ב ס ״ ד Am I Only Human? took of entrusting a part of impulses we dutifully follow, Chassidic teaching elaborates Him within us. The Book when we offer them on the Weekly on the dual and dueling forces of Leviticus begins with the altar and follow its smoky laws of sacrifices. G-d residue up to the heavens. It's within us. On the one side is March 22-28, 2020 the human soul; instinctive, demands that we surrender to scary out there beyond the 26 Adar- 3 Nissan, 5780 practical and obsessed with Him our animal, our innate known, the comfortable and Torah: Vayikra: Leviticus 1:1 - survival. In the other corner is instincts; that we live the familiar, it is always easier 5:26 the G-dly, transcendent soul; consciously, making strides to stay with the "same old Haftorah: Isaiah 43:21 - 44:23 no personal agenda, that outpace the inevitable. same old," yet that's where PARSHAT VAYIKRA completely committed to This is a personal message in value is added and a dwelling executing G-d's will. the sacrificial procedure. "A place for G-d is made. By We have Jewish Despite the common overlap man who offers from among Rabbi Baruch Epstein

Calendars. If you of interests – most things that you an offering to G-d..." Got Salt? The Torah seems would like one, refers to more than please send us a are good for the individual are to have an obsession with salt. good for G-d – chassidic surrendering our bad habits, it Among the various laws and letter and we will means doing more than can send you one, or teaching does not tolerate a details of the sacrifices in "live and let live" coexistence. "reasonably" be expected; it our Parshah, we find the

Calendars ask the means aligning with our Rabbi/Chaplain to Being human or even humane following commandment: won't cut it. We are not "only G-dly, infinitely productive And you shall salt every one

contact us. side. Avodah (service), one of human," we are part G-dly; of your meal offering the pillars upon which the Do you have family and our infinite side won't rest sacrifices with salt, and you world stands (Ethics 1:1), on the outside on good enough. We must shall not omit the salt of your includes the sacrificial struggling? outdo the preprogrammed God's covenant from [being process and its personal Please contact or natural kindness of humanity; placed] upon your meal parallel, the duty to stretch have them contact we must add value beyond the offerings. You shall offer salt beyond the intuitive. When our office to learn factory-installed equipment on all your sacrifices. the serial failure suddenly more about our we came with. We must be (Leviticus 2:13) (On a side succeeds, when father and son family programs. G-dly, not earthly. An animal note, this is the source of the turn the page on thirty years of You and they are does what it does, it makes no custom of dipping our bread estrangement, they have done

Family Programs not alone, we are choices, it makes no mistakes, into salt.) The commandment the unpredictable; they have here to help. and in fact it "makes" nothing to place salt on every sacrifice

surrendered their animal, their at all. Lions eat zebras and is repeated three times. Why well worn trends, to G-d. raccoons knock over garbage so much emphasis? We offer free Grape pails. We can be annoyed but They experience the Furthermore, why is it called Juice and Matzoh never angry with them; they miraculous, they serve G-d "the salt of your G-d's for you to be able to simply do what they do. We instead of their survival covenant"? Since when did make the blessings must never be raccoons. We instinct and they are free. The salt enter into a covenant with every Shabbos. must never settle for doing trajectory had them headed G-d? First, a Talmudic Please have your what we do simply because for repetitive failure and now teaching: Raba said, when chaplain / Rabbi we are so programmed. To be they have exceeded the man is led in for Judgment he contact us to enroll sure, our propensities are conventional, they have is asked: Did you deal in (available to all often fine and upstanding, yet caused G-d's presence to be business with integrity? Did Grape Juice & Matzah prisons). evident in the world. 2, 4, 6

if they are just our natural you fix times for ? tendencies then we have not does not dictate that 8 must Did you engage Hyman & Martha Rogal Center follow. We can achieve the 5804 Beacon Street "done" anything. Grass grows in procreation? Did you hope Pittsburgh, PA 15217 and angels praise G-d— undreamed of, past for salvation? Did you engage 412-421-0111 because they have no (disastrous) performance is in the dialectics of Torah? Fax: 412-521-5948 alternative, they are not a guarantee of future Have [you delved deeply www.alephne.org hardwired to do so. We must (calamitous) results. So we enough into your studies to [email protected] do more, infinitely more. It is need not be "only human"; the degree that] you deduced not sufficient to passively boring automatons, destined one principle from another? allow the principal capital, our to repeat our patterns till the [He may have answered in the inborn skills, to just increase end of our days. We can affirmative to all of the at the standard rate, that change our patterns when we above.] Nonetheless, only if doesn't justify the risk G-d surrender the animalistic the fear of the Lord is his IN treasure is it well. If not, it is not well for him. March 22, 2020 --- 26 Adar, 5780 This may be compared to a man who instructed Passing of (1995) Viewing the dire lack of formal provided to Jewish girls in her his agent, "Take up a kor (a large measurement) native Poland, Sarah Schenirer founded the first Bais Yaakov girls’ school in of wheat into the loft." The agent went and did Krakow in 1917. Despite some initial opposition, the Bais Yaakov school network so. When he returned, the master asked him, quickly expanded throughout Poland and beyond. Today, there are hundreds of Bais "Did you mix in a kab (small measurement) of Yaakov schools worldwide, attended by tens of thousands of students. chumtin (a preservative)"? When the agent March 23, 2020 --- 27 Adar, 5780 replied in the negative, the master said, “Then it Passing of Zedekiah (397 BCE) would've been better had you not carried it up in Zedekiah was the last king of the royal house of David to reign in the Holy Land. the first place." ( Shabbat 31a) A person He ascended the throne in 434 BCE, after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia (to may have done many wonderful things in his life; whom the kingdom of Judah was then subject) exiled King Jeconiah (Zedekiah's he may have been honest in business, learned a nephew) to Babylonia . In 425 BCE Zedekiah rebelled against Babylonian rule, and Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem (in Tevet 10 of that year); in the summer of great deal of Torah, created a family, hoped for 423 BCE the walls of Jerusalem were penetrated, the city conquered, the (first) Holy the Messiah etc., but this still does not guarantee Temple destroyed, and the people of Judah exiled to Babylonia. Zedekiah tried him passage into the next world. There is one escaping through a tunnel leading out of the city, but was captured; his sons were more criterion that is of absolute importance: fear killed before his eyes, and then he was blinded. Zedekiah languished in the royal of heaven. If one does not possess fear of heaven, dungeon in Babylonia until Nebuchadnezzar's death in 397 BCE; Evil Meroduch -- “all is not well.” The wheat in this analogy is a Nebuchadnezzar's son and successor -- freed him (and his nephew Jeconiah) on the reference to Torah and good deeds. This may be 27th of Adar, but Zedikiah died that same day. seen in its very name. The Hebrew word for March 23, 2020 --- 27 Adar, 5780 (which has the numerical Falls Ill (1992 ,(חטה) wheat is chittah value of 22. This is the number of letters in the On the 27th of Adar I, 5752 (Monday, March 2, 1992), the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, suffered a disabling stroke while praying at Hebrew alphabet, from which the Torah is the gravesite of the previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch. On the composed. The chumtin represents the fear of same date two years later, the Rebbe lost consciousness following another stroke; heaven, without which all our Torah and good three months later, on the 3rd of Tammuz 5754 (June 12, 1994), the Rebbe's soul deeds are useless. But what exactly is this ascended on high, orphaning a generation. preservative? translates it as "salty soil." March 25, 2020 --- 29 Adar, 5780 We now have the key to the mystery of salt. In Commanded 1st Mitzvah (1313 BCE) addition to being a commandment to literally Shortly before sundown on the 29th of Adar, G-d commanded Moses regarding the place salt on the offerings, our verse carries a mitzvah of sanctifying the crescent new moon and establishing a lunar calendar. profound lesson in the service of G-d. Salt adds This is the first mitzvah the Jews were given as a nation. Moses had difficulty flavor to a dish that might otherwise be tasteless envisaging the moon's appearance at the exact moment of its monthly rebirth. After the sun set, G-d showed Moses the crescent new moon of the new month of Nissan, or bland. Our fear of heaven is the salt and showing him the precise dimensions of the moon at the moment the new month is flavoring for G-d’s "food": the Torah to be consecrated. For the generations that followed, each new month was ushered and mitzvahs we serve Him on a daily basis. in when two witnesses testified before the Sanhedrin (rabbinic supreme court) that They can be tasteless and bland, and that’s not they had seen the molad, the new moon. In the 4th century CE, Hillel II foresaw that the way G-d wants it. He wants us to add salt. the Jews would no longer be able to follow a Sanhedrin-based calendar. So Hillel The salt is kavanah, the intense mental and his rabbinical court established the perpetual calendar which is followed today concentration with which we study Torah and -- until Moshiach will come and reestablish the Sanhedrin. perform mitzvahs, and the excitement and March 26, 2020 --- 1 Nissan 5780 passion that it generates. G-d repeats the Creation of man (in thought) (3761 BCE) instruction to place salt on every sacrifice three The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 10b-11a) cites two opinions as to the date of G-d's creation of the universe: according to Rabbi Eliezer: "The world was created in times because it is of utmost importance. Every Tishrei" (i.e., the sixth day of creation--the day on which Adam and Eve were bit of Torah we study and every mitzvah we created--was the 1st of Tishrei, celebrated each year as Rosh Hashanah); according perform must be infused with the passion and to Rabbi Joshua, "The world was created in Nissan." As interpreted by the excitement we feel when we recognize that we Kabbalists and the Chassidic masters, the deeper meaning of these two views is that are doing the will of G-d. That is why salt is the physical world was created in Tishrei, while the "thought" or idea of creation called “the covenant of G-d.” It is important to was created in the month of Nissan. do good, to learn Torah, to pray and to perform March 26, 2020 --- 1 Nissan 5780 mitzvahs. But quality counts. Our divine service The Patriarchs (1813-1506 BCE) must be done with passion and a sense of G-dly According to the Talmud, the three Patriarchs of the Jewish people- awareness, otherwise our offerings will be bland - Abraham (1813-1638 BCE), Isaac (1713-1533 BCE) and Jacob (1653-1506 BCE)--all were born and passed away in the month of Nissan. and tasteless. That’s why G-d reminds us, “Do March 27, 2020 --- 2 Nissan 5780 not omit the salt.” By Rabbi Sholom Kesselman Passing of Rashab (1920) The fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom DovBer ("Rashab"), was born in the White Russian town of Lubavitch in 1860. After the passing of his father, Rabbi Shmuel (in 1882), he assumed the leadership of -Lubavitch.