| Dear Friend,
We are pleased to present insights by the Rebbe on parshat Tzav and on Passover excerpted from Daily Wisdom by Rabbi Moshe Wisnefsky.
TZAV Surviving Spiritual Danger If he he is bringing a peace-offering...to give thanks...He shall bring his...peace feast-offering of thanksgiving. (Lev. 7:11-13)
Allegorically, the four types of danger for which a person had to offer up a thanksgiving offering are as follows:
• The danger of "sea travel" refers to the danger of "drowning" in the vast expanse of the Torah's intellectual wisdom, forgetting to process it so it can affect our emotions.
• The danger of "illness" refers to that of feeling "lovesick" for full Divine consciousness, which will only be available to us in the Messianic future. Aspiring to this unattainable level of consciousness prematurely can leave a person frustrated and depressed.
• The danger of "prison" refers to that of our emotions being "trapped" in their immature state, not free to develop and be properly focused.
• The danger of the "desert" refers to our means of expression being dry and barren, like an empty desert. When our faculties of expression are properly inspired, they can inspire others; if they are empty and superficial, they cannot. -- Daily Wisdom Volume 3
PASSOVER Reciprocal Praise In the Torah, Passover is usually referred to as "the Festival of Matzos." Commonly, however, it is called "Pesach" / "Passover."
According to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, this is because G-d – in His book, the Torah – stresses the greatness of His people. He therefore focuses on the matzos, which we ate because we left Egypt in such haste that there was no time for our dough to rise. Every mention of matzos, therefore, highlights the Jewish people's great faith and willingness to follow G-d wherever He directed them.
We, in contrast, relate to the holiday as an opportunity to thank G-d. We therefore refer to the holiday as Passover (Pesach), as a reminder of the great miracles that G-d performed for us, particularly when He skipped over (pasach) the Jewish houses and brought His plagues only upon the Egyptians.
We can learn from this phenomenon that what should be paramount in our minds is how kind others have been to us, rather than on how good we have been to them. -- Daily Wisdom Volume 3
May G-d grant wisdom, strength and peace in the Holy Land.
A Gut Shabbos, Rabbi Yosef B. Friedman Kehot Publication Society
Please donate to our current campaigns. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment