful observances, culminating in the joyous day of Simchat Torah. This is how we express our joy in our connection with Hashem, by observing extra Mitzvot.  And this holiday has several.  Sitting and eating - actually “dwelling” - in the Sukkah, shaking the Four Species, special prayers and meals, including kiddush and challah, parties and gatherings, cutting back on work and dancing with the Torah. This joy, and the “tying it down” with the physical observance of the joyous Mitzvo...
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A Day of Joy? - Yom Kippur 5786

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Yom Kippur!  There is hardly a Jew in the world who does not relate to this day in some way.  For many, it is a day of prayer, fasting and forgiveness.  For some it is a long, boring day sitting through the prayers and sermons.  (A young boy was bored during the Musaf service on Yom Kippur after many hours of services.  He walks out to the synagogue lobby and starts reading the names on the memorial board.  He notices that several of them have American flags next to the name.  A congregant sees him and tells him:  You know what the flag means?  Those are people who died in the Service.  The boy’s eyes open wide and he says:  Which service, Shacharit or Musaf?)  For some it is a day of sadness and for others it may not mean much, but as our Sages teach, every single Jew’s soul is somehow moved on Yom Kippur. I believe that Yom Kippur is a day of great joy, and relevant to everyone.  The first recorded event on Yom Kippur wa...
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