Yom Kipur

We are approaching the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur. Let us reflect a bit on the day preceding Yom Kippur and Yom Kippur itself.

Our sages teach us that on Erev Yom Kippur (9th of Tishrei) we are obligated to eat and drink more than the norm. It is therefore forbidden to fast on this day. It is known that the Berdichev Rebbe, Reb Levi Yitzchok once began searching under the tables on the night of Yom Kippur after the evening prayers of Kol Nidrei. When a bystander offered the Rebbe help in the search, he asked, did you notice any drunkards under the table or anywhere in the territory of the shul ? No! of course not, replied the bystander. Reb Levi Yitzchok lifted his eyes to Heaven and said "show me another nation, that after a day of eating and drinking (festively), they look like this.

The Anaf Yosef commentary on Talmud suggests the reason for this mitzvah is, that people should be in a festive spirit and that makes it more likely that they'll forgive one another. While one is hungry and fasting it's less likely to be lenient and soft with each other. We know that Hashem does not forgive wrongdoing that a person committed to his/her fellow person until one asks forgiveness. Therefore it is the ideal time to eat and drink and thereby forgive each other accordingly.

Yom Kippur 
This is the day we are granted the opportunity to become closer to Hashem with less effort than the average day. Reb Shmelka of Nikolshburg offered the following parable: a king appointed one of his close advisors to educate his only son. He would spend a lot of time trying to teach him and guide him, however the son became uninterested and began misbehaving terribly. The kings confidant, reported to the king that his son was not behaving properly and was involved in mischief... The king sent his son away from the palace and forbade him to come see him. The son made several attempts to apologize and appease his father, but every time he sent a message to the king this former teacher would slander him and tell the king all the terrible things he did. Obviously the king refused to accept the apologies. One day the son got word of the fact that his former teacher was leaving town, so he decided to seize the opportunity, and apologize to the king. Naturally the King accepted his apology and let him back in to his palace.

Our sages teach us that one day a year Satan has no right to slander and prosecute Jews, on Yom Kippur. In fact the word hasatan has the numerical value of 364 for he has one day off. On this day with the right approach we can be brought back close to the King of the Universe.

Let us seize the opportunity, and merit a year full of spiritual and material growth in good health and spirit.

Gmar Chasima Tova!

בואו חשבון

כן, זה הזמן לחשבון הנפש. ואם לא עכשיו אימתי?

העולם לא נראה איך שקיווינו. ארץ הקודש, כל המזרח התיכון, אמריקה תחת נשיאותו של מי, שלאו דווקא אוהב יהודים, יש פחד נורא.
מחלות, היוקר מאמיר, הקושי בפרנסה, בנים ובנות נושרים, אי המשמעת לגדולי הדור - אדמורי"ם וראשי ישיבות.
בעיות שלום, סכנה לעצם קיומו של עם ישראל במקומות רבים המאוימים ע"י שונאי יישראל.
קללת האינטרנט, הוצאת דבה וזלזול בישראל וברבנן ותלמידיהם ותלמידי תלמידיהם העוסקים בתורה בכל אתר ואתר.
ויש בהם המחופשים לדתיים וחרדים, העוסקים באבי אבות הטומאה הנ"ל ושמחים בביזיון תלמידי חכמים אשר נפסק במשנה בסנהדרין שאין להם חלק לעולם הבא.

אין כוחנו אלא בפה דהיינו תפלה מעומק לבנו. תפלתינו הוא מה מה שחביב אצל האב הרחמן.
נזכה כולנו שאב הרחמן יקבל תפילתנו לטובה ולברכה.

הודעה לצבור הקוראים: החל מעריו"כ אנחנו סוגרים את האתר עד מוצאי שבת בראשית.

גמר חתימה טובה

אור התורה

אור תורתנו הקדושה אינו צריך סיוע. מה שכן צריך סיוע, הוא עיניים להנות מהחדש ומהישן. מספרדים, חסידים ואשכנזים אשר בכל שבוע ושבוע מדפיסים ספרים חדשים המאירים כספירים.

א. ספר "אוצרות הקדשים" - קובץ דברי תורה מצדיקי הדורות, תלמידי מרן הבעש"ט זי"ע. מה נהדר המראה הזה.
ב. ספר "מפי איש" - הנהגות, פסקים וסיפורים של מרן פוסק הדור מורינו הגאון הרב יוסף שלום אלישיב זצ"ל. דברים מתוקים מדבש.
ג. A gadol in our midst-anecdotes advice and Piskei Halacha
of Maran Harav Chaim Scheinberg.

גמר חתימה טובה

Rosh Hashana - תשע"ה

In preparation for Rosh Hashono, I'd like to share some thoughts with you over the next few days.

We all know the tradition of eating apple dipped in honey, and many of us have the custom to dip Challah in honey until after the Sukkos holiday.

The simple reason for this custom is, sort of a symbolic prayer that we merit a sweet year. Perhaps we can add another dimension to the reasoning. Why is it that although a bee is not kosher still we are permitted to eat bee's honey ? The Talmud in Bechoros explains that the honey was extracted by the bee from flowers and it's not a natural part of the bee, the bees are only like a storage for the honey. Perhaps so too, we hint that although we may have sinned, the sins are not part of our essence. Every Jew naturally want to do good, it is just some times we don't behave properly, yet, this is not part of our essence.

Kesiva v'Chasima Tova

Dvar Torah - Parshat Nitzavim Vayelech

This week, the closing Shabbos of the year 5754, we will be reading two portions Nitzovim and Vayeilech. Both these portions are the strong lessons of Moshe for unity and Teshuvah, and how Torah can be studied and observed by all of us. Moshe discusses openly his passing on to the eternal world and prepares the nation and Yehoshua for the upcoming events.

The Torah states: (Devorim 30/6) umol Hashem elokekho es livovcho ... Hashem your G-d will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring to love Hashem, your G-d with all your heart and all your soul. We know, that fear of G-d is something that a person has to work on, it is not granted to anyone on a silver platter. It seems from the above verse, which we recite many times during the selichos prayers, that it is actually gifted to us ?

A resident of Kuzhmir, approached Reb Chatzkel, the Rebbe of Kuzhmir, seeking his advice, on how to improve his financial state. I can't help you, replied the Rebbe. This individual was very surprised and .expressed his amazement to the rebbe. "Last year the Rebbe gave my friend advice and he did very well, why can't the Rebbe help me, as well? I'll tell you a story, said the Rebbe. A man once walked in to a supermarket and said that his lantern ran out of oil, and he was in desperate need of oil to have some light in his house. The owner graciously handed him a canister full of oil to light up his lantern. A while later this man's neighbor approached the storekeeper for oil, the storekeeper replied negatively to his request. Why, asked the man, when my neighbor ran out of oil, you were so generous and handed him a full canister and to me, you responded so negatively? You see, said the storekeeper, your neighbor is a good customer of mine he comes in to my store and purchases everything he needs, when he runs out of oil, I am more than happy to hand it to him. However, you never shop here, you just came to me when you ran out of oil, I am not in the oil business. So too, said the Rebbe when you approach me for all your spiritual matters and you also need some advice regarding you finances, I am happy to provide that. However when you approach me only for financial issues and regarding spirituality you don't come, I can't help you.

So too, when a person decides that his whole life is going to be in the path of Torah and Mitzvohs, he will receive Divine Assistance for yiras shomayim as a bonus. However if a person lives his life without commitment, but expects G-d to grant him yiras shomayim (fear of G-d), that won't happen.

As this Shabbos is the final Shabbos of the year, let us make an effort to utilize the Shabbos properly, and bring blessings from the Shabbos for the new year approaching us. Shabbos is the source of all blessings, as we say in our Friday night prayers - kee hee mikor habrocho.

Gut Shabbos Kesiva vechasima Tova

אלול - חזרה בתשובה

מעורר ומתאים לזמן
חובה צפיה!

Dvar Torah - Parshat Ki Teze

This week we are privileged to read the portion of Ki Seitzei. This portion discusses many mitzvohs. The laws of returning a lost object, tzitzis, shatnez (prohibition of wearing linen and wool in the same garment), laws of marriage and divorce and many more mitzvohs are discussed in this portion.

The beginning of this weeks portion discusses the laws of a ben sorer umore - a young rebellious man (13 years of age), who strayed from the path and began to disobey his parents steals drinks..... The Torah says he shall be stoned and we should get rid of the evil.... While we're ahead we should kill him, for later he would kill people to feed his bad happens. The Talmud actually discusses whether it ever happened that a boy was punished as a ben sorer umoreh. There are many details needed to qualify for this terrible status. However, there are many lessons learned from this short paragraph.

The Torah states (Devorim 21/ 20) and they (the parents) say to the elders of his city this son of ours is wayward and rebellious, "does not hearken to our voice", he is a glutton and a drinkard. Our sages teach us (Sanhedrin 71a) that from the words that "he does not hearken" we derive that if the parents were deaf the son can not become a ben sorer umoreh. This seems difficult to understand, for we are talking about the boy not listening, why does the parents being deaf have any relevance to the child's lack of listening?

The Imrei Emes explains: one can not expect for anyone to hear/accept his/her rebuke if he/she doesn't hear him/herself. If you want your words of rebuke to be accepted begin first with hearing it yourself. If the parents can't hear, what they are saying, the boy will certainly not hear either.

Gut Shabbos,