What Comes Before the Land of Israel?

by Rav Yehezkel Frankel, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel

G-d's message to Moshe at the beginning of this week's Torah portion, Va'era, requires our sensitive attention. G-d promises Moshe that He will extricate Israel from Egypt and will redeem them: 

"Tell the Children of Israel, I am G-d, and I will take you out… and I will save you… and will redeem you… and will take you unto Me as a nation…" (Sh'mot 6,6-7). 

These four verbs are called the "Four Languages of Redemption (Geula)," or the "Four Redemptions" – meaning that each one is a Redemption in and of itself.

A basic precondition for understanding both the situation in which the Israelites found themselves on the eve of the Exodus, and our situation today, is to remember the following words of the Sages: "Like the first redeemer (Moshe), so will be the last redeemer (Mashiach)" (Midrash Kohelet Rabba 1,28). That is, there are basic similarities between our situation in Egypt and ours today, during the final Geula.

Q&A: Considering Becoming Hareidi

  

Q. I am searching for the right spiritual path, after deciding that the time has come to do G-d's will. I now understand that G-d is true, His Torah is true, and that the source of everything is spiritual. For instance: There is no connection between PA incitement and terrorism, because terrorism against Israel is a result only of the sins of the People of Israel; if there would be no sins, no terrorist would be able to hurt us.

 

My question concerns going to the army. I see many religious-Zionist rabbis who shirk all responsibility for the fact that many boys they sent to the army have deteriorated from a religious point of view. For if instead of sending him to the army or to some college, the rabbis would have sent him to a Yeshiva, it is almost certain that he would not have gone off the right path, or at least the chances of that happening would have dropped prodigiously.

I have asked this question of several rabbis, and from the answers I received, I get the feeling that they don't really care if their students falter spiritually while in the army, as long as they fulfill their obligation towards the country. I would imagine that if a rabbi would send his student to work in an office in a mixed-gender environment [sic; rabbis don't "send" their students to work or anywhere else; every student has Free Will], and he in fact becomes less spiritual or observant because of what he sees and hears there, G-d will apparently have claims against that rabbi.

 

I feel that the rabbis were gambling with my life and my friends' lives when they sent us to serve in the army. I have friends who were strongly religious before they went to the army, but today are totally secular; I saw them change before my eyes. What will those rabbis say when they see many of those they sent to the army leave religion? What about the Sages' teaching to "stay away from a bad neighbor and don't be close with one who is wicked" (Pirkei Avot 1,7) – such basic advice as to how to remain an observant Jew?

Redemption From Egypt to Redemption Today

by Berel Wein, www.rabbiwein.com

It is difficult to imagine a more unlikely scenario than the one described for us in the Torah as to the process of redemption of the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery. We can readily understand a personality of holiness and tranquility such as Aaron becoming the hero and redeemer of the holy people of Israel. We could also easily understand that the redemption could come from negotiations and the recognition by Pharaoh and the Egyptians that it was in their best interests to allow the Jewish people who escaped from slavery. Yet, that certainly is not the way the Torah presents this story for us.

Q&A: How Free Is Our Free Will?

 

Q. We know that we face evil and good in the world, and our objective is to choose that which is good. A "choice" implies that we can choose either of the two alternatives – but many times we find that our Evil Urge is stronger than our urge to do good. If so, where is our Free Will? The odds are stacked in favor of bad!

Rotten on the Outside, Perfect on the Inside

by Rav Zalman Baruch Melamed, translated by Hillel Fendel

What can I say during these crazy days? [The year was 2003, during a stormy election campaign, which was ultimately decisively won by the Likud party headed by Ariel Sharon; it received 38 Knesset seats. The runner-up was Labor, headed by Amram Mitzna, which received only 19. The Arab Ra'am party received 2 seats.]

I believe in our nation. It is a good nation, a strong nation; large, healthy, pure and holy. I'm not trying to comfort with platitudes those who are in despair. I wish rather to point out a way to extricate ourselves from the political whirlpool in which we are spinning – for this entire storm upon us is just foam upon the water, and nothing substantial. This whole crisis is merely external, and all the weaknesses and problems we see and experience are superficial. But deep down within, everything is different. The unreliability and lack of integrity of some of our politicians are merely an outer garment that conceals the strength of the faith and credibility that are deeply rooted in the nature of our being.

Vayehi: Demystifying The Tribes Of Israel

by Rav Yehuda HaKohen, visionmag.org

What are the individual contributions of each Hebrew tribe to Israel's national collective?

Listen to the audio/read the transcript here (34 min)

Stories from the Mikveh

By Hillel Fendel

A rabbi of the Puah Fertility Medicine Halacha Institute in Jerusalem tells the following story:

Vayigash: The Necessity of Dreams

by Rabbi Berel Wein, rabbiwein.com

The brothers and Joseph finally meet each other head-on, without pretense and subterfuge. When Joseph reveals himself to the brothers, the veil of secrecy, role-playing, distrust, and enmity is ripped away. The dreams that apparently were the cause of this gripping family drama now reappear in their stark and simple meaning.

Hanuka: The 2,200-Years War

by Rav Netanel Yosifun, yeshiva.co, translated and adapted by Hillel Fendel

I heard the following story directly from Rav Avraham Shapira, the late Rosh Yeshiva of Merkaz HaRav Kook and Chief Rabbi of Israel. He related that there was once a certain rabbi who used to deliver many in-depth Torah classes, and would always make sure to quote from the Shaagat Aryeh – Rabbi Aryeh Leib Ginzburg (d. 1785).

It turned out that one day, before his regular lecture, this rabbi fell asleep and had a dream. In his dream, the Shaagat Aryeh himself appeared to him with a strange request: "Please don't quote me today. I'll be busy and I can't be bothered." The rabbi awoke with a start and tried to understand what this could mean. He knew that the Shaagat Aryeh's son was still alive, serving as rabbi in a far-off community, so he figured he would be the one to ask. He rushed off a telegram to the town with a short question: "How is your rabbi, the son of the Shaagat Aryeh, doing?"

Miketz: Yosef & Yehuda, Nationalism & Universalism?

by Rav Amatziah Berkowitz, translated by Hillel Fendel

In this week's Torah portion of Miketz, we encounter Yaakov's sons Yosef and Yehuda, two leaders in Israel, who appear to represent two different approaches. Yosef is in a very powerful position in Egypt, the imperial power of the world at the time. The entire national economy is run by him, and, as we will read in Parashat Vayigash, he provides sustenance for the populace. We also see that Yosef had all the Egyptian males circumcised, as Rashi states. This indicates that Yosef feels that it is important to do "outreach" to the gentiles and, via the material world, help raise them up in sanctity.