Oprah in Boro Park

In a just released photo, media mogul Oprah Winfrey dines with Lubavitch Shluchim Rabbi Aron and Shterna Sara Ginsberg and family at their home in Boro Park for an upcoming TV show.

Source: COLlive

'Clinton unfamiliar with Jewish modesty'

Israel's Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar responded Monday to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's harsh criticism against the exclusion of women in Israel. [See American foot in mouth]

"She has no real knowledge of a Jewish woman's modesty," he said. "The Jewish people respect women and treat them like queens and princesses."

According to the rabbi, had Clinton learned from "the right people, scholars, she would see that the Jewish people respect their women."

Speaking in an interview to Kol Barama Radio, the rabbi added that the respect is demonstrated in modest clothes and a head cover for married women.

Rabbi Amar did criticize the clothing of the "Taliban women" and their claim that Jewish women used to wear cloaks in the past.

"I still belong to the generation which we saw our mothers and grandmothers, so they cannot tell us how they dressed. We know exactly what they wore – they covered their hair with a silk cloth and the clothes went beyond their elbows and knees… They never heard of such a thing. There are clear rules."

As for "kosher" buses, separating between men and women, the rabbi explained that some people choose to be stricter but that this is not part of Jewish religious laws. He mentioned Rabbi Moshe Feinstein's ruling that there is no problem for men and women to use public transportation together.

Source: Ynet

An Eighth of an Eighth

"I have become unworthy through all the acts of kindness" [Vayishlach 32:11]

The Vilna Gaon was once asked to explain Chazal's statement [Sotah 5a]  "Said R'Chiya bar Ashi in the name of Rav: A Talmid chacham must have one-eighth of an eighth [of haughtiness]".  

Rashi explains that it is essential for a talmid chacham to possess this minute amount of pride in order to prevent those who are ignorant in Torah learning from making light of him and his words.  Why did Chazal choose specifically the measure of one-eighth of an eighth?

The term "one eighth of an eighth" answered the Gaon, is not a reference to a particular measure. Rather it is hinting at the eighth verse of the eighth parsha of the Torah.  The eighth portion in the Torah is Parshas Vayishlach, and the eighth verse of the parsha [32:11] begins with the word "katonti" - "I am very small".

While a talmid chacham must possess a certain amount of arrogance, it must be a "very small" amount.

Source: Rabbi Yisrael Bronstein

Small in his own eyes

"[My merits] have become small" [Vayishlach 32:11]

When G-d shows His kindness to a person, it brings that person closer to G-d, causing his feeling of self-importance to diminish, since "everything is like nothing before G-d".

Therefore, it was precisely due to the fact that G-d had been so kind to Yaakov that he became small in his own eyes - for the kindness brought him closer to G-d, and so he felt that he was not worthy of G-d's promise to be saved.

Source: based on Tanya Igeres Hakodesh ch.2

How could Yaakov the patriarch fear that "perhaps... I have become soiled with sin" [Rashi v. 12] when surely he was aware that he had not sinned?

A tzadik is not static - he constantly grows spiritually from one level to the next.  After reaching a higher level, his previous actions are spiritually deficient compared to his current standing. They are thus considered as "sins", metaphorically speaking. [The Hebrew word for sin - chet - can also mean ''deficiency'' [see Kings 11:21]  Thus Yaakov was worried that perhaps due to such ''sins'' he was not worthy to be saved.

Source: based on Likutei Sichos Lubavitcher Rebbe

Healing Rifts

Parshas Vayishlach

Re-establishing bonds/Healing Rifts

by Rav DovBer Pinson

This week's Torah reading opens with Yaakov/Jacob returning home after many years of exile. He had left his home many years earlier, to escape the wrath of his brother Esav/Esau who wished to kill him. Yaakov is now returning to make peace with his brother.

The Torah reading begins with the words “Yaakov sent angels ahead of him to his brother Esav.” [32:4]

He begins his return by sending messengers, or ‘angels.’ Angels are conduits of energy.

Sending “his angels”, represents an issuance of pure thoughts of love and reconciliation towards his brother, either through physical messengers or actual angels.

The message is relayed back to Yaakov that Esav is approaching him with four hundred men, apparently to wage war.

Realizing that Esav is not in favor of brokering peace, Yaakov prepares himself and his family for battle, prays for guidance, and finally encounters Esav.

Upon Esav’s approach, Yaakov “prostrated himself to the ground seven times, until he came close to him, to his brother. And Esav ran toward him and embraced him, and he fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.” [32:3-4]

Something crucial changed between Esav’s approach for battle and his subsequent embrace of Yaakov.

Between war and embrace, there were the seven prostrations of Yaakov - and this seems to change the entire relationship between the brothers.

When a person prostrates him/herself, they are physically breaking the straight line of their body. Spiritually, this represents a breaking of negativity or concealment. [Kidushin 29b]

Bowing is a movement that allows for an [alleged] immutable outer reality to crumble, and a new reality, one that reflects an inner truth, to emerge.

Seven is symbolic of the natural order of the world; a world created by seven in seven. The world of nature is an outer concealment that hides the miraculous, the enlivening Divine animating force and potential of everything, within it.

By prostrating seven times, Yaakov breaks the old reality that once seemed so unshakeable and revealed the truth of their story - the natural love between brothers that was always there beneath the concealments and friction.

“Until he came close to him, to his brother”

He prostrates himself until he can reach “his brother” not the external Esav who now hates him, but the inner Esav, his twin brother. This works, the outer reality falls away, and Esav responds with love, reaching out to his brother in embrace.

The Energy of the Week:

Re-establishing Bonds / Healing Rifts

This week’s Torah reading gives us the strength to repair relationships with others, particularly family, that may have been marred in the past.

The actions of Yaakov set a map for a way to reconnect.

Sending messengers, or messages if you will, is a way to begin.

Reach out carefully, being aware of the hard feelings and the need to break through.

Preparing for ‘war' represents an understanding that you are only one half of the equation, and if the good will is not reciprocated, you may have to acknowledge defeat, and wait for another time.

Prayer represents a reaching out beyond yourself - understanding that there is something greater than yourself and your estranged friend or family in this picture, and that it will affect a change for good in the entire universe if this rift is healed.

Prostrate, finally there is the need to humble our voice that wishes to hold on to an old reality and break free of what you felt to be true until now. Thus revealing a deeper truth that has been there all along.

Source: Iyyun.com

Mamash

"And Yaakov sent angels ahead of him to Eisav" [Vayishlach 32:4]

Rashi comments: "And Yaakov sent angels -  literally [mamash] angels".

R'Meir of Premishlan explained Rashi's words with the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos [4:13] : "He who fulfills one mitzvah gains one advocate for himself". When an individual performs a mitzvah, he creates an angel that speaks favorably on his behalf in Heaven.

The verse tells us that Yaakov sent angels as messengers to Eisav. Which angels did Yaakov send? Those angels that had been created through the mitzvos that he had performed.

This is what Rashi is alluding to when he says: "mamash angels".  For "mamash" is the acronym of the words "malachim me'mitzvos sheásah" ["angels from the mitzvos he performed"].

The Other Devorah

The Cloud and The Bee by Al-Baum

Torah by Rabbi Yissocher Frand

This week's parsha records the death of Rivka's nursemaid, Devorah: "Devorah, the wet nurse of Rebecca died and she was buried below Beth-El, below the Allon, and he named it, Allon-bachuth" [Vayishlach 35:8]. Rashi wonders what Rivka's nanny was doing in Yaakov's household, such that Yaakov should wind up burying her. The Medrash states that Devorah was 133 years old at the time of her death. Rashi states that Rivka had sent her old nursemaid to Yaakov in fulfillment of her promise to him that she would send word to him when it was time to come home from Padan Aram [Vayishlach 27:45]. Devorah died on the journey back home after having carried out this mission.

Rashi's words are very difficult to comprehend. Why would Rivka choose this elderly woman to journey on this long trip to carry out such a mission? Could she not find a more appropriate messenger to send word to her son that it was time to come home?

Rav Dov Weinberger makes a beautiful comment on this Rashi. Yaakov was most reluctant to leave the house of Yitzchak and Rivka. Rikva insisted that he must leave. But Yaakov protested: "What will be with my spirituality? How can I leave this holy household and survive in the house of Lavan the crook?" Rivka promised "I will take you back and I will restore to you what you lost spiritually in the years you were away."

To accomplish such a mission, one cannot send a young kid. On such a mission, one must send a "great grandmother." To restore the idea of what the House of Yitzchak was like in Yaakov's mind, it was necessary to send someone from the older generation. The person who grew up in yesteryear presents an untarnished image. They come from the "old home." Unlike the "younger generation," they represent "the way it is supposed to be."

Many times we will meet a person, not from our generation and not even from the generation of our parents, but someone from two generations ago. It is sometimes worthwhile just to observe how an old Jew acts. He witnessed what things were like "when times were spiritually correct."

Those old enough to remember Rav Ruderman saw a connection to the glory of what European Jewry was in its prime. He corresponded with the Ohr Sameach. He saw the Chofetz Chaim. He sat on Reb Chaim Soloveitchik's lap. He took walks with Reb Chaim Ozer. His reactions were Torah reactions. He knew instinctively what Yiddishkeit [Judaism] was all about.

When Rivka wanted to spiritually retrieve Yaakov from the house of Lavan, she had no choice but to send a delegate who represented the previous generation.

The Chofetz Chaim lived to be a very old man. He died when he was 93 years old. At the end of his life, he wanted to travel to Eretz Yisrael and spend the last days of his life in the Holy Land. He wanted to study the laws of Kodshim and the Temple Sacrifice there. As a Kohen, he hoped he would merit to witness the coming of Moshiach and to participate in the Divine Service in the rebuilt Beis HaMikdash.

He felt that he was an old frail man and could not contribute much more to European Jewry and therefore wanted to "retire" to the Holy Land. He took counsel with Rav Chaim Ozer, the (much younger) leader of European Jewry at the time. Rav Chaim Ozer advised him not to leave Europe. He told him "Even if you cannot be in the Yeshiva any more and you cannot give Torah lectures any more and even if you cannot write any more because of your age -- still, if you remain, people will be able to see what a Jew is supposed to look like."

This can be compared to children sitting at their parents' table. Many times they misbehave. But when their grandpa [Opa/Zeida/Saba] is sitting at the table, the behavior is different. When a member of the previous generation is there, a bit of awe and respect is present as well.

This was Rav Chaim Ozer's message to the Chofetz Chaim, and this explains Rivka's choice of messenger to retrieve her son Yaakov back from Padan Aram.

Source: Torah.org

Torah by Rabbi Azarya Berzon

Apparently, there was an underground movement in Charan which preached Avraham's morality and circulated his teachings. Rivka belonged to that movement. She knew Avraham's world, his hashkafot, and when she became his daughter-in-law she didn't have to learn it from scratch. She had received her special training even while living in a pagan home. Avraham's teaching had spread across the borders and many people in many lands were impressed. But who was the leader? Who was the teacher? It couldn't have been Rivka for she was too young. No doubt many were opposed to this movement and it had to go underground. We find its leader briefly mentioned in Chayei Sarah and then three weeks later in Parshat Vayishlach.

The leader was Devorah - Rivka's nurse [Bereishit 35:8], דברה מינקת רבקה . Why does the Torah find it necessary to tell us [Breishit 24:59] וישלחו את רבקה אחתם ואת מניקתה . What is the chiddush here? After all it was not uncommon for an aristocratic family to employ a nurse for a child and to send this nurse wherever the child went. Furthermore, in Parshat Vayishlach [35:6-8], the Torah adds a sentence which seems unimportant, ותחת דבורה מינקת רבקה ותקבר מתחת לבית אל  - And Devorah the nurse of Rivka died near Beth El, and was buried under the tree, and it was called Alon Bachut [the tree of weeping] -  Is it so important that an old woman died and they named a tree after her?

The answer is found in Parshat Toldot. When Rivka sends Yaakov to Charan, she tells him [Bereishit 27:43-45]:  ''So now, my son, heed my voice and arise; flee to my brother Lavan, to Charan. And remain with him a short while until your brother's wrath subsides. Until your brother's anger against you subsides and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send and bring you from there; why should I be bereaved of both of your on the same day?"

Rivka told Yaakov: ''When the time will come, I'll send someone to get you!''. Whom did she send? It was Devorah! Why her? Rivka was afraid that Yaakov would get too used to Padan Aram . Why send Devorah? Because Rivka knew what a great person Devorah was and what a great job she had done teaching and educating herself and others. When Devorah died, Yaakov was so shaken that he proclaimed a period of mourning. It was Devorah who had trained Rivka for being the mother of the covenant! It was Devorah who was sent to bring Yaakov back from Charan to Eretz Canaan. By adding the words וישלחו את רבקה ואת מניקתה , Hashem confirmed the greatness of Devorah, and her impact upon Rivka. And, by telling us about the death of Devorah and the mourning for her, the Torah confirmed: A great leader was lost.

Source: Mevaseret

Obama the anti-Israel President