You Are The Key !

This is Part Two of Miryam Swerlow's short life message from "Coffee with Miryam''.  Part one can be found here.

Shelah HaKadosh: Prayer for Your Children

A special prayer composed by the Shelah HaKadosh to express the prayers of parents on behalf of their children should be recited today Monday June 3 this year - erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan - the optimal time for parents to recite this prayer [but it may be recited anytime]. The holy Shlah Hakadosh left Europe in the 17th century and made his home in Eretz Yisrael, becoming chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.

The Artscroll website states:

"All parents want the best for their children — that they should be good and upright, that they have everything they need for a fruitful, joyous life.

We recite the prayer anytime but especially on the day before Rosh Chodesh Sivan, for that is the month when God gave us the Torah, and when the Jewish people began to be called His Children. On that day, [the Shelah Hakadosh] writes, fathers and mothers should give charity to the poor and repent. They should even fast, if they are able to."

click here for the prayer in English and Hebrew

No Common Ground

Art Dima Dmitriev

Two people in Vilna had an argument that required a Din Torah. The agreed to choose the Dayanim through Borerus, where each one chose one Dayan and the two Dayanim would choose the third. One side chose the Vilna Gaon. The other side chose someone who wasn't a Ben Torah and the Vilna Gaon said he would not hear the case together with this other Dayan. He said that the Daas of a Ba'al HaBayis is completely different from Daas Torah and they would never see things eye to eye. 

When the Vilna Gaon was asked where his basis for this was in the Torah, he said that it can be found in Parshas Bamidbar. When discussing the encampment of the Shevatim, the Torah says each Degel had three Shevatim under it. By the last Shevet in each group the pasuk say's "U'Mateh," and the Shevet... By Zevulun who was last in the Degel of Yehuda, right after Yisachar, it says [Bamidbar 2:7] "Mateh," without the letter "Vav".

The Vilna Gaon explains that the letter Vav connects what is written previously with what the Torah is saying now. Since Yisachar learned Torah, and Zevulun were the businessmen, their outlook was always different and there was no common ground between the two. Therefore, the connecting "Vav" was left out.

Source: Revach.net

We're All in this Together

For those readers who don't understand the way Chabad chassidus operates, please watch this video and you will understand.  Let's all stop putting labels on different kinds of Jews, start accepting all Jews regardless of their lifestyles and religious choices.  Open your heart and open your mind.  We are all one, let's remember that.

A surreal story about the way Chabad looks at the world and how that saved someone's life.

Rabbi Moshe Bryski

That's The Way It Is

I hope this short video inspires some of you to stop blaming yourself for your troubles.

From a series of videos: ''Coffee with Mrs Miryam Swerdlow''

The Origin of Jews and Non Jews [continued]

Rabbi Kessin, new shiur. This is listed as Part 2, but it's actually Part 3




To see the previous shiurim in this series, click on the KESSIN label below

Self Reflections

"No man among you may mislead his fellowman, and you shall fear your G-d" [Behar 25:17]

According to the simple meaning of the verse, remarked R' Simchah Bunim of P'shischa, the Torah is only prohibiting an individual from deceiving his fellowman.  An individual of true piety, however, will go beyond the letter of the law and refrain from deceiving himself as well.

What's So Kabbalistic about Bonfires?

by Rabbi Aron Moss

What's the idea of having big bonfires on Lag Ba'omer? I know it is the day of the passing of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the "father of Kabbalah." But even Moses doesn't get bonfires on the day of his passing...

Answer:

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai spent the last moments of his life doing what he always did: teaching. The mystical ideas that he shared with his devoted students that day were the deepest and most revolutionary teachings he had ever revealed.

But as he conveyed this parting message, there was tension in heaven. Rabbi Shimon's death was ordained to be that day before sundown. As the afternoon stretched on and evening approached, he had not yet finished sharing his final wisdom. The day would soon be over, but the lesson was not. Rabbi Shimon refused to return his soul until he had revealed all the secrets that it held. His life could only come to end when his mission came to an end. But time was running out.

And so the day didn't end. The setting sun slowed down, and daylight was extended to allow Rabbi Shimon to say all he needed to say. Only after he had completed his lesson did his holy soul depart and the sun finally set.

On the anniversary of that day each year, in honour of Rabbi Shimon and the light he brought to the world, we brighten the night with bonfires. There is a powerful symbolism in this. Rabbi Shimon's teachings are there to bring light when it would otherwise be dark.

You can be a good person without studying Kabbalah. But only the wisdom of Rabbi Shimon in the Zohar, and the great works of the mystics and Chassidic masters that came after him, have the power to transform the moral darkness of the world around us, and the darker recesses of our own inner world, into a fiery light.

So next time you get the feeling that the sun is coming down on you, the world seems dark and you feel confused, study some inner Torah, and let it light the bonfire within you.

Source: Zohar Haazinu 291a