Israel and The Sin of Expulsion

Shalom Friends;

Our Rosh Hashana 5774 Vort is being sponsored by Avraham and Miriam Deutsch of Efrat who wish Kol Am Yisrael L’Shana Tova! To the Deutsch family, many thanks for your continued kindnesses. Avraham and Miriam, may you know only simcha, success, good health, nachas from your children, and only good things in the year to come and to at least 120 years.

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 be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details. read more

Our Parshat Nitzavim opens with Moshe Rabbeinu addressing the B’nai Yisrael on the final day of his life:

“Atem Nitzavim HaYom… You are standing today, all of you, before Hashem, your G’d…. for you to pass into the convenant of Hashem, …that Hashem… seals with you today in order to establish you as a people to Him and that He be a G’d to you as He spoke to you and as He swore to your forefathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov.” (Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash, Sefer Devarim Perek 29, posukim 9-13) read more

Shalom Friends;

This week, our Parshat HaShevua is being sponsored by Akiva and Esther Rosenbaum of Ramat Beit Shemesh with prayers for a Shidduch for Mordechai Moshe ben Esther. To the Rosenbaum family, many thanks for your sponsorship and for your continued kindnesses.

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 be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details. read more

Shalom Friends;

This week, our Parshat HaShevua is being sponsored by Matis and Marla Sklar of Ramat Beit Shemesh. To the Sklar family, many thanks for your sponsorship and continued kindnesses.

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

Shalom Friends;

This week, our Parshat HaShevua is being sponsored by Dr. Ari and Rivka Stern of Ramat Beit Shemesh in honor of the Bar Mitzvah of their son Chaim Tzvi. To the Stern family, many thanks for your sponsorship and continued kindnesses.

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

This video was made at the Beit Knesset Beit Tefillah Yona Avraham 8th annual Yarchei Kallah learrning in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel and 1st annual Cook-off of the bunks of Camp Landau High. It is a parody on Yahoo’s Blue Ribbon Hunter.

Moshe Burt, aka
DJ Accountant of Funk

This vort is deemed by this author as worthy of repeating with some embellishments. According to Rashi, Moshe Rabbeinu begins our Parshat R’ei by informing the B’nei Yisrael about the Brachot (blessings) and Klalot (curses) to be pronounced to them from Mount Gerizim and Mount Eval upon their entry to Eretz Yisrael.

Moshe Rabbeinu continues his mussar saying:

“Behold, I set before you … a blessing and a curse; the blessing if you heed the commandments of Hashem, and the curse, if you will not observe his commandments. (Sefer Devarim, Perek 11, posukim 26-27) read more

Sefer Shem Mishmuel (by R’ Shmuel Bornstein, as translated by R’ Zvi Belovski, pages 386-387) renders translation of the opening posuk of Parsha Eikev:

“And it shall come to pass, if you listen to these mishpatim (ordinances) and you guard them and do them, that Hashem Ke’ilokecha will guard the convenant for you and the kindness which He swore to your forefathers.” (Sefer Devarim Perek 7, posuk 12)

Bearing this in mind, the Stone Chumash (Parshat Eikev pages 980-981) equates Eikev: read more

Shalom Friends;

This week, our Parshat HaShevua is being sponsored by David and Julie Morris of Ramat Beit Shemesh in honor of the upcoming
Chassuna of their son Shimshon Raphael to Avia Tzairi from Givat Shmuel. To the Morris family, many thanks for your sponsorship and continued kindnesses.

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

A number of years ago, Rav Aba Wagensberg spoke out in a shiur that Sefer Devarim represents Moshe Rabbeinu’s Mussar to B’nai Yisrael as the time of his death drew near.

Shem Mishmuel (Selections on the weekly parshiyot and festivals rendered to English by Rabbi Zvi Belovski) writes (page 373):

This book is qualitatively different from the other four. Chazal tell us (in Megillah, page 31b) that the curses in Sefer Devarim were said by Moshe himself. We may assume… that the material in Devarim, while of course presented by Hashem to Moshe, contains more human input, however slight, than the previous four books. Perhaps it can be considered an in-between stage, bridging the gap between the main Written Torah… and the Oral Torah. Devarim contains elements of both — it is the written word of Hashem…, but with an element of human content, like [oral] Torah. read more