Aspaqlaria

Keeping Torah and Values in Focus

Category: Machashavah

0

3- Vayiqra / Theodicy

Parashas Tzav and the Book of Mrs. Job

Vayiqra is about the qorban as performed by the person bringing it. Tzav is the qorban as performed by the kohein. These are two totally different things. Each of us live in our own world.

We have a book of Iyov, which tells the story of the tragedies Iyov lived through. But Iyov’s wife? There is no book explaining her tragedy. Nor that of his children. Those would have been very different books with very different stories. Every person impacted by an event is a protagonist in and of themselves, and Hashem insures that their experiences and duties make sense for them within their own perspective.

1

Machashavah / Zelmele's Kloiz

Derashos haRan – Derashah #1

All the chaburos in which we learned the first derashah of Derashos haRan are now available on YouTube!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG3qHos5M39LStfXgit4J_FN4EamgQFEo
….
If I were to summarize the topic, the Ran opens with the idea that…

Jar of oil 0

Anavah / Bitachon / Holidays / Yir`ah

The True Hero

Don’t picture a single jar of oil found amidst the rubble. The Beis haMiqdash wasn’t trashed, it was perverted into a Temple of Zeus. … That single jar oil needed to be searched for because it had been hidden. Who hid it?

0

1- Bereishis / Holidays

Dispelling the Dark

So, Adam saw the return of darkness, the same darkness the opening medrash identified with the spiritual decimation attempted by the Hellenists in the years before Chanukah. He mourned and fasted for 8 days. We have 8 days, but with an opposite theme — mourning and fasting are prohibited, and praise and gratitude dominate. And in both cases, the message was only seen in retrospect, the next year.

There is one major difference: Adam concluded that the darkness and the return of light was just “the natural cycle”. In Chanukah, we initiated the light manually, and Hashem responded with a miracle. Where Adam saw Hashem’s Light in nature, we see Him bestowing it in a covenantal union with us.

Adam was the start of this world. The Jewish People were given the Torah, handed a burning torch, to bring light to the world that follows.

0

Fundamentals

Aggadic Stories and Peshat – Narrative Styles

Midrash makes for far more 2-dimensional people than you have in peshat. Let me explain with a mashal. The first Star Wars series was a classic Hero’s Journey plotline. And the characters — good...

0

Reward and Punishment / Theodicy

Universal Hashgachah Peratis (notes)

Back in 2002, Rav Yitzchok Zirkind zt”l (COLlive obituary) brought the last Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Igeres (Igeres haQodesh 1:93) to the attention of the gang at Avodah. I was motivated to summarize it on list,...

0

Audio / Dei`os / Ta`amei haMitzvos / Torah as Growth / Zelmele's Kloiz

Rav Shlomo Wolbe, “Frumkeit – Relationship ep. 26

Wednesday night (Sep 28th, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah chaburah discussed Rav Wolbe’s essay titled “Frumkeit”, found in Alei Shur vol II, pp 152-155. (Warning: he actually comes out against!)

0

Ahavah / Audio / Ta`amei haMitzvos / Zelmele's Kloiz

Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Qunterus haChessed (sec. 1 ch. 3- sec. 2, end) – Relationship ep. 24-25

Wednesday nights (September 14th and 21st, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah completed our study of Rav Dessler’s Qunterus haChessed.

0

Ahavah / Audio / Ta`amei haMitzvos / Zelmele's Kloiz

Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Qunterus haChessed (ch. 9-12) – Relationship ep. 23

Wednesday night (August 24th, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah continued our study of Rav Dessler’s Qunterus haChessed chapters 4 through 6 (pp. 35-39)…. This week we saw how …[g]iving leads to love, far more than the other way around.

0

Ahavah / Audio / Ta`amei haMitzvos / Zelmele's Kloiz

Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Qunterus haChessed (ch. 7-8) – Relationship ep. 22

Wednesday night (August 24th, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah continued our study of Rav Dessler’s Qunterus haChessed chapters 4 through 6 (pp. 35-39)…. This week we saw how …[g]iving leads to love, far more than the other way around.