May 16, 2015 27 Iyar, 5775
Omer Count: Day 42
Friday Night Mincha: 6:30 PM
Shabbat Candle Lighting 7:51PM
Morning Services: 9:00 AM
Shabbat Mincha & Mussar – 7:40 PM
Shabbat ends: 8:51PM
Shul Announcements
Behar - Bechukotai
Page 696 (Torah)
Page 1179 (Haftarah)
Shabbat Chazak – for the last Torah reading of Vayikrah
Shabbat Mevarchim for Sivan
Rosh Chodesh Sivan Tuesday May 19
Yom Yerushalayim
Sunday May 17
May Birthdays & Anniversaries
 May Birthdays: Aaron Chevinsky (2nd), Marisa
Kwoczka (2nd), Hank London (2nd), Sharon Smith
(2nd), Javid Hakakian (5th), Ariel Scheer (5th),
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Jonathan Bravman (6th), Debra Turitz (6 ), Paul
th
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Manis (7 ), Carl Rosen (8th), Pamela Gelbert (9 ),
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Samantha Messer (9 ), Steve Levy (10th), Beena
Levy (11th), Rich Rosenberg (11th), Bryce Zwickel
th
th
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(11 ), Heather Cohen (12 ), Judith Heistein (12 ),
th
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Deborah Goldwasser (15 ), Tamar Winters (15 ),
th
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Etti Zeldis (16 ), Paula Antin (17 ), Elana Winters
th
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(17 ), Jason Cohen (12 ), Henry Goldwasser
th
th
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(18 ), Sherry Pollack (18 ), Debby Brafman (20 ),
th
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Emily Hanrahan (20 ), Jeremy Weiss (20 ),
th
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Allyssa Gresser (26 ), Justin Shulman (26 ), Ryan
th
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Winter (26 ), Oritte Bendory (28 ), Rachel Brandtth
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Greenfeld (28 ), Sarah Dabah (28 ), Louise
th
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Levine (28 ), Yonaton Tammam (28 ), Shayna
th
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Chevinsky (29 ), Daniel Spielman (29 ), Daniel
th
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Geary (30 ), Andrew Hanrahan ( 30 ), Aaron
st
st
Nessel (31 ), Zachary Nessel (31 ), Ron
st
Rubenstein (31 ).
 May Anniversaries: Richard & Fawn Zwickel
th
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(17 ), Jeff & Mimi Czeisler (20 ), Joel & Marla
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Katz (25 ), Alan & Jennifer Gellerstein (26 ),
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Barry Ginsberg & Lauren Cooper (28 ), Stuart &
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Carol Kerievsky (28 ), Rav Menashe & Donna
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East (29 ).
MFJC INFO ~ www.mtfjc.org
Address: 1209 Sussex Tpk., Randolph 07869
Phone Numbers: Office: 973 895 2100
Rabbi: 973 895 2103; Rabbi’s Cell: 201 923 1107
Rabbi’s Office Hours: Mornings: Tues - Fri, 9-1PM;
afternoons/evenings: 3-6PM; or anytime by appt
Menashe East [email protected]
Office Hours: M-Th, 10- 5PM; F, 10-4PM
David Paris [email protected]
This Week:
May 16: Shabbat Chazak & Shabbat Mevarchim for
Sivan
May 16: Brucha Haba’ah to our friend from Ofakim
May 16: Yom Yerushalayim Melavah Malka, Cancelled
May 17: Celebratory Yom Yerushalayim Tefillah, 8AM
May 17: Talmud Study, 9AM
May 19: Rosh Chodesh Sivan; Minyan @
GRTWA,820AM
May 19: Last Day of Hebrew School; Enjoy Summer!!!
May 21: Thursday Torah, Cancelled
May 21: MFJC Sisterhood Flower Power for Shavuos
– Synagogue Beautification – 7:30PM
Upcoming Events:
May 23: Shavuot – sign up to teach a class for our late-night
learning.
This year’s learning will be in honor of Rabbi Aharon
Lichtenstein, zt’l. RSVP for a shul-made dinner;
$20/person
May 25: Yizkor & Megillat Ruth – readers sign up…
May 25: Memorial Day – We Remember the Brave US Soldiers
May 26: NY Mets Israel Appreciation night, 710PM
May 31: Israel Day Parade, join the MFJC Banner, Details tba
(RSVP to the shul office to join the GRTWA bus)
June 2: Interfaith Holocaust Memorial, MFJC, 730PM
June 6: Irene Billinson Bat Mitzvah!
June 7: Springtime Synagogue Spruce Up, 900AM
June 8: Annual General Meeting, 8PM
June 13: Graduation Kiddush – Celebrate our Grads and
Sponsor the Kiddush!!!
June 17-18: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
June 21: Father’s Day
Flower Power
For
Shavuos
Sisterhood is calling all Women
to Help Decorate
the Sanctuary
Baum Hall- Wednesday May 20 7:30pm
th
BYOV - bring your own vase for leftover flowers
RSVP –Audrey Silverberg
[email protected]
Celebrate Shavuot with Mt. Freedom Jewish Center
Festive Holiday Meal, All Night Study, Games for kids, Ice Cream
and more!
May 23rd, 24th & 25th
@ 1209 Sussex Turnpike
Randolph, NJ
Come for a Shul cooked Shavuot dinner, May 23rd
$20pp and $15 for kids under 13. BYOB!
Saturday, May 23rd
8:30 PM Evening Services
8:58 Candle Lighting
9:00 PM Shul Cooked Dairy Dinner -- BYOB
10:00 PM Let the Studying Begin!
1st Session: Rabbi East leads the opening discussion
Followed by a variety of classes led by Congregants – sign up today!!!
Treats all night long to feed your body while you nourish your soul!
This year’s Learning will be in honor of Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein!
Sunday, May 24th
4:00 AM Early Morning Services
9:00 AM Regular Morning Services
11:00 AM Jewpardy & Ice Cream Party
7:00 PM Afternoon/Evening Services
8:59 PM Candle Lighting
Monday, May 25th
9:00 AM Morning Services
10:30 AM Youth Aliyah @ Sinai/Bima
11:00 AM YIZKOR
11:30 AM Reading of Ruth
5:00 PM Women’s Discussion of Ruth
hosted by Donna East, 1 Nuko Terr
8:00 PM Afternoon Services
9:00 PM Yom Tov ends
Springtime Shul Spruce Up
Sunday, June 7th, 9AM
Everyone is invited to Help Clean the
Grounds of the House of God!!!
***Get in on the Mitzvah***
Bagels & Garbage Bags will be Served
Graduation is Coming!
Celebrate with your friends at MJFC with a
special
Graduation Kiddush
in your graduate’s honor!
Do you have a child or family member
graduating from Nursery, Elementary,
Middle or High School?
Or from College or Graduate School
or any special Graduation??
Be a part of this Special Kiddush on
Shabbat, June 13th
Let us know if you would like to participate by contacting the
Shul office. Cost is $54 per family. Please send in a photo of
your Graduate with your response.
Caregiver Support Group
Are you caring for a loved with Alzheimer’s or
Related Dementia Disease?
This group will offer:
 Emotional and educational support
 An opportunity to network with other caregivers
DATES:
Last Thursday of the month - May 28, June 25, July 30,
August 27, September 24
TIME:
1:00 – 2:00 pm
LOCATION:
Mt. Freedom Jewish Center
1209 Sussex Turnpike, Randolph, NJ
For more information about the Caregiver Support Group,
please call 973-765-9050
There is no charge for this program.
This group will be co-facilitated by:
Alyson Kaplan, LSW & Alexandra Nagy, LSW, Jewish Family Service of MetroWest
WEEKLY PARSHA
By Rabbi Dov Linzer, Rosh HaYeshiva and Dean
of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Parshat Behar-Bechukotai
|
May 15, 2015 / 27 Iyar 5775
A Relationship Strained, Not Broken
We finish our reading of Vayikra this week with the "blessings and the curses": the rewards for keeping
the laws and commandments and the punishments for breaking them. This section, coming as it does at
the end of Vayikra, is clearly intended as a coda to what preceded it. Namely, it is the penalty clause of
the brit at Mount Sinai. Thus, our parasha opens and closes with the framing of Mount Sinai (Vayikra,
25:1, 26:46, 27:34).
Contracts generally begin with the terms of the agreement, the responsibilities of one party to the other.
These were spelled out clearly in Shemot with the Ten Commandments and all the laws in Mishpatim.
The mitzvot and the laws, all the "dos and don'ts," are the way in which the relationship is translated in
practical, day-to-day terms. After the terms of the contract are laid out, a penalty clause often follows.
This is the blessings and, more significantly, the curses that we find in Bechukotai. This, then, is the
natural culmination of the britat Sinai. But if this is so, why does this only come at the end of Vayikra?
Why did it not close Parashat Mishpatim?
The best explanation is that a profound rupture occurred between Parshat Mishpatim and Sefer Vayikra:
the Sin of the Golden Calf. Until that sin, the Torah could hope that the covenant itself would suffice; not
every contract needs a penalty clause. While violating the terms of a contract will have its consequences,
these need not be spelled out in the actual agreement. God could have reasonably hoped that the
descendants of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, those who first had this britwith God, would be
committed to the britfor its own sake. God could have reasonably hoped that a people whom God had
just freed from bondage would understand the meaning of their covenant. But, as we know, the people
failed God, violating the covenant at the first opportunity and compromising the very relationship.
God realizes that this is a stiff-necked people. God, as it were, realizes that this is a people that needs
the positive and negative reinforcement of the blessings and the curses, a penalty clause to keep them
committed to the terms of the contract. But the shift in the relationship is more profound than that. It is
clear that, after the Golden Calf, the relationship can survive even times of violation and profound strain.
As parents know well, we can wish that our children will do what is right because it is right, but human
nature being what it is, punishment (however labeled) is a necessary form of parenting. And punishment
is just that: a form of parenting. It is an expression of love and concern, of commitment to the
relationship. If we did not care, we would not punish. And if the relationship could not survive
disobedience and misbehavior, if a parent would, God forbid, walk away from a troublesome child, then
punishment would be unnecessary.
God's initial high expectations of us also meant that when we failed God, God was ready to give up on
us. God was prepared to drop us and walk away from the relationship: "And now, leave me, and My
anger will kindle against them and I will destroy them, and I will make you-Moshe-into a great
nation" (Shemot, 32:10). Even when God relents, agreeing not to destroy the people and to stay in the
relationship, God does not want to get too close. God is looking for a long-distance relationship: "And I
will send an angel before you....for I cannot go up in your midst, because you are a stiff-necked people,
lest I destroy you on the way" (33:3). It is only after Moshe's importuning that God again agrees to
resume the relationship as before: "And God said, my Presence will go [among you] and I will give you
rest" (33:14). God renews the covenant in Shemot (34:11-26), but God only appends the penalty clause
in Parashat Bechukotai.
The renewal of the covenant, the reaffirming of the relationship, is the turning point. This is the moment
that God declares that God will not give up on the relationship, that God will keep God's Presence among
us even when we violate the covenant. God will not walk out on us. But how is our imperfect humanitythe fact that we will fail God, that we will not always live up to the agreement-dealt with in the renewed
covenant? Through the blessings and curses. God will deal with our misbehavior by parenting us when
we need it. God accepts that we are less than perfect. God accounts for this by giving us positive and
negative reinforcement, and God is prepared to deal with our transgressions and failures and to remain
committed to the relationship.
Why, then, the gap between the reaffirmation of the covenant and our parasha? How does the entirety of
Sefer Vayikra factor into this structure? The answer lies in the fact that good, caring parenting is about
more than rewards and punishments. Good parenting also means providing a good education, and it
means setting up systems to reinforce learning and cultivate growth and success. Vayikra is devoted to
setting up these systems: the system of kedusha, holiness, in the Temple and, as we saw last week, the
parallel and reinforcing system of kedusha in the camp. Theseare designed to reorient our lives and our
society so that we will be focused on God, allowing us to truly abide by the covenant.
Sometimes, however, even these systems are threatened. But God, committed to the relationship, has
given us ways to protect and, if necessary, restore them. When the sins of the nation threatened the
sanctity of the Temple, God gave us the rites of Yom Kippur to cleanse the Temple of its impurity. God
made this possible when, after the Golden Calf, God agreed that the Temple will "dwell amongst them,
[even] together with their impurity" (Vayikra, 16:16). The Temple can survive the tumah of the nation.
In contrast, the situation is much more severe when the kedushaof the camp is threatened. Here we are
no longer talking about ritual sins and ritual tumah; here we are talking about true corruption of society, a
profound leaving of God and God's ways. And this becomes intolerable when what is threatened is the
very system of kedusha, the Sabbatical Year and its profound restructuring of society as one with God at
its center.
For this, no ritual, no Temple rites, can provide a solution. The punishments can hopefully serve their
purpose and turn the people back to the right path, but when they fail to do so, the only solution is to
remove the people from the place of kedusha. The solution is exile. The cleansing of the land, in contrast
to that of the Temple, requires removing the people from the land and allowing the land to "rest its
Shabbats [Seventh Years]....which it did not rest when you were dwelling on it" (Vayikra, 26:3435). Through the lessons of exile, the people will hopefully learn the profound nature of their sin, allowing
them to return to the land and once again attempt to live on it with full respect for the structures of
kedusha, the systems central to living and maintaining the brit.
When the supporting systems of the brit are violated, whether in the sanctity of the Temple or the
Sabbatical Years of the camp, the relationship will still survive. This has been God's commitment to the
Jewish people since the Sin of the Golden Calf. God is with us through thick and thin. Even at times
when we could no longer live on God's land, when we failed to build a nation on the principles of
kedusha, God remained-and God remains-committed to us. "And even with all of this-when they are in
the land of their enemies, I have not despised them or rejected them, to destroy them, to nullify my
covenant with them, because I am the Lord their God." We have come a long way from the Sin of the
Calf, and our relationship has survived moments of severe strain. And even though a drastic response
may at times be necessary, it will survive because the covenant is forever, because God will always
remain our God, committed to an unbreakable relationship with the Jewish people.
Shabbat Shalom!
Shabbat Shalom
Parshat Behar (Leviticus 25:1 – 26:2)
Efrat, Israel – “And you shall count for yourselves seven cycles of Sabbatical years , seven years, seven times… fortynine years… you shall sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom throughout the land for all its inhabitants; it
shall be the Jubilee year for you.” (Leviticus 25:8-10)
This commandment to count seven cycles of Sabbatical years leading up to the 50th Jubilee year of proclaiming freedom
throughout the land, is clearly reminiscent of the biblical commands we read last week (Parshat Emor): “Count for yourselves
[from the day of your bringing the barley ‘omer wave offering] seven complete weeks… you shall count fifty days…” from
the day after our exodus from Egypt until the Festival of the first fruits (bikkurim), the festival commemorating the Revelation
of God’s Torah at Sinai (Lev. 23:15-17).
What is the significance of this striking parallelism between the counting of the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot
and the counting of the seven sabbatical years leading up to the Jubilee year? What is the true message behind the daily count
of sefirat ha’omer, the period which we are currently marking?
There are three words which express the concept of freedom: hofesh, dror and herut. Hofesh appears in the Book of Exodus
(21:2) in the context of the Hebrew slave leaving the homestead of his owner; at the end of his sixth year of employ he
becomes (hofshi hinam), “completely free,” without any obligation whatsoever to his former master.
The second word, dror, has just been cited in our present reading of Behar, in which “freedom” (dror) is to be proclaimed
throughout the land on the advent of the Jubilee year.
But the Festival of Passover, which celebrates our exodus from Egyptian servitude, is referred to by our Sages as zman
herutenu, the time of our herut – a non-biblical word with Aramaic roots that connotes freedom. Why do our Sages pass over
the two biblical Hebrew words hofesh and dror in describing our Festival of Freedom in favor of herut?
In his illuminating study Escape from Freedom, the philosopher and political theorist Erich Fromm (1900-1980) distinguishes
between freedom from something and freedom forsomething. The former—the mere ridding oneself of duties and
obligations—will, at best, produce a monotonous existence of boredom, aimlessness, and sometimes even depression; at worst,
it will lead to alcohol and drug addiction, wild licentiousness and even criminal acts of depravity. Many societies would rather
succumb to a totalitarian regime of enslavement rather than risk the challenges of the responsibility of freedom.
It is from this vantage point that Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), author of From Death-Camp to Existentialism and founder of the
branch of psychoanalysis which he calls “logotherapy,” insists that the most essential human drive is not a search for pleasure,
as Freud would maintain, or a search for power, as Adler and Jung suggest. Rather, it is the search for meaning, the human
need to carve out a life of significance and worthwhile purpose. Freedom from enslavement must be linked indelibly with the
belief of the individual that he/she is empowered to forge for him/herself a life dedicated to an important goal and purpose.
Hence, our Bible begins with the creation of the world, positing that every human being is created “in the image of God,” with
a portion of the Lord on High within the very essence of his/her being,” so that he/she becomes commanded (and thereby
empowered) to “develop the earth and preserve it,” to “perfect the imperfect world in the Kingship of the Divine” (Gen. 1:27;
2:7, 15 and the Aleinu prayer).
By reliving God’s primordial week of creation during our human weekly cycle of “working the world” for six days and resting
in God’s presence on the seventh, we hopefully rekindle our task to perfect the world as God’s partners every single week!
And hofesh is our freedom of choice not to do whatever we wish but rather to choose good over evil, God over Satan, creation
over destruction.
Hence the word dror is used to express the period of human perfection, redemption (ge’ula), described in our Jubilee year,
when all slaves will be freed, when everyone’s land will provide sufficient produce for all, when all debts will be rescinded,
when everyone will be returned to their ancestral homestead, when all the needy of the world will be sustained by their
communities. Dror is the purpose for which Israel and humanity was created; the society and world which Israel and humanity
must recreate.
Our Sages refer to the time of our liberation from Egyptian enslavement as herut, which derives from the Hebrew ahrayut,
responsibility: the responsibility of freedom for, the responsibility of accepting the formidable task of partnership with the
Divine, the responsibility of protecting our brothers (ahim), the responsibility of protecting every stranger (aher) who is also
our brother under God, the responsibility of going first and saying “aharai” (after me), and the responsibility of bringing the
world to its aharit hayamim, the final stage of redemption, the Messianic Age.
And so, as soon as we became free, we started to count; only for a free person does every day count, only for a free person is
every day fraught with infinite possibilities of productivity and meaning. We count until we receive our Torah, which is our
blueprint for the creation of a perfected world.
Shabbat Shalom
Shabbat Shalom
Parshat Bechukotai (Leviticus 26:3 – 27:34)
Efrat, Israel – “And I shall remember My Covenant with Jacob and also My Covenant with Isaac and also My
Covenant with Abraham shall I remember, and the Land shall I remember…. But despite all this, when they are in the
land of their enemies, I shall neither hate them nor despise them to destroy them, to abrogate My Covenant with them,
for I am the Lord their God” (Leviticus 26:42-44).
Our Torah never promised us a rose garden; the sacred Scriptures mince no words in describing the excruciating persecutions
and punishments which will pursue us if – or rather, when – we fail to heed its exhortations, as we see in this week’s reading.
We can only identify with Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye the dairyman, who, when confronted with the order of expulsion of the
Jews from the town of Anatevka, looks heavenwards and cynically decries, “I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in
a while, can’t You choose someone else?”
And to add insult to injury, in addition to this chapter of curses (tochehot) in Leviticus, there is an additional and much longer
litany of imprecations in Deuteronomy (chapter 28, verses 15-68). Moreover, whereas the Leviticus tocheha provides a silver
lining to the cloud guaranteeing that God will remember His Patriarchal Covenants as well as His patrimonial land and will
never completely destroy us as a people by abrogating His Covenant with us, such a “happy ending” does not appear in the
Deuteronomy tocheha.
Why two chapters of such horrific imprecations and why is our Leviticus chapter mitigated by a promise of Divine
remembrance and redemption while the Deuteronomy chapter has no such respite?
The great biblical commentator Nahmanides (1194 – 1270) suggests that the first set of curses refers to the destruction of the
First Temple and its aftermath of Babylonian captivity (685 to 516 BCE), whereas the second set of curses refers to the
destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE) and the subsequent scattering of the Jewish Exile throughout the world.
My revered teacher and mentor Rav J.B. Soloveitchik explains that the first destruction led to a forced exile to Babylon for
only 50 years in duration, with the restoration of the Second Temple in Jerusalem barely 20 years later.
No wonder the Bible mentions God’s remembrance of the Covenant and His refusal to completely destroy His nation within
the very context of the first destruction. Rabbi Soloveitchik goes on to say that the second destruction in Deuteronomy also has
a promise of restoration, but it comes two chapters after the tocheha with an extremely important rider attached to it:
“It will be when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse that I have presented before you, that you shall
return to your heart from amongst all of the nations to which the Lord your God has scattered you” (Deut. 30:1).
The restoration after the second destruction is dependent upon Israel’s repentance!
The first destruction was at an early juncture of Jewish history when we were still enamored with idolatry and before we had
really developed our oral law. God was still taking responsibility for us, almost like He took responsibility for us in taking us
out of the Egyptian exile. Here too, God remembers His Covenant, and God guarantees that He will step into history to ensure
that we will never be destroyed as a people.
After the second destruction, however, God expects much more from us, His partners in history. He will not effectuate our
return single-handedly; He expects us to be the initiators. He expects us to return first to the Land of Israel from our many
lands of dispersion and then to the Torah of Israel (Deuteronomy 30:1–3). Once we initiate our own purification, then the
Almighty will complete the process.
This second restoration will be much longer in the coming than the first was, and so it is in Deuteronomy. It comes two
chapters after the imprecations. It assumes that we will take a leadership position among the nations, “exalted above all the
nations in fame, in renown and in glory… a holy people to the Lord…” (Deuteronomy 26:19) to bring the entire nation to
repentance in the realization of one God of peace, compassionate morality and justice. This Covenant will then include the
entire nation, “Those standing with us before the Lord our God and those not with us this day before the Lord our God.”
This third Covenant also written on stones from the Jordan River with words of universal morality speaking to the generic
human being (ish, rather than ivri or yehudi) and translated into the 70 languages of the proverbial 70 nations.
Hence this covenant will enable all of the wicked of the earth to return to God, to accept the yoke of the Heavenly Kingship
and to perfect the world in the Kingship of the Divine (Alenu Prayer). We anxiously await the fulfillment of this Covenant, the
beginning of which we are experiencing today in Israel reborn!
Shabbat Shalom
Minors and Majors
The opening of this week’s double portion, Behar-Bechukotai, deals with the mitzvah of
Shmitah. Every 7th year, the land in Israel must remain fallow; it cannot be worked or
seeded. This is a mitzvah that modern day Israel experiences, actively. Even today, the
Sabbatical cycle is enforced and, every 7th year, the land of Israel faces the challenge of
sustaining its growing population. All this is interesting, but the question posed by Rashi is
a more fundamentally relevant problem: What is the relevance of teaching about the
Sabbatical year at the foot of Sinai? All the laws in the Torah are taught in Sinai.(See Rashi,
Leviticus 25:1)
One way to read Rashi’s question reminds the reader of the nagging question in our hearts;
the question we often ask ourselves or others when we face a confounding idea in our
faith: What sense is there in such a mitzvah? Or, Why would our tradition encourage such a
thing? Or, isn’t the Torah anachronistic? So, we wonder, why is the mitzvah of the
Sabbatical year being presented to the Jewish people while they sit in the barren Sinai
desert?
To this skeptical attitude, the Rashi answers that when the mitzvah of Sabbatical year was
taught every detail, every nuance and every law attached to the mitzvah of the 7th year was
directly tied to Sinai. This is the answer we must fire back at the cynical, skeptical,
sometimes, scoffing voice in our heads – it all goes back to Sinai. Every detail and every
mitzvah and every law emerge from the energetic core of Sinai.
In the opening statement to his followers in his book of commands, the Baal Shem Tov, the
Besh’t, founder of the Hasidic movement, teaches the words from the Mishna in Avot: Be
diligent, Zahir, with an easy mitzvah as though it were a severe mitzvah. This would be an
important message to his fledgling movement. The Hasidic community was formed in a
reaction to the elite talmudists. For the average Jew, the realm of the spiritual life was
unknown. Literacy levels were low and if you couldn’t read you couldn’t –meaningfully participate in Jewish communal life. (Tzavaat Harivash, Opening words)
The Besh’t came along and said the opposite – even an insignificant mitzvah can have great
meaning. And taking it further, Zahir, diligence, can also mean illuminate (The book of
light is called the Zohar). Thus, a minor mitzvah can illuminate a person’s soul like a major
mitzvah. In this radical shift, the gravity of the social moved from the select few to the
average Jew.
What is the 7th year doing at Sinai?! No, it all goes back to Sinai. It all has the potential
transformative power that we felt at Sinai. Don’t denigrate and don’t mock. That attitude is
a plague on the Jewish soul. Too often we try to outsmart the system, when really we are
deflating the Jewish spirit. Rather, maybe these minor details strike a deep truth; if only we
would treat the minor mitzvah like a major mitzvah, we might find great light there. If only
we would treat minor people like major people, we might find great light there. If only we
would treat, minor moments like major moments, we might find great light there.
Shabbat Shalom Umevorach and Yom Yerushalayim Sameach; we celebrate the reunification
of the Jerusalem,
Rabbi Menashe East