Sichos Sivan-Elul 5740

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-98- The above encouragement which we draw from Shabbos Rosh Chodesh Tammuz should inspire us to do more the nearer we get to the 12th-13th of Tammuz, especially in this, the hundredth anni versary of the birthday of the Previous Rebbe. 2. There is a perplexing question about this week's Parshah. Why is it called Parshas Korach when Korach was the one who quar reled with "Moshe who is true, and his Torah which is true?" In stead of having his name perpetuated, shouldn't it be counted among "the names of the wicked should rot?" The Gemorah (Yoma 38b) comments on the names of the wicked saying, "their names should rot by not mentioning them." This would be especially true in this case since there is a commandment "do not be like Korach and his company." This question is compounded by the fact that most Parshiyos are named after the first word in the Parshah (e.g. Vayeira, Vayeitze, Vayishlach etc). In this Parshah, however, the proce dure is changed. Instead of the first word in the Parshah, Vayikach, the second word, Korach, was chosen! The puzzle becomes more complex when we consider the follow ing: In Parshas "Vayeitze" the second word, "Ya'akov," is not in eluded in the Parshah's name. Why then is this week's Parshah given the name Korach when Korach was a wicked person who rebelled against Moshe? Although the name Korach is mentioned in the Torah, Korach is no where found as the name of the Parshah given in the Mishnah, the Gemorah, or in the Bereisah. It is first mentioned in the works of the Geonim, and then by the Rambam, and it has now become the custom of Jews to call the name of this Parshah Korach. Why was the name Korach chosen for the name of this Parshah? To understand the explanation we must make a distinction be tween the individual Korach and the rebellion of Korach (C). Due to his illustrious ancestors, Korach's spiritual level was very high. Korach descended from Ya'akov Avinu, as it is stated in Chronicles (I, 6:22-23), "Korach the son of Yitzhor, the son of Kehos, the son of Levi, the son of Yisroel (Ya'akov)." As a child Korach's "breath was pure, without sin," and still later he was one of the "bearers of the ark." It was only later (C) This dichotomy is also applicable to the Meraglim (spies) who were sent out by Moshe. These spies were the princes of the people, and were personally chosen by Moshe. It was their sin which was grievous, not they themselves. (Chassidus explains that their sin was actually of a lofty nature, that they didn't want to descend from their high spiritual level to go into Eretz Yis- reel where they would have to deal with the physical world.) STUDENTS' TRANSLATION - UNEDITED.

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Parshat Vayishlach 5770
Torat Imecha: Women’s Torah Weekly Brought to you by Naaleh.com Parshat Vayishlach: The Dual Meaning of the Ox and the Donkey Based on a Naaleh.com shiur on Chassidut by Rabbi Herschel Reichman As Yaakov nears the land of Israel, he sends angels as messengers to his brother Esav. The Shem MiShmuel finds several aspects about this incident puzzling. Why did Yaakov tell Esav, “I had an ox and a donkey in the house of Lavan?” Additionally, since he was met by the angels of Israel while the angels of Chutz L’aaretz were still with him, he selected angels from both groups to go to Esav. Why did he need both types of angels and what was the difference between them? The Shem MiShmuel explains that there are seven inhabited continents that comprise the world. The land of Israel is at the center with three continents on each side. Shabbat, similarly, is the focal point of the week. We prepare for Shabbat during the three days that precede it, and we bask in the glow of the previous Shabbat for the three days that follow. The Gemara says there are weekday angels and Shabbat angels. The Shabbat angels correspond to Eretz Yisrael, and the weekday angels relate to the other six continents. The midrash on Breishit discusses a disagreement about the day on which G-d created angels. Rabbi Yochanan maintains that they were created on the second day, while Rabbi Chanina states that they were created on the fifth day. The Shem Mishmuel suggests that both opinions are correct.
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Jacob Benmosche Lieberman
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VAYISHLACH (And He Sent)
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Welcome to Spark2, the Tribe Weekly Parsha Activity Sheet for Children's Service Leaders Across the United Synagogue Communiti
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Parshat Vayechi
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Vayishlach Beresheet (Genesis) 32:4 – 36:43
Vayishlach Beresheet (Genesis) 32:4 – 36:43 Jacob spends 20 years in Haran, and on his journey back to Canaan prepares to meet Esau. Before he meets him, he sends gifts ahead hoping to avoid a confrontation. He divides his family into two camps, sending them to safety. A “man” comes to Jacob that night and wrestles with him until dawn. He wrenches Jacob’s thigh, but Jacob will not release him. Jacob demands a blessing from the “man,” who gives Jacob a new name … Yisrael, “for he had striven with divine beings and prevailed.” Jacob then meets Esau and they are reconciled. Esau wants Jacob and his household to travel on to Seir with him, but Jacob says that because of the frailty of the children and flocks, he will lag behind. Jacob settles in Shechem, a city in Canaan. One day Dinah, his daughter, goes out to the fields and is assaulted by Shechem, a Canaanite, who ultimately wishes to marry her. Her brothers convince the male inhabitants of Shechem to be circumcised so that marriages may take place between Jacob’s household and the Canaanites. On the third day after the circumcisions, while the Canaanites are still in pain, Jacob’s sons rise up in retaliation. Jacob expresses anger, reminding his sons that they are few in number and may easily be destroyed by the rest of the inhabitants of the land. The brothers respond by saying that they were defending the honor of their sister. G-d tells Jacob to go to Bethel and build an altar.
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December 2016~Kislev~Tevet 5777
SERVICES SCHEDULE December 2016 Kislev-Tevet 5777 Thursday 1 December Rosh Chodesh Kislev Saturday 17 December Shabbat Vayishlach Service Leaders: Stuart Reuben and Paul Wilton Friday 2 December NB No Pot Luck Dinner Shammos: Terry Haffern Service Leaders: Steve Daniels Torah Reader: Stuart Reuben Shammos: Arthur Berman Torah Portion: Vayishlach Gen 32.4-36:43 (Plaut 217, Hertz 122) Board Rep: Olga Bernstein Haftarah Reader: Dan Cohen Drash: Haftarah Portion: Obadiah 1:1-1:21 (Herz 137) Board Rep: Sarah Livschitz Saturday 3 December Shabbat Toledot Drash: Gillian Merron (Chief Executive from the Board of Deputies, British Jews). Double Bar Mitzvah Noam and Ariel Lazarus Service Leaders: Noam and Ariel Lazarus with Terry Gelbart Friday 23 December Shammos: Chris and Jessamie Milton and Peter Pountney Service Leader: Elena Bloksberg, Jessamie Milton and Harvey Livschitz Torah Readers: Noam and Ariel Lazarus Shammos: Chris Milton Torah Portion: Toledot Genesis 25.19-28.9 (Plaut 173 and Hertz 93) Board Rep: Sally Natan Haftarah Portion: Malachi 1:1-2:7 (Plaut 341 and Hertz 102) Drash: Harvey Livschitz Board Rep: Alistair Kirk Drash: Noam and Ariel Lazarus Saturday 24 December Shabbat Va-Yeshev Service Leaders: Chris Shiller and Jaden Grauman Friday 9 December Pot luck dinner. Please bring vegetarian food, fish or a dessert to share. Shammos: Dan Cohen Service Leaders: B’nei Mishnah Class with Chris Milton. Torah Reader: Jaden Grauman and Adele Miller Hebrew School service. Torah Portion: Vayeshev Gen 37:1-40:23 (Plaut 244, Hertz 141) Shammos:
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Parshas Vayishlach – the Power of Ma'aser (Tithing
Breslov’s View On Doctors & Medicine written by Meir Elkabas | December 10, 2018 Reb Meir Elkabas gives an overview of Rebbe Nachman’s view on medicine and doctors–and it may not be what you think! If you like this video please share it with your friends. The more people who SHARE, LIKE, and COMMENT, the more videos we make. To Believe in Oneself written by breslov.org | December 10, 2018 Reb Noson would often teach that each person must believe in oneself, no matter what lowly spiritual level they find themselves. God wants him and yearns for his prayers and praise; because this is God’s ultimate truth! King David declared, “I will also thank you for your truth with a stringed instrument, my God…” (Psalm 71:22) [Reb Noson would paraphrase,] “Master of the Universe, such is your truth that even I will also praise You! Even in my insignificant and lowly stature, still You want me to praise You – for such is Your truth! (Quoted from Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Bender) The Hebrew words kli nevel mentioned in the verse above, which usually means a stringed instrument, can also be translated as a withered and ugly vessel. This means that even with my perceived impure and unholy spiritual vessels, it is Your will and truth that I still endlessly thank you. ~ Otzer Nachmani, Volume I, 51, (Page 62) It is Time to Vanquish the Darkness written by Dovid Mark | December 10, 2018 The darkness surrounds us, weakening our ability to see the light that permeates our world. This darkness is part of the fabric of our exile, intertwined within our broken world.
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Shabbat Vayetze November 27-28 Vayetze a Teaching from Rabbi
Shabbat Vayetze November 27-28 Candle Lighting: 4:13 PM / Shabbat Ends: 5:16 PM Torah Reading: Genesis 28:10 - 32:3 Haftarah: Hosea 12:13 - 14:10 Vayetze A Teaching from Rabbi Weintraub--Your Whole Self As we completed last week’s Torah Portion, Toldot, Jacob was vulnerable, on the run, fleeing the wrath of his brother Esau to seek refuge with his Uncle Laban in Charan. In Parshat Vayetze, now in Charan, Laban becomes Jacob’s father-in-law and employer, and shamelessly deceives and exploits his nephew. Despite the abuse, Jacob makes it. He takes two wives and two concubines, fathers eleven children, and through relentless, backbreaking work,”grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, maidservants and menservants, camels and asses” (Genesis 30:43). Then, suddenly, at this height of success, Jacob becomes uncomfortable and decides to flee. “Jacob also saw the countenance of Laban, and behold, it was not with him as in earlier days” (Genesis 31:2). What does it mean that Laban was “not with him as in earlier days”? Wasn’t Laban, always a crook, still a crook? Now, however, Jacob sees with new clarity his dependence on Laban. The dependence is not hard to understand. Jacob’s father, Isaac, had favored his brother Esau because Esau was able to hunt and provide: “Isaac loved Esau, because the hunt was in his mouth” (Genesis 25:28). So, displaced from his home but still longing for his father, Jacob struggles and establishes prosperous estates for his uncle, father-in-law, and substitute father, Laban.
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Shabbat December 14, 2019 Vayishlach Torah Reading, Genesis 32:4 – 36:43
Shabbat December 14, 2019 Vayishlach Torah Reading, Genesis 32:4 – 36:43 Vayishlach begins with Jacob preparing to meet his brother Esau for the first time since having cheated him out of his birthright many years before. Jacob is understandably frightened of his brother and sends ahead lavish gifts to propitiate him. While waiting for the gifts to be delivered, Jacob has the second of his famous dreams. Or was it a dream? The text tells us that a man wrestles with him until dawn and Jacob is then given the new name “Israel” because he wrestled with a divine being and prevailed. Jacob is wounded in the struggle, though, his thigh having been dislocated. The Torah then says that because of his injury the children of Israel are forbidden from eating the thigh muscle of animals. Jewish tradition identifies the forbidden part of the animal as the sciatic nerve. When Jacob and Esau finally do meet, the tension is high. Jacob prostrates himself, trying to show his sincere attempts at reconciliation in the face of what he fears will be continuing anger. But as he gets closer it is clear that Esau is thrilled to be reunited with his brother. Their meeting is lovely and poignant, as they embrace and kiss and both cry, presumably for all the lost years of brotherly companionship. Jacob says, memorably, “When I see your face it’s like seeing the face of G-d.” The parasha moves on to the story of Dinah, the only one of Jacob’s daughters who is given a name in the Torah.
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Parshat Vayishlach Weekly Dvar Torah Self-Assessment
Parshat Vayishlach 16 Kislev 5776 / November 28, 2015 Daf Yomi: Sotah 33; Nach Yomi: 2 Divrei Hayomim 18 Weekly Dvar Torah A project of the NATIONAL COUNCIL OF YOUNG ISRAEL SPONSORED BY THE HENRY, BERTHA AND EDWARD ROTHMAN FOUNDATION ROCHESTER, NY,CLEVELAND, OHIO, CIRCLEVILLE, OHIO Self-assessment Rabbi Lawrence Teitelman Mara D'atra, Young Israel of New Hyde Park There is a popular academic joke about three scientists: a physicist, a biologist, and a mathematician. They are sitting in a cafe staking out a nearby residence when they see two people enter the house. But a while later, three people emerge. The physicist declares: "Experimental error, we counted wrong." The biologist announces: "They reproduced." The mathematician concludes: "If exactly one person will now go into the house, the house will be empty." Each year as I read Parashat Vayishlach I am reminded of this story of the three scientists, and recall an insight from Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch. Upon his return to Eretz Yisrael, Yaakov Avinu remarks (Bereshit 32:11): Katonti mikol hachasadim umikol haemet asher asita im avdekha, ki bemakli avarti et hayarden hazeh veata hayiti lishnei machanot – I have become too small from all the kindness and all the faithfulness that You have rendered to Your servant, for with [only] my staff I crossed this Yarden, and now I have become two camps. Rav Hirsch comments: I [Jacob] am not praying and appealing for myself; I have already received from You so much that I am unable to thank You for it all; I am diminished from all the kindness.
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Points to Ponder Vayishlach 5777 and Yaakov Sent Messengers (32:4)
Points to Ponder Vayishlach 5777 And Yaakov sent messengers (32:4) – Rashi notes that there is a difference of opinion if these were real Malachim or messengers. But assuming that they were real Malachim why was he allowed to send them? Why utilize a miracle when a regular person would have been enough? Rav Moshe Feinstein ztl. explained that to the truly Shalem person, it was not the utilization of a miracle. To Yaakov it didn’t matter if the messenger was a Malach or a human. If he was bringing the word of Hashem THAT was the impressive part. One who needs to see the miracle in order to believe is really not as faithful beyond the miracle (See further “The Warmth and the Light” P. Vayetze and Michtav MiEliyahu I: p. 178-9). I lived with Lavan (32:5) – Rashi famously quotes 2 ideas – that I lived with Lavan and was not some sort of leader and the idea that Yaakov lived with Lavan and kept the 613 mitzvos. One approach is humbling and the other is competitive and challenging. How can they both reflect Yaakov’s intent? Kli Yakar suggests that Yaakov was telling Eisav that you cannot assume that the Berachos worked magically for you see that they didn’t. Therefore Eisav should realize that no matter what, Yitzchak’s Beracha will fall on the head of whomever it was intended. Rav Bernard Weinberger Shlita adds that the message is actually one of strength. Yaakov was telling Eisav that only one who knows he is undeserving – only one who sees himself as undeserving of being a Sar V’Chashuv in this house – and keeps the 613 even in Lavan’s – will be successful in this world.
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