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Parshat Eikev בס״ד Torah BREAD, BUCKS, AND to this verse as well. Man does wall; perhaps he was milling not live by bread alone. The grain, or pumping water that MAKING A LIVING human spirit is such that we irrigated many fields. In his Weekly Man does not live by bread crave more than bread. mind’s eye he saw the 18 - 24 August, 2019 alone. A famous line (it even Human beings are never plentiful crops and the sacks 17 Av – 23 Av, 5779 figured prominently in an ad satisfied with money or of milled grain feeding Torah: for a burger chain some years materialism alone. Money is thousands of people. After Deuteronomy 7:12 - 1:25 ago), but what does it mean? important, but we cannot live twenty-five years of hard Haftorah: The verse comes from this by money exclusively. What labor, when he was about to Isaiah 49:14 - 51:3 week’s Torah reading, and is about job satisfaction? I know be released, the prisoner PARSHAT EIKEV a number of individuals in our asked to be shown the a reference to the miraculous We have Jewish manna, which fell from community who willingly apparatus behind the prison gave up lucrative positions for wall. There was nothing Calendars. If you heaven daily during the would like one, Jewish people’s sojourn in the less rewarding ones, because there! The wheel was just a please send us a wilderness. The conclusion of they found their work wheel—all his “work” had letter and we will the verse is that “rather, by the unstimulating. They were served no useful purpose. The send you one, or utterance of G‑d’s mouth does making lots of cash, but there man collapsed in a dead faint, Calendars ask the man live.” Thus, it is was no emotional reward. I absolutely devastated. His Rabbi/Chaplain to reminding us about the true also know people who have it life’s work had been in vain. contact us. source of human sustenance. all financially, but who are We have a deep-seated need Contrary to popular belief, it nonetheless unhappy people. to know that our life’s work is Do you have family They are very successful— purposeful, physically and on the outside is neither our earthly toil, nor and very miserable. The spiritually. When we struggling? the sweat of our brow, nor all successes we achieve do not understand that every good Please contact or those conferences, meetings have them contact and sales seminars that ensure guarantee our happiness. deed is attached to a complex our office to learn our success. The reality is that After we’ve bought the house spiritual apparatus, that our more about our it is G‑d who sustains us and of our dreams, and our fantasy every action meshes with a family programs. looks after us, in the very sports car, and the latest cell systematic structure of cosmic You and they are same way as our ancestors phones, laptops and DVDs, significance, then our lives we tire of them all. For become endowed with a Family Programs not alone, we are trekking through the desert here to help. were totally dependent on satisfaction to be lasting, it deeper sense of meaning and Him for their daily bread. must be more than material; it purpose. We desperately need We offer free Grape Wealth is a G‑dly gift. At the must be spiritual. We need to know that, in some way, Juice and Matzoh end of the day, it is not our more than bread and money; our work is helping others— for you to be able to business acumen alone that we need stimulation and a that we are making a make the blessings provides our daily bread, but sense of meaningful contribution to society every Shabbos. the blessings from Above achievement. We need to beyond our own selfish needs. Please have your which endow our efforts with know that our lives have Then, we live. Then we are chaplain / Rabbi success. Ask anyone in sales purpose, and that somehow happy. Man does not live by contact us to enroll how often their best-laid plans we have made a difference. bread alone. We simply (available to all and pitches have come to We want to be assured that cannot. GrapeJuice &Matzah prisons). naught, and then, out of the our work is productive and by Rabbi Yossy Goldman blue, a big order comes in will have lasting value. They Hyman & Martha Rogal Center tell the story of a prisoner in a REWARD?! 5804 Beacon Street with little or no effort. Of Pittsburgh, PA 15217 course, it’s not the rule, and Russian labor camp whose One of the primary 412-421-0111 we must be prepared to put in job it was to turn a heavy distinctions between the first Fax: 412-521-5948 effort if we are to succeed. wheel attached to a wall. For paragraph of the Shema www.alephne.org twenty-five years the prisoner (recorded in last week's Torah [email protected] But when it does happen, it reminds us that there are worked at his backbreaking reading) and the second higher forces, beyond our labor. He assumed that this paragraph (in this week's) is control, at work. wheel must be attached to a the latter's reference to reward mill on the other side of the for observance. What is the But there’s another meaning IN JEWISH HISTORY role of reward in Jewish life? It seems to be a mixed August 19, 2019 -18 Av, 5779 bag. On one hand, the belief that G‑d rewards Western Lamp Extinguished (c. 578 BCE). Every evening, the righteous behavior and punishes transgression is one priest would kindle the seven lights of the menorah in the Holy of the 13 fundamental tenets of our faith. On the Temple. Miraculously, although six of the seven candles would other hand, we are implored to be "like a servant who burn out, the western lamp would remain lit until the following serves his master not for the sake of reward" (Ethics evening. During the reign of the idolatrous King Ahaz (father of the of the Fathers 1:3). There are numerous verses pious King Hezekiah), this miracle discontinued. The first time the promising benefit for obedience, counterbalanced by western lamp was found to have extinguished was on 18 Menachem an abundance of ethical writings (particularly Av (or, according to other versions, 17 Menachem Av). (Shulchan emphasized in Chassidic teaching) disparaging Aruch, Orach Chaim 580:2) reward as shallow and superficial. August 20, 2019 - 19 Av, 5779 So if G‑d wants us to "perform the true service Passing of Rabbi Yaakov Culi (1732). Born in Jerusalem in 1689 simply because it is true" (as Maimonides puts it), (5449?), Yaakov Culi moved to Constantinople, Turkey, where he why does He distract us with promises of found adequate facilities and financial backing to publish the scholarly output of his learned grandfather, Rabbi Moses ibn Habib, recompense? Is it a proper to give someone an including classics such as Get Pashut and Ezrat Nashim. The incentive if it's essentially not in his or her best brilliant young scholar quickly came to the attention of the chief interest? rabbi of Constantinople, Yehuda Rosanes, the undisputed leader of But perhaps we have it backwards. We tend to Sephardic Jewry at the time, and he was appointed to the beth din perceive reward as a motivation to serve or an (rabbinical court). Upon the passing of Rosanes, Rabbi Yaakov affirmation of achievement, but perhaps its primary edited and published his late teacher’s writings with his own purpose is not our benefit at all; perhaps rewarding additional glosses: Mishneh Lamelech on Maimonides’s Mishneh us is gratifying to G‑d. Torah and Perishat Derachim. Chassidic teaching emphasizes that all of creation, Toward the end of his own short life, Rabbi Culi began work on the including our divine service, is designed for G‑d's Mea’am Loez, a compendium of rabbinic lore and commentary on interests. That includes reward. Rewarding us serves all books of Scriptures. He wrote in Ladino, then the common language of the Sephardic diaspora. Unfortunately, he never G‑d; it is what He wants. A parent longs to give to completed his project and passed away on 19th Av, 5492 (1732), his child. A husband's desire to shower his wife with having only completed the book Genesis and most of Exodus. presents is even stronger than her enthusiasm for the However, subsequent scholars used his extensive notes to finish the gifts, for a material object certainly cannot capture work. Popular to this day, the Mea’am Loez has been translated into the intensity of their relationship. It is an expression many languages, including Hebrew, English, and even Arabic. of his appreciation, and she delights him far more by August 21, 2019 - 20 Av, 5779 receiving and enjoying it than she benefits from its Zohar Published (1558). First printing of the Zohar, the practical use. fundamental work of the Kabbalah (Jewish esoteric and mystical It can be hard to accept gifts, sometimes even earned teachings), authored by the Talmudic sage, Rabbi Shimon Bar rewards. It's awkward. Yet refusal can be insulting. Yochai. How odd: one suggests that another retain his property, and the donor is hurt, even offended. By Passing of R. Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (1944). Av 20 is the accepting the present, one enables the benefactor to yahrtzeit (anniversary of the passing) of the Lubavitcher Rebbe's express himself, to actualize his needs.
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