Thursday, March 19, 2015
[Aneinu] PLEASE DAVEN FOR CHAIM YECHIEL BEN MALKA
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
[Aneinu] Tehillim Link for Injured Bochur
HAGGADAH PICK NUMBER 6 Seder Talk: The Conversational Haggada By: Erica Brown
For award-winning author and educator Dr. Erica Brown, one should approach the Passover Seder with imagination as well as intellect. The Seder’s grab-bag of esoteric rabbinic texts, prayers, symbolic foods, and strange farm-animal songs opens the door for commentary and conversation, inviting us to make the exodus story truly our own.
SEDER TALK: THE CONVERSATIONAL HAGGADA features two books in one: an erudite, sensitive commentary on the Haggada text with conversation trigger points, and eight short essays for each day of the holiday. In her signature educational style, Dr. Brown includes art and poetry to engage the reader in the sensory emotions of Seder night in addition to thought-provoking questions and life-homework exercises for greater mindfulness, intention, and inner freedom. SEDER TALK introduces ideas from the Vilna Gaon, Stephen King, Rav Kook, the Hassidic Sfat Emet , the Harvard Business Review, and more, creating a springboard for fascinating conversation for all ages.(From Koren)You can either order this directly from Koren or your local bookstore.In Chicago that would be Rosenblooms.
[Aneinu] Please Daven - Surgery Now
[Aneinu] Audio: Pesach in Halacha - Rabbi Shmuel Fuerst
OU TORAH ONE+ONE Yitzchak By Rabbi Jack Abramowitz
Many have the practice to recite, in the prayer following Shemoneh Esrei, a verse that starts and ends with the same letter as their name, or that contains their name, or both. This is considered a source of merit. In this series, we will briefly analyze these verses.
יוֹצִיאֵם מֵחֹשֶׁךְ וְצַלְמָוֶת וּמוֹסְרוֹתֵיהֶם יְנַתֵּק
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their shackles apart. – Psalms 107:14
This is the verse for the name “Yitzchak.” This verse refers back to verse 10. There, the Metzudas David explains that “the shadow of death” means the threat of death and “darkness” means the impending darkness of the grave. Taking us “out of darkness” is therefore a metaphor meaning to save our lives.
THE BAIS HAVAAD HALACHA JOURNAL: Volume 5775 Issue XXII Vayakhel-Pekudei Married Women and Tzedaka May a Woman Donate Her Husband's Money to Tzedaka? by Rabbi Yitzchak Basser
In this week's Parshah the Torah relates that when the women brought donations for the construction of the Mishkan, their husbands came with them. The Sifsei Chachamim (35:22, quoting the Nachlas Yaakov) explains that since according to the Halacha, married women may not give donations to Tzedaka without their husbands' permission, it was necessary for the husbands to accompany the women who brought donations, to confirm that they were aware of the gifts and had given their consent.
This week's Journal will explore some details of the Halacha that forbids collecting charity from married women without their husbands' consent.
THE BAIS HAVAAD HALACHA JOURNAL: Volume 5775 Issue XXII Vayakhel-Pekudei The Burden of Tuition ByRabbi Daniel Dombroff
Costs of living in the frum community are rising every year. Along with regular expenses, the cost of yeshiva tuition is also an increasing financial burden. Many schools are likewise struggling with financial problems, and are having difficulty making ends meet. How can they pay their teachers when the parents do not pay tuition fees?
NAALEH.COM YU TORAH Parshiyot Vayakhel and Pekudai 5775 Inspired Intentions By: Mrs. Shira Smiles
Parshat Pekudie includes a review of many of the components of the Mishkan as they were being completed. When all is ready, the people try to erect the Mishkan but are unsuccessful. Then the Torah states: “They brought the Tabernacle to Moshe, the tent and all its utensils: its hooks, its planks … the cover … the partition curtain … the Ark of Testimony …” The question our Commentators asks is that it appears from the list that Bnei Yisroel brought all the components of the Mishkan to Moshe, yet the verse seems to begin by saying that they brought the completed Tabernacle (Mishkan) to Moshe. If they brought all the separate parts to Moshe, as Ramban understands it, why does the Torah say they brought the Tabernacle, seemingly already built, especially since the Torah later states that the Mishkan was erected, in the passive voice, having miraculously built itself, as Rashi understands it?
Click here for Summary by Channie Koplowitz Stein.
OU TORAH PEKUDEI 5775 Integrity in Public Life By Britain's Former Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
There is a verse so familiar that we don’t often stop to reflect on what it means. It is the line from the first paragraph of the Shema: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your me’od.” That last word is usually translated as “strength” or “might.” But Rashi, following the Midrash and Targum translates it as “with all your wealth.”
If so, the verse seems unintelligible, at least in the order in which it is written. “With all your soul” was understood by the sages to mean, “with your life” if need be. There are times, thankfully very rare indeed, when we are commanded to give up life itself rather than commit a sin or a crime. If that is the case then it should go without saying that we should love God with all our wealth, meaning, even if it demands great financial sacrifice. Yet Rashi and the sages say that this phrase applies to those “to whom wealth means more than life itself.”
OU TORAH VAYAKEL 5775 The Spirit of Community By Britain's Former Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
What do you do when your people has just made a golden calf, run riot and lost its sense of ethical and spiritual direction? How do you restore moral order – not just then in the days of Moses, but even now? The answer lies in the first word of today’s parsha: Vayakhel. But to understand it we have to retrace two journeys that were among the most fateful in the modern world.
RABBI WEIN ON VAYAKHEL – PEKUDEI 5775
The main lesson of this week's Torah reading, which may possibly be obscured by the wealth of Mishkan detail that appears in these closing chapters of the book of Shemot,, is the basic Jewish concept of accountability. Moshe accounts for all of the work that was done in the construction of the Mishkan/tabernacle and for every shekel that was expended in that project
RABBI WEIN ON IMPUDENCE AND IMPOTENCE
It has been a strange and difficult winter weather-wise both in the United States and here in Israel. Jerusalem has absorbed two major snowstorms and the country as a whole felt bitter cold and even snow in areas of our land that are certainly not accustomed to such happenings. The United States has been in the grip of an Arctic polar vortex that has made snow and cold very unpopular words over most of the country.
RAV KOOK ON VAYAKHEIL Part 3 The Dual Nature of the Tabernacle
An obvious question strikes anyone reading the portions of Vayakheil and Pekudei. Why did the Torah need to repeat all of the details of how the Tabernacle was built? All of these matters were already described at great length in Terumah and Tetzaveh, which record God's command to build the Mishkan.
RAV KOOK ON VAYAKHEIL Part 2 Art and Creation
"Moses informed the Israelites: God has selected Betzalel... and has filled him with a Divine spirit of wisdom, insight, and knowledge in all craftsmanship." (Ex. 36:30-31)
What exactly were these three gifts of wisdom, insight, and knowledge that God bestowed upon Betzalel? The Sages wrote that the master craftsman was privy to the very secrets of creation. Betzalel knew how to 'combine the letters with which the heavens and the earth were created,' and utilized this esoteric knowledge to construct the Tabernacle (Berachot 55a).
[Aneinu] Please Daven - Surgery Now
THE BAIS HAVAAD HALACHA JOURNAL: Volume 5775 Issue XXI Parshas Ki Sisa Financial Negotiations in Halachah The First Question Every Jew is Asked Before The Heavenly Court by Rabbi Yehonoson Dovid Hool
In this week’s parsha we read about the episode of the eigel hazahav, the sin of the Golden Calf, during which Aharon led the Jews to make a Golden Calf that was used by many for idol worship. The Gemara (Maseches Sanhedrin 7a) gives an explanation for Aharon's behavior, in that Aharon saw that Chur was killed for having tried to prevent the people from constructing the Golden Calf and therefore he capitulated and allowed them to build it. Aharon was concerned that if they would kill him too, the sin would be so great that even repentance wouldn’t suffice to atone for such a sin. This is because Aharon was both a prophet and a kohen gadol, and as the verse in Megillas Eichah (2:20) teaches, the compounded sin of killing one who is both a Kohen Gadol and a prophet is almost insurmountable. He therefore allowed himself to build the golden calf, because at least they would be able to later repent for their sin.
THE BAIS HAVAAD HALACHA JOURNAL: Volume 5775 Issue XXI Parshas Ki Sisa Obama Attacks Financial Advisers Putting Your Client’s Interests First by Rabbi Yitzchak Grossman
President Obama has recently proposed raising the legal standard to which financial brokers are held. Currently, it is sufficient that their recommendations be “suitable” for their clients; the new, higher standard of “fiduciary responsibility” would require them to put their clients' interest before their own:
"It's a very simple principle: You want to give financial advice, you’ve got to put your client’s interests first. You can't have a conflict of interest."1
In this article we explore some of the halachic considerations that govern the provision of financial advice, particularly in the context of conflicts of interest.
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