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Kindness Beyond the Ask. Chayei Sarah 5787

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I  am on a Delta flight on my way to the annual “Kinus” - the convention of Chabad shluchim from literally around the world. Over 6,000 Chabad emissaries will spend the weekend together.  I would like to share a beautiful (slightly edited) article written by my colleague Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel: From the largest cities to the most remote corners of the globe, these shluchim have dedicated their lives to bringing Jewish warmth, inspiration, and most importantly, a sense of belonging to every Jew. It raises a fascinating question: What is the secret of the Rebbe's shluchim? What is it that has enabled this movement to touch the hearts of so many Jews around the world? I believe that the answer can be found in a beautiful exchange in this week's Torah portion of Chayei Sarah.  Avraham sends his trusted servant Eliezer on a mission to find a wife for his son Yitzchak. When Eliezer meets Rivka at the well, he witnesses her extraordinary kindness. Not only does she offer him ...
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Heartfelt Hospitality - Vayeira 5787

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When was the last time you had guests?  Inviting guests is a very nice thing, but for us Jews it’s baked into our DNA.  Avraham is called “Avinu” - our father, because we inherited his character traits and his blessings.  (Also the Holy Land, and that, as an aside, is the one undeniable claim we have to Israel that cannot be disputed. Hashem gave the land to Avraham, and to his descendants through Yitzchak and Yaakov.) Avraham personified kindness, and one of his and Sarah’s great legacies is Hachanassat Orchim - welcoming guests.  We see the extent of his devotion to that Mitzvah at the beginning of this week’s Parsha.  Avraham had circumcised himself at age 99.  Not an easy surgery.  It was the third day after the Bris, when, our sages teach, the pain is at its worst.   Now Avraham and Sarah had set up a tent in the desert to welcome bypassers, and it had openings on all four sides.  This was so that anyone coming from any direction wo...
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Is it for you or for you? Lech Lecha 5787

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  When Avraham - the father of the Jewish people - is introduced at the beginning of this Parsha, he was already the greatest man alive. Earlier the only thing the Torah has told us about him is that he traveled with his father and family. Then we begin his story with Hashem appearing to him and telling him “Lech Lecha” (which can be translated as go forth, or go for you, or go to you) from your land, your birthplace and the house of your father.  From a simple reading of the verse and Rashi’s commentary, it would seem that Abraham needed incentives of personal gain in order to fulfill Hashem’s command. Rashi comments in this verse and the next that says “I will make you into a great nation and bless you and aggrandize your name…”. He says that “go for you” means for your benefit. When you travel to the place I show you, you will be blessed with becoming a great nation, with money, and with fame.  Now Avraham’s life seems to prove that he would have done anything for ...
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Your Good Choice, A Beautiful Sight - Noach 5787

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What’s the story with the rainbow?  After the Great Flood, Hashem made a covenant with Noach and all his descendants to never again bring a flood that would destroy all humankind in the world. The covenant included that the seasons would never cease.  As a sign of the covenant, Hashem said (Bereshit 9:12,13): “This is the sign of the covenant, which I am placing between Me and between you, and between every living soul that is with you, for everlasting generations.  My rainbow I have placed in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Myself and the earth.”   For many years I wondered about this.  What happened before the flood?  A rainbow is a natural phenomenon that happens when the sun’s rays are refracted by the clouds.  In Bereshit we learned that Hashem created the universe together with all of the laws of nature.  So what happened when the sun’s rays shone through the clouds before the Great Flood?  Did Hashem ch...
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Where Are You? - Bereshit 5787

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“Where are you?”  What a strange question for the omniscient G-d!  Adam and Chava (Eve) had sinned and eaten the fruit of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge.  Having ingested this fruit, they now had an awareness of the potential for evil and the feeling of shame.  As the verse states (Bereshit 3:7): “And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves and made themselves girdles. And they heard the voice of the L-rd G-d going in the garden to the direction of the sun, and the man and his wife hid from before the L-rd G-d in the midst of the trees of the garden.” Then Hashem’s voice calls out: “Ayeka - where are you?”  Then the story continues with the dialogue between Hashem and Adam, and eventually Adam and Chava being expelled from Gan Eden.  The obvious question is, did Hashem not know where they were?   There are various answers to this question.  Rashi, who consolidates the Talmudic a...
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A Great Sukkot Miracle has Happened - Simchat Torah 5757

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  I start with a wish for a “Gut Moed,” a good and joyous holiday.  This is a greeting that many write at the top of any correspondence during Chol Hamoed, the intermediate days of a holiday, to acknowledge that we limit our work during this time, and even limit what we write, as laid out in the Code of Jewish Law.  I am writing these lines on Wednesday, under the influence of the news of the miraculous salvation of many Jews on the Flydubai flight.  I imagine that by the time you read this we will know many more details of the whys and hows, but one thing seems to be sure:  We have witnessed an open miracle.  Miracles don;t have to be splitting the sea.  There are many examples of Hashem tweaking nature in a way that seems natural.  But as we say in the story of Purim, when Mordechai and Esther each “happened to be” in the right place at the right time, and so many other great miracles, everything just “happened to fit” and people and things happ...
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Changing Seasons, Perfect Balance - Sukkot 5787

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The Etrog is a unique fruit.  The Torah refers to it as “Pri Etz Hadar” - the splendid fruit.  That is the only description in the written Torah.  The Lulav is described as “Kapot Temarim” - date palm fronds, Hadassim (myrtle) as “Anaf Etz Avot” - a branch of a braided tree, and Aravot as "Arvei Nachal” - willows of the brook.  So how do we get from a splendid fruit to an Etrog?  Maybe a pomegranate is a splendid fruit, or a mango?  Well, I don’t think there were mangos in the Middle East in those days, but there were certainly lots of pomegranates.   The Talmud explains that the word “Hadar” also means “that dwells,” and the Etrog is the only fruit that dwells on the tree around the year.  Every fruit has a season, and if it is not picked at the end of that season, it falls off the tree.  Summer fruits don;t stay on the tree in winter and vice versa.  An Etrog, on the other hand, can stay on a tree through all the seasons. The Etro...
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