Chanukah 5776: The Power of the Kohen’s Humility; the Deepest Wisdom of Torah

Shalom Friends;

This week, our Chanukah vort is being sponsored by Avraham and Miriam Deutsch of Efrat who wish Kol Am Yisrael Chanukah Same’ach! To the Deutsch family, many thanks for your sponsorship and your continued kindnesses.

Friends, you can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShevua.

Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details. read more

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Yom Kippur 5776: The Ketores, the Galbanim and the Unity of Am Yisrael as Hashem’s Kohanim to the Nations

Shalom Friends;

Our Yom Kippur vort is being sponsored by Yossie and Elisheva Schulman of Ramat Beit Shemesh. To Yossie, Elisheva and the Schulman family, may you all be inscribed and sealed for only simcha, success, good health, nachas from your children, and only good things in the year to come and to at least 120 years. Many thanks for your sponsorship and your continuing kindnesses.

Friends, you can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShevua. read more

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Parshat Vayeitzei 5775: The Descent and Fall of a Nation’s Malach Vs the Eternality of the Jews

Shalom Friends;

This week, our Parshat HaShevua Vayeitzei is being sponsored by David and Julie Morris of Ramat Beit Shemesh honor of their children, that they continue to grow in Torah and Mitzvot and have much Bracha V”Hatslocha.. To the Morris family, many thanks for your sponsorship and continuing kindnesses through the years.

You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring (or as the case may be, co-sponsoring) a Parshat HaShevua. Please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details. read more

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Yom Kippur 5775: The Unity of Am Yisrael as Hashem’s Kohanim to the Nations

Shalom Friends;

Our Yom Kippur vort is being sponsored by Yossie and Elisheva Schulman of Ramat Beit Shemesh. To Yossie, Elisheva and the Schulman family, may you all be inscribed and sealed for only simcha, success, good health, nachas from your children, and only good things in the year to come and to at least 120 years. Many thanks for your sponsorship and your continued kindnesses.

Friends, you can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring (or as the case may be, co-sponsoring) a Parshat HaShevua. read more

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Parshat Vayishlach 5773: Levado: In Our Generations — Individually, Nationally

by Moshe Burt

We learn at the end of Parsha Vayeitzei that Yaakov and his family were escorted by a group of Melachim to the border of Eretz Yisrael where a second group of melachim took over and escorted them inside Eretz Yisrael. Yaakov declared both groups to be Holy and named this border point Mahanaim for the two camps of Melachim.

It was about this second camp that our Parsha begins by informing that Yaakov sent Melachim (angels) — some render a translation of messengers:

“… ahead of him to Eisev to the land of Seir, to the field of Edom… Thus shall you say … to Eisev, so said your servant Yaakov: ‘Im-Lavan garti’ (I have sojourned with Lavan) …” (Sefer Breish’t, Perek 32, posukim 4 & 5). read more

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Parshat Vayishlach 5772: Living Up to Levado — Individually, Nationally

by Moshe Burt

We learn at the end of Parsha Vayeitzei that Yaakov and his family were escorted by a group of Melachim to the border of Eretz Yisrael where a second group of melachim took over and escorted them inside Eretz Yisrael. Yaakov declared both groups to be Holy and named this border point Mahanaim for the two camps of Melachim.

It was about this second camp that our Parsha begins by informing that Yaakov sent Melachim (angels) — some render a translation of messengers:

“… ahead of him to Eisev to the land of Seir, to the field of Edom… Thus shall you say … to Eisev, so said your servant Yaakov: ‘Im-Lavan garti’ (I have sojourned with Lavan) …” (Sefer Breish’t, Perek 32, posukim 4 & 5). read more

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Parshat Vayishlach 5771: Contrasting Moral, Spiritual Honesty With Suicidal Appeasement

by Moshe Burt

We learn at the end of Parsha Vayeitzei that Yaakov and his family were escorted by a group of Melachim to the border of Eretz Yisrael where a second group of melachim took over and escorted them inside Eretz Yisrael. Yaakov declared both groups to be Holy and named this border point Mahanaim for the two camps of Melachim.

It was about this second camp that our Parsha begins by informing that Yaakov sent Melachim (angels) — some render a translation of messengers:

“… ahead of him to Eisev to the land of Seir, to the field of Edom… Thus shall you say … to Eisev, so said your servant Yaakov: ‘Im-Lavan garti’ (I have sojourned with Lavan) …” (Sefer Breish’t, Perek 32, posukim 4 & 5). read more

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Parshat Vayishlach 5770: Contrasting Moral, Spiritual Honesty With Clouded False Perceptions

by, Moshe Burt

As our Parsha begins, Yaakov sent melachim (angels), some render a translation of messengers, “… ahead of him to Eisev to the land of Seir, to the field of Edom… Thus shall you say … to Eisev, so said your servant Yaakov: ‘Im-Lavan garti’ (I have sojourned with Lavan) …” (Sefer Breish’t, Perek 32, posukim 4 & 5).

We learn that the Gematria (numerical value) of the word ‘garti’ is 613; that Yaakov “… sojourned with Lavan, but yet … kept all of the 613 commandments and … did not learn from his [Lavan’s] wicked deeds.” (Torah Gems, Aharon Greenberg, Parsha Vayishlach page 251) read more

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Parsha Chaye Sarah 5770: Avraham’s Intuitive Perceptions, Today’s Real Adversarial Intentions

by Moshe Burt

There are two intriguing commentaries, each relating to a different posuk of Parsha Chaye Sarah, regarding the dialogue leading up to Avraham Aveinu’s acquisition of the Ma’arat HaMachpela for 400 shekels of silver from Efron the Hittite.

The first of the two posukim is spoken by Avraham and says, in part:

“I will have given the money for the field; take it of me …” (Breish’it, Perek 23, posuk 13)

“…That a man may marry a woman by using money to effect the marriage is deduced in the Talmud (Kiddushin 2) by drawing a parallel from this verse. But the parallel goes beyond merely the acquisition of the land of the Efronite and the acquisition of a wife. Just as in a marriage the act of acquisition is only the beginning and not the end, because that is when all one’s obligations begin — food, clothing, etc. — the same is true in our dealings with the Efronites. Nothing ends with written contracts and agreements. We pay, pay and pay again, and yet they keep demanding more from us.” (Torah Gems on Chaye Sarah, page 182 quoting Rabbi A.M. Amiel) read more

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‘Other Guy’s Sovereignty’ vs Right of National Defense

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His Corrupt Arrogance

There was a time, during modern-day Israel’s first 40 years, when national defense was first and foremost priority. There were the pre-emptive attacks of the Six Day War, Sharon’s Suez crossing of the Yom Kippur War, there was the IAF bombing raid on the Iraqi nuclear reactor.

The opinion article below penned by Shlomo Slonim, the James G. McDonald Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, poses a classic example of how, in the name of distorted Western morality, the sanctity of an aggressor nation’s sovereignty has come to override and place as subserviant the national defense of the aggrieved nation. read more

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