Search Results for: realignment

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Commentary;

Just as Olmert boasted that the summer 2006 Lebanon debacle was a boon for “convergence, realignment, consolidation” or whatever other synonyms he chose on whatever day, Dr. Aaron Lerner’s weekly commentary decries Olmert’s recent Annapolis boasts. Olmert’s latest so-called “peace” efforts “presenting Israeli withdrawals as a gain rather than sacrifice” and his bogus assertions that “Israel has no choice but to accept a final status deal at any price” are part of the regime’s destructo “diplomacy” which only further emboldens the murderous Islamic enemy. MB read more

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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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The Mussaf portion of any prayers; Yom Tov, Rosh Chodesh, Shabbos represent the essence, the main point of that day.

On Yom Kippur, the essence of the service, the ikar is the avodah of the Kohen Godol. So much so is this the case that the Mussaf service centers around the order of the Kohen Godol’s service in the Kodosh Kodoshim (the Holy of Holies in the Beit HaMikdash). The service includes all of the preparations which the Kohen Godol makes prior to the service, the clothing he must wear at each step of the avodah, the number of times that the Kohen must bathe himself prior to each change of clothing and before each step of his service, the drawing of lots determining which goat is for Hashem and which for The Mountain of Azazel (the goat designated by lot to bear the burden of death to rectify B’nai Yisrael’s sins) and more. And by virtue of our being Hashem’s “most favored nation”, The Kohen Godol is to the Jews a paradigm of Hashem’s blueprint of what the Jews are to represent to the other nations of Mankind. read more

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This author spent this past Shabbos with other members of Shul in Hevron. In what has become an annual trip to Hevron, the city of our roots, the place where our Patriarchs; Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov are buried with their wives; Sarah, Rifka and Leah, we endeavor to put ourselves in the proper mindset in advance of the Yom HaDin — Rosh Hashana. Below are some thoughts to contemplate as the Chagim draw closer.