The big sister Rabbi Benny Lau - Head of Project 929 and Chairman of Akim: On Miriam
In the darkness of Israel's slavery in Egypt, the lights of women shone, who by the power of faith and life rebelled against the murky reality and gave birth to the gospel of redemption.
The following lines are dedicated to a character who is used to being behind the scenes and looking after the main actor - Miriam, Moshe's sister.
When the baby Moses is in the ark on the edge of the grove, Miriam stands and watches: "And let his sister stand afar off to see what will be done to him" (Exodus 2:4).
Miriam functions as an older sister who ensures Moshe's future as the leader of Israel.
She is not the story, she is the one who grows her brother's story.
The Sages saw the same character when they identified the Hebrew midwives Shafra and Puah as "mother and daughter". Today, see Rashi Shemot chapter 2).
She herself is not the one giving birth.
She is the one who encourages, spurs, calms and helps.
Stands on guard.
This is Miriam, who speaks into the mother's ears and encourages her in her difficult moments, when she is attacked by the most difficult labor contractions.
Even later in the Torah, Miriam will be revealed in this way.
In all places we will see her acting in a similar way.
Observing reality and trying to motivate the forces stored in front of her to come into action.
She herself is not the story.
She does not raise herself and does not become the leader raised by the people.
She grows everyone to realize their height and their lives.
This leadership is almost the opposite of Moshe's.
Moshe's leadership comes from above, from the power of the miracle.
Throughout the course of Moshe's life, he is close to the experimental leadership, while his main difficulty, which he "carries" from the status of the Sena to the status of separation from the people of Israel, is his limited speech: "I am not a selfish man of words."
The confidence of the people to follow this leader stems from the clear knowledge that the leader is connected directly to a higher power, to God. The symbol of Moses' leadership will be the manna that comes down as miraculous bread from the sky. The symbol of Miriam's leadership will be the well water that springs from the depths of the earth. Moses' leadership is evident to all. Miriam's leadership requires time and maturation. The generation of slaves in Egypt could not grow by the power of the well, and needed visible miracles. The generation entering the land cannot rely on the miracle, and will have to draw water from Miriam's springs.
Trying to move the forces stored to her left.
Miriam,
The power of life, the power of faith Brigadier General Ofir Levius - Chief Education Officer in the IDF: about the story of the binding of Yitzchak
After 30 days, I stood on one leg, supported by two crutches, in front of the painful and loving eyes of the Rivlin family members and the Gani Tal community, and I described to them what happened in the greenhouses of the Morag settlement.
Gideon Rivlin sat in my regular place in the jeep and I drove when we went on an infrastructure tour on the fence.
A loud explosion from the right startled our conversation.
The speech was replaced by a kind of silent and inexplicable suction.
Gideon, who took the hit, seemed to shout "Don't lay your hand on the boy" and shielded me with his body.
I don't know who was the father and who was the son.
Who was the angel of God and who was the lamb for the ascension.
The feeling of the rising - the focus and the focus - accompanies me to this day.
And so are the two boys, who were not left behind - the liaison and the medic in my command squad, who were with us.
Gideon was killed on the spot.
And when I got off the jeep, I found that I was left with one leg.
The binding was of the man and the family as well as of a large community, which will soon have to deal with another difficult separation and uprooting.
After about six months, a few days before the last of the soldiers left Gush Katif, we went to accompany Gideon to his second resting place at the Yitzhak Beacons.
There were three of us - Nir, Gideon's son;
The late Benji Hillman, who commanded the force after I was wounded and killed in the Second Lebanon War; and myself. Again we strapped on our donkeys, took the trees to the altar and walked together with a great sense of purpose and love, unaware that the next space is marching beside us.
This story of the father of the nation, his son and his two boys is the story of those who are willing to sacrifice their lives for a people and country, for the fulfillment of the dream of freedom and communalism in the State of Israel, in the land of our ancestors, in the national home of the Jewish people.
We are not tied.
The ropes were loosened a long time ago, and we are free to choose Israel's choices time after time.
The story of the binding of Isaac is a symbol of the power of life and the power of faith, a kind of recipe for the devotion of the soul.
Three times the word "I am" appears there, as the call of the generations to each and every one of us;
One love - the love of evil and command and the love of Israel;
And one "Go Go", the call that started it all, continues to resonate and encourage us to continue, even in the most difficult moments, to renew, change and grow from every crisis.
I believe this is the legacy: the sanctity of life for life's sake.
Even today we recognize the sanctity of personal and national life, and are even ready to sacrifice our lives for the freedom of the people of Israel in their land.
The necessity of life is with us, the righteousness of the way is with us, the holiness of the will is with us, and also the prayer that the one who is committed and the one who is committed will be left on the pages of the cycle, and will no longer be a necessity for the communalism of the people in their country.
A recipe for devotion.
Binding of Isaac, photo: a painting by Caravaggio from 1603
The mosaic of human wisdom Ami Ayalon - the former head of the Shin Bet: on the case of Noah and the Tower of Babel
As children we learned the story of the Tower of Babel as the story of sin and its punishment.
The people of the generation after the flood, who spoke one language and lived in the land of a youth, decided to build "...a city and a tower with its head in the sky and we will make a name for us spread over the whole land".
As a punishment, God confused their language "and Jehovah scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth".
Today I read the story differently.
I understand it as a transition from a centralized, uniform human society, where there is no place for the individual and his freedom - to a diverse, distributed society full of contradictions, contrasts and tensions.
A story describing a transition from one ancient tribe, living in a small cave, to a huge variety of communities, languages and cultures.
to today's human society.
According to some of the greatest commentators, the message in the story is not a curse but a great blessing.
The human society after the Tower of Babel is a society in which man struggles with evil, and the struggle creates a value meaning for human history.
Only in a human society after the Tower of Babel could Abraham, our father, rebel against his father and his culture and fight for a new way, and later - stand before God in an attempt to save the people of Sodom who did not sin (Parashat Vira, Genesis 18). Only in a world where the fight for justice is valid can The prophet proved King David as a murderer and adulterer in the parable of the "sheep of the herd" (2 Samuel 12:12), and Elijah the prophet could claim justice from Ahab, the king of Israel, for murdering the Israeli prophets in order to buy the vineyard he owned (1 Kings 21). .
In the 21st century, a new provision takes effect.
According to Rabbi Yonatan Zaks, in a world struggling for identities, where fear of the other causes hatred and killing, we must shape a culture that embraces difference as a virtue: "Precisely because we are different from each other, each of us has something unique and important to contribute to the whole...".
In a speech on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, he asks: "Can I, a Jew, recognize the image of God in the face of someone who is not made in my image? Hindu, Sikh, Muslim or Eskimo...".
In a different style, he repeats what Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook wrote when he said: "The Almighty did charity with His world, which He did not give all the talents in one place, not in one person and not in one people.
Not in one country, not in one generation and not in one world..." (Orot, Jerusalem: Mossad Rabbi Kook, p. 5799).
The message is that every person and every culture has something to contribute to the mosaic of human wisdom.
Endless patience Tal Mosari - actor, TV host, voice actor and children's star: about the journey of Moses and the Israelites
"On the other hand you will see the land and you will not come there" (Deuteronomy 32:12).
Seeing the destination within touching distance and not reaching it.
In the case of Moses, it is not about another destination in his life's journey, but the significant goal of his mission - to bring his people to the promised land.
To finish the process that began with the exodus from Egypt - to take him out of the labs and bring him to a free life in his own country.
I have to do it. To the land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites" (Exodus 3:7-8).
Moses did not reach the good land.
He stood in front of the heavy-hearted Pharaoh and in front of the complaining people.
He discovered that although it is not easy to get the people out of Egypt, it is much more difficult to bear the lack of trust in him and God, the accusing style and the desire again and again to return to Egypt.
But Moses bore all this, and sometimes he had even more patience than God had.
In the two great crises of the journey in the desert - the sin of the calf and the sin of the spies - God raised his hands and declared that for him the story was over.
You can dismantle everything, destroy this hard-nosed nation and that's enough.
The one who mobilized to protect the people, to reassure and restore relations - was Moshe.
so what happened?
what went wrong?
Why was he condemned to die in the desert just before you "reached your destination"?
The 40th year of the journey.
Every generation of Egyptians has already been buried in the desert (after the sin of the spies made it clear that he was not ready to enter the land).
Moshe with the new generation, those who set out as young people or were born in the desert.
The journey towards the country resumes.
Excitement of a new beginning in the air.
And then - a challenge on the way - there is no water to drink.
How do the people react?
I have a good time. (Bamadbar 20:3-5).
Nothing was learned.
what despair
God tells Moses and Aaron to speak to the rock, and it will bring out drinking water.
But Moses does not speak to the rock.
He speaks to the children of Israel, scolding them "Shimeu na ha-Morim" (the rebels, the faithless) and strikes the rock twice - and the water comes out.
Why does he hit and not talk?
Maybe because in the past it worked like that and water came out of the rock with a miracle of beating, and maybe because something broke in it, and he is angry and wants to hit the people, but it is better to hit the rock.
Either way, this is the "water of contention" sin of Moses and Aaron.
The act because of which God condemned them not to enter the promised land with the people.
Why punish like this?
Good question.
Maybe it's God's strict standards.
Maybe the failure of Moshe, who discovered that he no longer fits.
If there is no change, if the people return to the same negative patterns, and their leaders continue to react in the same ways - it will not work.
Need a change.
And it is better to replace the leader than to replace the people.
The new and different stage of entering Israel requires a new leader.
Receive Joshua.
The reflection of the difficulty against the stubborn heart Narcissus - singer and composer: On Moshe Rabbenu
"This heart heard everything,
Stubborn stubborn this heart.
want to go out but the water
like a wall and there is no season...
In the end we left because of you,
But you're the last one who hasn't seen land
becomes the floor of our lives.
You saw a country from afar.
Now everything has become a habit, the longing has already passed,
What burned inside the heart remains in you,
But with us everything freezes standing in the shade"
(Narcissus)
Moses, the great leader.
A man who possesses both the vision and the deed in his personality.
Both the determination to meet the challenges of the journey and complete the task, and also the longing and longing.
Because this revered man, who stood in front of a heavy-hearted pharaoh and in front of the stiff-necked people, managed to overcome many challenges, but he did not get to fulfill his own dream - and to come to rest and inheritance in the promised land.
From his childhood, Moses was accompanied by water - he was saved as a child in an ark that was floated in the water thanks to the compassion of Pharaoh's daughter, the resourcefulness of his sister Miriam.
He tore the Red Sea in two, and moved the people of Israel through it, like a baby in the canal of the womb, going out to the new life.
He sweetened bitter water with bitterness, brought water out of the rock, brought to the people of Israel the Torah likened to water.
And also the sin for which he was denied entry to the land - was in the water.
"As the face is to the face, so is the heart of man to man."
Was the beating with a rock instead of speaking a reflection of Moshe's difficulty in facing the stubborn hearts of the people?
A heart that is also, like our own, full of longing for the good, but sometimes the wall of anxiety, burnout and fatigue makes it stubborn and opaque?
Moses, on the other hand, saw the land and did not come to it, but in the hearts of the stubborn people his image and vision remained, to this day, and also the longing.
The fight against evil created a value meaning for human history.
A structure of the Tower of Babel in Buenos Aires, photo: AFP
And return to your heart all the nations Doron Almog - General (res.), Chairman of the Jewish Agency, winner of the Israel Prize 1976: From Avraham Avino to the State of Israel
A tractate of tests separates Abraham our father from the realization of the immense vision of the people, whose seed was "blue that is on the edge of the sea".
First the test "go away from your country and your homeland and your father's house".
If he leaves his father's house and his homeland in Mesopotamia, he will be privileged to become a great nation (Genesis 12:1-2). Then comes the most terrible test of all: "And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the manger to slaughter his son" (Genesis 22 , 10).
Once again, the reward for absolute loyalty is the promise of being with a giant-sized nation.
"And multiply your seed as the stars of the sky and as the sand that is on the shore of the sea, and your seed shall inherit the gate of his enemies" (Genesis 22:17).
Not only did Abraham not get to see the realization of the vision - neither did Moses, the great leader of the Jewish people: "For on the other hand you will see the land and you will not come to it" (Deuteronomy 32:12).
Deuteronomy 30 as if prophesying the exile and its end: "Return and gather yourself from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you" (verse 3).
I have to do it. " (Deuteronomy 30:1-3).
The State of Israel is the one miracle, there is no other.
The third temple that is realized after 2,000 years of exile, after the fall of the first and second temple.
After the Holocaust of European Jews.
We were privileged to realize today the beginnings of Kibbutz Galvoit.
We were privileged to start realizing the vision of our ancestors.
A huge right fell to us.
About 8 million Jews live in Israel today, and another 8 million in the Diaspora.
Many of them are moving away from Judaism and the State of Israel, and the way to reach them, in my opinion, is through bringing hearts together.
The test "And turn your heart to all the nations" is the test of our generation, a test of action.
To reach every Jew and every Jewish family in the world, in the continuous effort of thousands of Jews and Israelis located around the world.
On trips, on missions, in studies, on sabbatical, in business.
To look for them, to approach them, to talk with them, to learn about their way of life, to respect their way and their culture, to share in their pain and joy, in Shabbat kabbalahs, on Israeli holidays and on weekdays.
to give them the feeling that we are one big family.
We are a small nation blessed with enormous abilities.
So that we can one day be "blue as on the shore of the sea" we must love our people scattered around the world.
Only through the heart and love can we realize the return of Zion and its construction.
Leadership is a responsibility Kobi Afallo: About Yehuda
Judah shows leadership.
He stands in front of the cruel Egyptian ruler (at this point he does not know that it is his brother Joseph), determined to save his brother Benjamin from slavery in Egypt on the charge of stealing the ruler's cup.
Yehuda does not know if Benjamin stole the cup or not.
What he knows is that his father Jacob will not stand another family disaster.
The memory of Joseph's sale, and the heavy feeling of guilt for his part in the terrible act that hurt his brother and father, motivate him to get up and act.
Judah is revealed in his greatness.
He stands bravely and speaks straight to the ruler's heart.
He shares him in the complex family situation, and above all - he offers himself a slave instead of his brother: " His brothers. For how can I go up to my father and the boy is not with me, lest I see an evil one who will find my father" (Genesis 24:32-34).
Joseph, the ruler, hears Judah.
He realizes that Judah standing before him has come a long way since he sold him as a slave to the merchant caravan that went down to Egypt.
He is impressed by the depth of the repair.
from the guarantee
And this is the moment when he can no longer hold back, he orders all the servants out of the room - and excitedly reveals himself to his brothers: I am Joseph, your brother.
Yehuda is not the eldest among Jacob's sons, but he is the father of the tribe that has been marked for generations as the leadership tribe.
The line of the House of David is a descendant of the tribe of Judah.
It seems that leadership is responsibility, it is the willingness to be a guarantor for those you are responsible for, and also to pay a price to do the right thing for them.
This is the expectation of the Bible from the leaders of the people. And ours, to this day.
A clear line of thinking.
Joseph and his brothers,
Justice, against all odds Judge of the Supreme Court, Dafna Barak-Erez, on Tamar and the right to a trial
The stories of the Bible, and primarily the stories of the Torah, were the ones that first exposed me to dealing with questions of law and justice. I would like to return to one of the earliest litigants - Tamar, Judah's daughter-in-law. The episode centered on Tamar is dramatic and touching. At the same time, it presents a story An act that teaches about a fundamental right whose importance cannot be exaggerated - the right to a legal process for the protection of rights.
Tamar was left grieving after being married twice to Yehuda's eldest sons and widowed by them, one after the other.
Yehuda refrained from giving her his third son in marriage, in accordance with the custom of yabom that existed at that time, for fear that he too would die.
Besides, Tamar was not allowed to others.
Tamar suffered injustice, but she did not have access to any legal court where she could claim protection of her rights.
At that time, the trial was family-tribal only.
Tamar was subject to the absolute spite of the head of the family, who was also the one who wronged her.
In her grief, Tamar resorted to self-help: she pretended to be a prostitute and offered herself to Yehuda, while hiding her identity.
Later, when word of her pregnancy became known, Yehuda sentenced her without a trial: "Take her out and burn her."
She was required to give the judgment without due process.
Her pregnancy served as both proof and sentence.
And here, at this critical moment, Tamar managed to claim justice for herself - she proved to Yehuda that she had conceived him, by showing him his personal belongings that she kept with her.
At this point, the vindicating sentence was given: "And Judah knew and said righteousness from me."
Beyond the identification with Tamar's plight, the significant point in this story is the fact that in its background was the reality of the lack of access to the courts.
In order to win justice, she had to resort to trickery and indirect ways, which exacted a heavy personal price from her.
She could not sue, but was required to be accused, using the stage she was given to prove her righteousness.
The turning point in the story is indeed a moment of victory, but also a clear expression of Tamar's inherent weakness.
Her sentence was given without hearing her, and it was "overturned" only at the last moment.
It is interesting to add that in the trial itself, and in fact already in the preparation for it, Tamar was revealed to have control over the laws of evidence.
She prepared for herself ahead of time "evidence of merit": when she offered herself to Yehuda, she took his personal belongings from him as a guarantee for payment - a seal and fuses - and then disappeared from the scene.
Thus she left evidence of the identity of the man from whom she conceived.
The story reveals, therefore, the story of a brilliant litigator, who manages to win justice against all odds - and at a time when women's access to this was particularly limited.
However, on a principled level, one cannot rely only on the legal talent and mental prowess of those who are in a position of legal weakness.
To this end, it is important to guarantee the fundamental right that was not subject to change - the right to a trial.
The chance to be excited again Miron H. Isaacson - author: About Noah and the Dove
During the great story of the flood, the "little" story about Noah and the dove appears (Genesis 8:8-12). The raven goes "out and out again" until it disappears, and only one verse exhausts its mission, compared to the dove, which expresses a deep mental process in Noah .
"And he sent the dove with him", it comes out as a declared extension of him.
Upon her return to the ark, a detailed ceremony of returning her to Noah's possession takes place: "And he reached out his hand and took her and brought her to him to the ark": she returned in stages, and she returned not only to the ark - but "to him".
Also later on, the emphasis is on her return "to him", and the phrases "and longing" and "and longing" appear, which express Noah's deep emotion in the context of the dove, in the direction of anticipation and beginning.
It seems that the relationship between Noah and the dove is proof of the ability to have intense feelings in almost any reality.
Even when the world is destroyed, and one small box contains all the life left on earth, the longing for a deep mental and emotional connection does not disappear.
Everything that Noah was obliged to forget and shut down in himself for the sake of survival breaks out precisely through the dove, and she also submits to his feelings.
The story of Noah and the dove is a kind of possibility that emerged at the end of the flood and towards the return to life.
The occupants of the box will not easily return to their "routine" life, and may even prefer to remain protected in the box.
Noah and Jonah present to them the chance to be excited again.
The story of Noah and the dove raises another poignant question about the relationship between humans and animals: it must be assumed that the long and complex stay in the ark of humans and animals together was expected to change the balance of terror and affection between them.
Man builds the ark, the raven and the dove carry the message of the return to earth.
The raven fulfills only a formal mission, but the dove goes beyond this, and to some extent continues the complex relationship that the animals experienced towards the humans in the ark during the flood.
She even brings an olive leaf in her mouth as evidence of what is happening on earth, similar to the spies who will return from Moses' mission and bring the fruits of the land.
She also sets out before Noah sacrifices the animals.
Does the pigeon thereby express a separate rank among the animals?
Will the prophet Jonah to some extent in thousands of years continue the journey that Jonathon began, in terms of the universal message?
The flood that came from heaven only "completed" the destruction that man had done on earth.
The closeness of Noah and the dove is the beginning of the move to try to correct the arbitrariness of the human heart and the rudeness of the spirit, as well as the denial of morality and the arrogance of the heart.
The loyalty of the dove to Noah and his identification with his mission are the chance for man to act against bad currents, even if they are very strong, and also in times of severe crisis.
To reach the soul through the Torah Dan Shapira - actor: Ali Yosef
The Torah is deeply concerned with working on the dimensions of man.
We all have strong passions, it's in our nature - jealousy, anger, sadness and arrogance are qualities that exist in all of us.
In working on the dimensions we try to learn where they come from, and how to take care of them so that they take up less space in our lives.
In other words - try to be the captains of our ship, and not allow the stormy emotions to shake us and make us react in a way that will hurt us and the other.
Yosef was a man whose line of thinking was clear and whose morals were correct.
It is not for nothing that he is called Yosef HaTzadik.
He was the favorite son of his father Jacob, which made his brothers jealous of him and throw him into the pit.
Eventually, Joseph arrived in Egypt and became viceroy there.
When his brothers arrive in Egypt and ask him for help, since there is a famine in the country, they do not know that it is their brother who they were sure was killed.
Yosef could have commanded them to be killed or imprisoned forever, but he chooses otherwise - to dance for them and bless them.
The reason lies in the verse "And now you have not sent me, for God is here."
Joseph saw in a divine vision that the action of the brothers did not come from them but from the name, and therefore he has no reason to be angry with them.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that we can learn from this, because when a person does something bad to us, the desire is not only to forgive him but more than that - to repay him a favor.
Unlike Christianity, where it is about turning the other cheek, Judaism does not offer to accept another blow, but rather the opposite - that by doing good as a counter-action, the pain of being hurt can be overcome, and also strengthen the heavenly order in the relationship.
In God's view, the injustice that was allegedly done to me was not really an injustice, and with Yosef you can see in a tangible way where it brought him.
What remains is to admit, even if at that moment it is difficult to see the full picture, and it is not easy.
I have a good time.
The year after the shemita year, in which we are now, is called "the crowd year".
Right on the holiday of Sukkot and Simchat Torah this year appears the only verse in the Torah that applies to all of us, without differences: "Gather the people, men and women, and preach and drive those who are at your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God."
From Yosef's story, I learn how important it is to learn the inner workings of the Torah, and that it is the way, at least for me, to reach the very soul.
I want to wish us that this audience year will connect and bring us closer.
Happy holiday.
The 929 project, led by Rabbi Benny Lau, works to create a connection and dialogue between Israeli society and the Bible. As part of the project, a chapter of the Bible is read every day, and over the course of three and a half years we meet with all 929 of its chapters. In Simchat Torah, the entire Jewish people celebrates the end of reading the 187 chapters of the Torah, turns the book to the beginning and starts again from Genesis. Along with the joy of the Torah, which is renewed every year, 929 is happy to invite you to join this journey, with a daily touch that connects each person to their main story.
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