 | HaKol BeSeder – Everything is OK
It has been almost 5 weeks since Yonatan was injured and miraculously saved, and since Daniel was missing in action and now presumed taken captive.
People are constantly asking "How are you doing?" The answer to this lies in this week's parasha. We are told that Avraham is blessed "with everything". How could that be? His wife had tragically died, his son Yitzchak had been through the Akeidah, his other wife and son were banished, he had ongoing challenges. Did Hashem really bless him "with everything"?
The truth is none of us have everything. Can anyone say everything is OK? It is a feeling that in G-d's world you feel that you have everything. Our attitude to life is that everything is OK, even when it's not. | | World Mizrachi and Mizrachi Canada Present a LIVE Global Women's Event: Unity Tefillah & Song
 Tefillot with international representation and hafrashat challah with family members of hostages.  Join women worldwide TODAY, November 9th, Erev Parshat Chayei Sarah | | | Mizrachi Delegation – Day 1
This week's Mizrachi delegation to Israel from the RCA and YU-RIETS commenced with meetings at World Mizrachi's headquarters, paying a shiva call to families of fallen soldiers in Yerushalayim, meeting relatives of the hostages, and visiting an army base.
| | To watch a summary of their first day by Rabbi Brahm Weinberg of Kemp Mill Synagogue - click here. | | | Mizrachi Delegation – Day 2
On the second day, the Mizrachi delegation visited the displaced Yeshiva of Sderot, did bikur cholim with those injured in Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva, heard the story of Kibbutz Yachini from October 7, had a tour of Sderot including the former police station and heard from the mayor, and concluded with an uplifting dinner with soldiers and Rav Rimon.
| | 🗣️ "I think we were expecting over the course of these few days to BRING chizuk, support and strength, and I have RECEIVED much more support and strength from everyone we have seen. Despite the tragedy, the incredible strength, their resilience, their faith, the 'kol yisrael areivim zeh lazeh,' the togetherness, has been so powerful."
To watch Rabbi Kalman Topp of Beth Jacob Congregation give a summary of their second day click here. | | | Mizrachi Delegation – Day 3
On the final day of the delegation to Israel, the group davened Shacharit with the community of Naveh who have been displaced to a hotel in Yerushalayim, then went to Har Herzl and joined the funeral of Rose Lubin hy"d a lone soldier from Atlanta who was killed in Jerusalem this week, they had a moving meeting with Israeli rabbis, visited a warehouse for collecting and distributing supplies, and also met the community members of Kfar Maimon. | | | Look out for more Mizrachi delegations next week! | | 📣 The Youth materials for Parshat Chayei Sarah are now online!
📰 HaMizrachi Parsha Weekly Youth Edition, a Parsha sheet designed for youth
🗞️ Chavruta, a study sheet great for kids or parent-student sessions
🌐 Now Available in Spanish and Portuguese!
👉 To download, print, and register: mizrachi.org/youth | | Thousands of Israeli families cannot return to their homes in the coming months, and you can help them! Do you own an apartment that is currently vacant? 🏠 The World Zionist Organization undertakes responsibility for your apartment for 3️⃣ months, pays the water, electricity and gas bills, insures the apartment and commits to returning it clean and in good condition at the end of the period. If you open your heart and your home 💙 we will furnish it if necessary and make all the necessary arrangements to house families of evacuees from the south and the north. By doing so we will provide them with a home for 3️⃣ months, and we will give them the opportunity to sleep peacefully at night, 🙏 and everything is under the responsibility of the World Zionist Organization. To date, we have housed more than 250 families in homes donated to us by Israelis and Jews worldwide, but hundreds more families are still waiting. For more information and to leave details about apartments that you would like to donate to the "My Home - Your Home" project, please visit https://tinyurl.com/emyhomeisyourhome Or send an email to arielc@wzo.org.il Please share 💪 🇮🇱 Together we will win this war! | | This week, Dr. Erica Brown had a fascinating conversation with World Mizrachi Executive Chairman Rabbi Doron Perez entitled "Stronger Together: The War in Israel and the Triumph of Life".
To watch, click here. | | 🤩 OVER 2,000 LETTERS AND VIDEOS!
🇮🇱 More than 2,000 letters and videos have already been delivered to soldiers and school children from dozens of cities around the world!
🤳 There has been a special request for more videos for school children
Please send to:
📹 Videos - videosforisrael@mizrachi.org
✉️ Letters - lettersforisrael@mizrachi.org
📷 Pictures - picturesforisrael@mizrachi.org | |  Unite with Israel
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 Send a Letter to school children or chayalim
 mizrachi.org/unitewithisrael | | Looking for speakers from Israel? World Mizrachi can connect you with leading speakers on a variety of topics related to the current situation:
 Divrei chizuk
Geopolitical analysis
Views from the Gaza periphery
Torat Eretz Yisrael
 For more information, email jacqui@mizrachi.org | | HaMizrachi Parsha Weekly
The Parshat Chayei Sarah edition of HaMizrachi Parsha Weekly is now available!
You can find it in 2 formats:
1️⃣ Economic Printing (7 double sided pages)
2️⃣ Full Printing (14 double sided pages) | |  | Tzurba Hilchot Shabbat Program has begun!
Weekly shiur by Rabbi Shalom Rosner is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, as well as OU Torah and YU Torah websites.
Tzurba M'Rabanan is a groundbreaking learning program that makes the learning of Halacha clear, relevant and interesting.
To date, the Lax Family Tzurba M'Rabanan English Series consists of 17 volumes, covering around one hundred topics in Halacha.
For more information and to purchase volumes of Tzurba M'Rabanan, go to tzurbaolami.com | | 📖 "The Jewish State" Available to Purchase
Following the book launch at Mizrachi's World Orthodox Israel Congress, "The Jewish State" by Rabbi Doron Perez is available to buy online for delivery to Israel, Australia, Canada, UK, and USA, as well as for collection at the Mizrachi offices in Israel and South Africa.
For some of the approbations, see the flyer above.
To purchase, click here: mizrachi.org/the-jewish-state-order-form | | CHAYEI SARAH
Our Role Models
By Rabbi Danny MIrvis In the middle section of this week's parasha, Avraham orders his trusted servant (who our Sages inform us was Eliezer) to journey and find a suitable wife for Yitzchak. The Torah then describes the story in great detail, as the servant sets out on his journey, holds a discussion with Hashem, witnesses the successful test, presents Rivka with gifts, blesses Hashem and returns with her to her home to finalize the arrangement (Bereishit 24:1–32).
As Eliezer arrives at Rivka's home, we then read the whole story and details of the test again as he retells the events to her family (Bereishit 24:33–49). Why does the Torah include Eliezer's retelling of the story when we have just read the entire narrative in great detail? Many of the Torah's fundamental halachic principles are taught almost incidentally, in great brevity or with hints. Why does this servant's repetition of a story we have just read deserve such attention?
In explanation of this seeming lack of balance, Rabbi Acha taught in the Midrash:
"The chatter of the servants of the forefathers is better before Hashem than the Torah of their children (descendants), for Eliezer's passage is repeated in the Torah, and many of the Torah's fundamentals were only taught with hints" (Bereishit Rabbah 60:8).
Whilst we can understand the observation which led to this conclusion, what is the reasoning behind it?
My Rosh Yeshiva, HaRav Aharon Lichtenstein zt"l, explained that the Torah has two ways of showing us how to behave. The first one is formulated as commandments, expressed through directions of how to behave and how not to. The second is expressed through people, whose deeds, behavior and lifestyles give us direction. Sometimes, the presentation of a living example influences and guides far more successfully than the formulation of direction through commandments.
Rabbi Acha's rule comes to teach us that the example of a living role model, who embodies and represents the letter and spirit of the Torah can be a far more influential educational tool than learning the technical commandments and details alone. If this is true of the servants of our forefathers, how much more so is there to learn from the examples set to us from our forefathers themselves.
Whilst our educational systems place great focus on technical content, how much focus do they place on providing role models who personify Torah and Torah values? Beyond learning the dos and don'ts of Judaism, it is essential that our pupils (whether they be children, students or adults) have exposure to living examples who embody the Torah they teach.
On an individual level, whether we like it or not, we are all educators. Regardless of our individual level of observance, there will always be people who look up to us as representatives of Judaism, whether from inside or outside the faith. In addition to paying attention to our technical performance of Torah, we must ensure that our "chatter," everyday behavior and lifestyles suitably reflect our positions as representatives of Torah and ambassadors of Hashem.
Rabbi Danny Mirvis is Deputy CEO of World Mizrachi, and Rabbi of Ohel Moshe Synagogue in Herzliya Pituach. | | | Besorot Tovot and Shabbat Shalom! | | | | |
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