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MainOpEds Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran When you hear only what you want to hear: Boring the slave's earIf you know everything, there is nothing for you to hear. -Nathan Safran How can we not covet?How laws help us see who we are. A peek at a fabulous dreidel collection - and a story to go with itBe realistic; plan for a miracle.- Osho Remember: A great miracle happened here (or there). Do not be jealous of richesEnvy righteousness and pursue it (Psalms) Esau or Jacob: Who has the upper hand?Chazal teach, “They will not be equally great. When one rises the other falls.” If not now, when? Abraham teaches us about old ageNow Abraham was old, well on in years, and Hashem blessed Abraham with everything. (Breishit 24:1). No shortcuts in service to G-dThe sacred is in the details. It is in his attention to the detail of performing God’s command that Avraham models how we are to behave as Jews. What goes up...From the pinnacle of the Tower, they planned to lay waste to Heaven. The physical, the spiritual; the balanceWe forever teeter between the dual facets of our nature, seeking to impart spiritual meaning to the physical, to give honor and grace to our place in creation. Elul: To be transformedHope and faith can change you. The mamzer and the consequences of radical individualismThe will of Sinai. To our modern ears, this – like most punishment and consequences – sounds unduly harsh. After all, what did this “innocent” mamzer ever do? The frightening OtherThe Stranger, fhe frightening Other and our broken promise. Should we as Jews fear being drawn into the prevailing climate of hate, of “otherness”? We cannot be countedWeighing the importance of the individual against something even more important – the community. Korach (Diaspora): The sons of KorachContemplating teshuvah. Our Independence. Our Community. Our Song.You can cage the singer but not the song - Harry Belafonte. When it comes to Israel, G-d tells it like it isThe impulse to create “fake news” and our vulnerability to fall victim to it, predates the evils of the last century. No matter how bleak the situation in the short term, God says we will return, we will rebuild, we will renew. We will flourish! Faults are thick where love is thinPeace is hard. Love is harder. Why? Because it demands that we not only tolerate someone not like ourselves but that we embrace that person and hold them dear, as dearly as we hold ourselves. Arachin: Value and worth in the balanceArachin speaks to the holiness inherent in the individual Jew; the “value” of his soul, as it were. Which raises the essential question, how to value such a “commodity”? How do we know if we are “worth” it? Time, the eternal challenge of the everydayAs if you could kill time without injuring eternity - Henry David ThoreauAffliction and graceThe treasure within. Remember, we do not see “the face”, we never see the full picture. It is possible that we never know what rests inside those walls. The blessed wigmakerPeyos and the power of identity. The truth behind the maskThe whole world is a narrow bridge, but the essence, is not to be afraid - Rav Nachman of Breslav Money is like fireIt is a challenge to reconcile the possibility of atonement being realized using worldly and possibly defiled coins. Teacher - open the door and your students will walk throughFacts. Knowledge. Information. These are, of course, necessary but not nearly sufficient for the Teacher who wants to not only teach but uplift and inspire. Let us open the door. The Device is the message:Technology and the dignity of CreationWe are isolated in our relationship with our technologies, with our devices. We are addicts. We are an eved ivri. Shabbat Shira: Music of the spheresSong and meaning. We have always held that each element in creation is part of a magnificent symphony, not just the orbs in the heavens but also each of us. This is the power of shirah. Left is right, right is leftThis is what we want for our children and grandchildren; a level of devotion and commitment that comes from the kishkes. Righteousness in a disposable cultureThe significance of "Pakim Ketanim," a fundamental component of righteousness. In every generation, they rise upon us...We were taught. History is an arc that bends towards justice. and It can’t happen here. Wickedness. Should we care?Why did Abraham care about the wickedness of Sodom? Do not let Sodom into your homeWho could even think of allowing a child to use a computer without installing filters and safeguards. To do any less invites Sodom into one’s home. The knock upon the door: Simchat TorahHow did it get so late so soon? Sadly, we all know too many people who come from generations of Torah scholars who do not know an aleph from an ayin. How, we wonder, could such a thing be?Haazinu: To remember, to forgetThe Torah never seeks the absence of something, rather the fullness of something. The Torah asks for an active state of memory through an act or a personal effort of memory. Nitsavim: Three little wordsThe ability to atone has always been the most remarkable of human features - Leon UrisHave smartphones caused us to fail in our parental responsibilities?Are we failing in making our children independent beings? Mercy, mercyRachmanus (mercy), rachmanus...rodef rachmanus...Rabbi Soloveitchik explained it best.Vaetchanan: If at first...Sometimes, it is better to do some than to try and do it all. Sometimes, now is too soon. We live in the Age of Balaam - and haters are gonna hateOne hundred and twenty can stand in the General Assembly and vote in defense of haters and murderers, in defense of Hamas, but it is God Who will stymie Bilaam! Blind to the blessingsHow easy it is to complain and ignore the blessings from the safety those very blessings confer upon us. A dispute for the sake of HeavenIf leading was easy, anyone could do it. Fake NewsPropaganda by any other name.... Each like the whole of Creation“Here’s the difference between us,” explains the Israeli prime minister. “We’re using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they’re using their civilians to protect their missiles.” - Charles Krauthammer Counting up, counting downLag Ba'Omer marks the end of the sad customs of the period of sefira. Do we count ba'Omer or la'Omer How do we get to love? (Overseas)How do we go from seething in silence from the myriad hurts and humiliations we experience to a silence of strength and grace?The speaking voiceIt is surely no coincidence that Parashat Tzav is always read during the Nisan- Pesach time of the year. Often, on Shabbat Hagadol. Sweeten to taste: Leavened foods on the altarWhy is it forbidden to bring leavened food as an offering? Vayakhel-Pekudei: The urgency of the nowWhat happened between the time they left “as one” and when “only a few” returned? Who stands behind the mask?Rava said, It is one’s duty levasumei, to make oneself fragrant [with wine] on Purim until one cannot tell the difference between ‘arur Haman’ (cursed be Haman) and ‘barukh Mordekhai’ (blessed be Mordecai). Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 7b Plant, believe, carry onThe message of the acacia trees in the desert. Why do 70% of Powerball winners go bankrupt within a few years?To set a place. To be prepared. Not "dumb luck". The children we haveBelieve me Rebbi, I only care about my child’s Yiddishkeit, and if he doesn’t go on the right path then I prefer that he should just die already - spoken to Harav Aaron Leib ShteinmanShmot: …For as his name is, so is heWhat's in a name? A good deal. Raising children: "Fair" does not mean "the same"The goal should not be to mold them into a uniform sameness so much as to elevate each one. The Dreidel Rabbi speaksMiracles. They spin and spin all around us. Modesty in the age of abuseRescue us from the hand of Esau. Social media and our livesWhat a “simple” Yud and Hei teach us about the influence of environment. |
