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IN THIS ISSUE: - To donate
- Torat Imecha Parsha
- ALIT Virtual Summer Beit Midrash
- From the four corners of the earth
- NEW: INTRODUCTION TO SEFER MISHLEI
- NEW: TORAT IMECHA TEHILLIM SIYUM RECORDING
- NEW: 3 Weeks Ideas and Inspiration
- From Rabbi Jack Abramowitz's Torah Blog
- From the Women's Initiative desk: Dvar Haftorah
- NEW: Link to Torat Imecha recording for this week's Haftorah (Ms. Pessie Novick)
- Let's Meet Sefer Mishlei presenters
- Nach Yomi calendar
- Link to previous shiurim
- Check out these interesting Tanach facts
- Letter from a Nach Yomi participant
 Click here to listen to Shira Schiowitz on Parshat Balak.
 From the four corners of the earth (Yeshayahu 11:12)
We continue to add to our Torat Imecha community. As we embark on our new Sefer, it is not too late to join and to encourage others to sign up. https://www.ou.org/women/torat-imecha-sign-up/ כִּֽי־מָלְאָ֣ה הָאָ֗רֶץ דֵּעָה֙ אֶת ה' כַּמַּ֖יִם לַיָּ֥ם מְכַסִּֽים׃ For the land shall be filled with knowledge of Hashem as the water covers the sea. (Yeshayahu 11:9)
 Watch the introduction to Sefer Mishlei with Rabbanit Shani Taragin here.
 Watch the Sefer Tehillim Siyum here.
 Sign up for Three Weeks Ideas and Inspiration here.
 From the Women's Initiative: Dvar Haftorah Sefer Micha 5:6 - 6:8
This week's Haftorah begins with an effusive description of Hashem's love for the Jewish people. He describes them as the dew and the raindrops upon grass which only rely on the gifts from Hashem. The Navi Micha suddenly changes his tone and summons the Jewish people to a trial. Hashem speaks of His kindnesses to Klal Yisroel and highlights that He spared them from Bila'am's evil plan. The question is obvious. Why does the Navi mention this particular act of chessed rather than any of the other things that Hashem did for the Jewish people? We might have expected mention of being saved from the Egyptians, or the miraculous parting of Yam Suf or perhaps the giving of the Torah. Also, somewhat perplexing is that the Navi does not conclude his prophecy with a threat of punishment or an ultimatum for the Jewish people. On the contrary, Micha finishes his words with soft words of encouragement,
The Yalkut Shimoni (554) describes how the nations of the world eagerly awaited to see Hashem, The Divine Judge, rule harshly against the Jewish nation. When Hashem saw the adversaries of the Jews relishing in their demise, He changed course and approached the Jewish people in a soft manner. In essence, whatever issues exist between Hashem and His beloved people stay between them. Hashem refuses to allow the nations of the world to see Am Yisroel falter.
We now can understand why Micha specifically mentions the story of Bila'am. Bila'am tried to curse the Jewish people and find their faults. Hashem in His kindness would not allow him to succeed in his evil plot. Even when Bila'am and Balak succeeded in getting the Midianite women to seduce the Jewish men, Hashem did not destroy the Jewish people. Indeed, those who remained ultimately entered into Eretz Yisroel and merited to see great miracles.
In recent months we have suffered many calamities and tragedies. Nonetheless, we must remember the message of this week's Haftorah - that Hashem does not seek our downfall but rather our advancement. His only ask to us is הִגִּ֥יד לְךָ֛ אָדָ֖ם מַה־טּ֑וֹב וּמָֽה־יְהֹוָ֞ה דּוֹרֵ֣שׁ מִמְּךָ֗ כִּ֣י אִם־עֲשׂ֤וֹת מִשְׁפָּט֙ וְאַ֣הֲבַת חֶ֔סֶד וְהַצְנֵ֥עַ לֶ֖כֶת עִם־אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃, What does Hashem require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your G-d. May our actions and Hashem's love for His people culminate in the ultimate redemption, may it come speedily in our day.
Link to Torat Imecha recording for this week's Haftorah (Ms. Pessie Novick) Michah 5 Michah 6
Let's Meet Sefer Mishlei Presenter:
 Mrs. Sarah Lipman is the Founder and CTO of Power2B, and inventor of its 3D touchscreen technology. In two decades as a User Interaction professional, primarily in mobile and telecoms, she has authored numerous patents and published pieces, innovating new technologies years ahead of the state of the art. Sarah is a sought-after speaker and panelist at international industry events, including Mobile World Congress (MWC), MobileMonday Global Summit, the Israel Mobile Association and the Jerusalem College of Technology, and is the winner of the Mobile User Experience Competition (Professional Category) 2008. She was a NCWIT Hero in 2011, and a member of IWEI (Israel Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative), a project of the U.S. State Department.
Sarah has been profiled prominently in the American and international press – in Forbes, Mishpacha, The Jerusalem Post and Yated Ne'eman, among others. While living in Jerusalem for 16 years, she founded the Kishor Women's Professional Network and The Jerusalem Hub (both now projects of Temech), for which work she received the prestigious Boneh Yerushalayim award in December 2010.
Sarah has been giving shiurim on Chumash, Navi, Tefillah and Jewish thought since 1990. Now residing in Los Angeles, she teaches Chumash and the history of Jerusalem at Bais Yaakov Machon Los Angeles (girls' high school.) At the OU Women's Initiative, Sarah is teaching Sefer Mishlei for the Torat Imecha Nach Yomi program.
She is active in communal affairs, serves as a mentor to mid- and top-level executives in the UX-design and education industries, and is an advisor on Tech Ed and the impact of technology on youth for several local schools.
Click here to listen to previous shiurim
Letter from a Nach Yomi Participant
LETTER FROM A TORAT IMECHA PARTICIPANT:
From Fayga Young, Torat Imecha Nach Yomi learner
I am so happy to be part of the Nach Yomi sorority, from day 1 of this cycle. But I am having a hard time now. Sefer Tehillim is the most difficult sefer I've encountered. Don't get me wrong, the end of Melachim Beis was traumatic and a close second, I do have a soul, but Tehillim...it's hard.
Because at this time last year, I was about a third of the way to another siyum with my partner in Torah, a holy woman. Actually, a Holy Woman, member of a Detroit Partners division for mature women. These women had gone on a Partners mission to the Holy Land and in order to imprint the experience, the "Holy Women who'd traveled to the Holy Land" were assigned a mitzvah project and paired with a mentor.
My partner Diane (Bracha Chaya bas – spoiler alert – Yitzchak) knew exactly what kind of mitzvah she wanted to explore: a mitzvah that expressed gratitude, because gratitude was the leitmotif of her life.
And so we made a brachos party. Over the course of a year, we learned The Laws of B'rachos by Rabbi Binyomin Forst, and I learned a lot about my new friend. Diane was a nurse educator, more educator as she passed retirement age. She raised her children as a single mother and was so proud of the people they'd become as they overcame various challenges, and grateful – of course – for the relationships they formed that had so enriched her life.
She was not just reliable but steadfast. She wouldn't miss her Sunday kaddish minyan for anything. Schvester Selma Mayer, the legendary founder of Shaarei Tzedek's School of Nursing, had this epigram by Rabidranath Tagore on her wall:
I slept and dreamt
that life was joy.
I awoke and saw
that life was duty.
I acted and behold
duty was joy.
Diane had a gemarakup. As we learned the laws of brachos, I was almost relieved that she wasn't comfortable reading small print because she would have tackled all the English footnotes. Since she didn't, we were able to make our brachos party at the end of a year. Shout out to Partners Detroit for putting on a lavish spread that we enjoyed after Diane gave her overview of the laws of brachos.
From there, we learned Rabbi Dr. A. J. Twerski's Life's Blessings and Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss's Power Bentching. And then, in a moment of inspiration, a Partners' educator suggested Tehillim.
Diane's parents gave her the gift of a Jewish education sufficient for her to read Hebrew, and a local bookstore proprietor steered her to Feldheim's Tehillim with Rashi's Commentary, the Oliner Edition. So, besides being introduced to Tehillim, she learned about textual analysis and when to ask questions.
We round out our study with Rabbi Avraham Chaim Feuer's ArtScroll Tehillim, and commentary by Rav Shamshon Rephael Hirsch, and topped off each chapter with a story, courtesy of Rabbi Yechiel Spero's The Touch of Tehillim, and essays by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin and Rabbi Raphael Butler.
Diane had a lot of life experience. She was creative, confident, and refreshingly humble. The educators she encountered were all at least young enough to be...younger siblings but she would learn from anyone. Someone we encountered in our studies was a guest speaker at a function and utterly gobsmacked by the rock star treatment Diane offered him.
Curious about life, Diane wanted to learn more about King David. When the most reliable biography I could find turned out to be out of print I suggested Diane learn the book of Samuel. She knew how to navigate a Stone Chumash, surely she could navigate the ArtScroll Shmuel.
Before the appearance of the vicious tumor that claimed her life, Diane was spending an hour a day studying Shmuel. She relished cross-referencing the historical episodes with the Tehillim we'd completed thus far.
Shortly after we completed perek 63, the tumor made its appearance. And that was when Diane truly walked the walk. As King David says in chapter 30, "Chaim birtzono," life is on His terms. How long would she have to wear the helmet zapping her brain with electricity? "The rest of my life," she answered matter of factly.
Tehillim ends with the words, "Every neshama – soul -will praise G-d." A classic homiletical interpretation says, every neshima – breath – will praise G-d. As long as Diane was breathing, she connected. She couldn't focus on words, but she would joyfully look at the pictures of ArtScroll's newly released illustrated Tehillim. And she would lovingly gaze at a painting of her revered and beloved King David hanging in her living room.
Tehillim begins with the words "Ashrei ha'ish." praiseworthy is the man. These words are repeated throughout Tehillim in a number of situations. Rav Hirsch translated "ashrei" as forward standing. Even if your life is compromised, and some might view you as the proverbial shivrei luchos, those broken first Tablets that rest in the Ark yet are still to be honored for the Torah they represent, you can move forward.
Isaiah 11, a description of the Messianic era, is one of the most idyllic chapters in the entire Prophets. Rabbi Shalom Rosner, in his Nach Yomi exposition on this chapter, urges us to turn to this chapter when we're down, to "read about what we dream about."
Yes, Isaiah 11 is the stuff of dreams. But we dream fullest when we recognize that the past and the present contribute to and inform the glorious future. And with G-d's help, come that future, we will understand how necessary every step, every experience was.
Until then, Diane, I see you everywhere. I see you in the words of the Tehillim cycle of Nach Yomi. I think of you when I say my daily Tehillim. And those precious times when I'm blessed to make new discoveries in King David's words. I want to share it all with you.
I think about the siyum I'd envisioned coinciding with your 80th birthday in a few years. Instead, it will be a great zechus to be making a different siyum, this year, G-d willing, with the women of Torat Imecha. Thank you to the magnificent educators, and thank you all for sharing this journey with me. I look forward to learning more Torah with you.
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