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PARSHAT DEVARIM Cunning

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PARSHAT DEVARIM Cunning בס״ד Torah MEMORY On the Shabbat down and wept. "By the rivers misery, desolation and tragedy, prior to Tisha B'Av, the Jewish of Babylon we sat and wept what thought preoccupied his Weekly national day of mourning, we remembering Zion." What did mind? That the Talmud should we cry for? Our lost wealth, still be studied. This was his will hear the famous Haftarah 04 – 10 August, 2019 (reading from the Prophets) of homes and businesses? No. We last wish on earth. Was it 3 Av – 9 Av, 5779 Chazon, the "Vision of Isaiah." cried for Zion and Jerusalem. madness, or is it the very secret Torah: Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22 "If I forget thee 'O Jerusalem, of our survival? Haftorah: Isaiah 1:1-27 And on Tishah B'Av itself, we will recall the destruction of let my right hand lose its Only if we refuse to forget, PARSHAT DEVARIM cunning. If I fail to elevate our Holy Temple nearly 2,000 only if we observe Tisha B'av, We have Jewish years ago by fasting and Jerusalem above my foremost can we hope to rebuild one day. Calendars. If you mourning and the other joy, then let my tongue cleave Indeed, the Talmud assures us, would like one, observances of the day. to its palate." We were not "Whosoever mourns for please send us a weeping for ourselves or our But why remember? The world Jerusalem, will merit to witness letter and we will lost liberties but for the cannot understand why we go her rejoicing." If we are to send you one, or heavenly city and the Holy make it back to Zion, if our on about the Holocaust—and Temple. Amidst the bondage, Calendars ask the that was only 60 years ago! For people are to harbor the hope of Rabbi/Chaplain to we aspired to rebuild; amidst being restored and revived, over 19 centuries, we have the ruins we dreamt of contact us. then we dare not forget. We been remembering and returning. observing this event and it has need to observe our National Do you have family And because we refused to Day of Mourning. Forego the on the outside become the saddest day in our calendar. Why? Why not let forget Jerusalem, we did return. movies and the restaurants. Sit struggling? Because we refused to accept down on a low seat to mourn Please contact or bygones be bygones? It's history. What was was. Why defeat or accept our exile as a with your people; and perhaps have them contact historical fait accompli, we even more importantly, to our office to learn keep revisiting old and painful visions? have rebuilt proud Jewish remember. And, please G‑d, more about our communities the world over, He will restore those glorious family programs. They say that Napoleon was while our victors have been days and rebuild His own You and they are once passing through the vanquished by time. Today everlasting house. May it be Family Programs not alone, we are Jewish ghetto in Paris and there are no more Babylonians speedily in our day. here to help. heard sounds of crying and and the people who now live in by Rabbi Yossy Goldman wailing emanating from a Rome are not the Romans who We offer free Grape synagogue. He stopped to ask destroyed the Second Temple. HOW’S YOUR VISION? Juice and Matzoh what the lament was about. He Those nations became history What does it mean to be for you to be able to was told that the Jews were while we, inspired by memory, visionary, to have a vision for make the blessings remembering the destruction of emerged revitalized and your life and pursuits? In a every Shabbos. their Temple. "When did it regenerated and forever it will basic sense, this means Please have your happen?" asked the Emperor. be true that Am Yisrael Chai — conceptualizing goals and chaplain / Rabbi "Some 1700 years ago," was the people of Israel lives! objectives; it means the answer he received. considering future potential contact us to enroll I remember hearing a story of a (available to all Whereupon Napoleon stated and focusing on a target for with conviction that a people Torah scholar and his nephew growth. It means recognizing GrapeJuice &Matzah prisons). who were in the Holocaust. In who never forgot its past would that “now” isn’t all that there is. be destined to forever have a the concentration camp, they “Now”—disconnected from Hyman & Martha Rogal Center studied the Talmud together. 5804 Beacon Street future. the future and its Pittsburgh, PA 15217 They were learning the tractate possibilities—can be stale and Jews never had history. We Moed Katan, a part of the 412-421-0111 have memory. History can aimless. “Now” is our reality; Fax: 412-521-5948 Talmud that, ironically, but vision can breathe www.alephne.org become a book, a museum, and discusses the laws of commitment, animation and [email protected] forgotten antiquities. Memory mourning. And when the time is alive. And memory hope into that reality. came that the uncle saw himself guarantees our future. staring death in the face, he said Vision brings optimism and Even amidst the ruins, we to his nephew, "Promise me direction. It is the North Star refused to forget. The first that if you survive you will which guides the efforts that actually bring our dream to life. temple was destroyed by the finish studying this book of Babylonians. As they led the Moed Katan." Amidst the The problem is that with the Jews into captivity, the Jews sat passage of time it becomes IN JEWISH HISTORY more difficult for the realistic person to continue dreaming. August 4, 2019 - 3 Av, 5779 Disappointments eventually take their toll on the human Passing of R. Shimshon of Ostropolle (1648). R. Shimshon psyche. Which raises the question: When does one learn to of Ostropolle was a saintly individual who was greatly revered adjust one’s expectations and recognize that that dreams are both in his lifetime and beyond. It is told that an angel called a . just dreams? Never. While we should always be acutely maggid would come and reveal secrets of Torah to him, and that aware of reality, warts and all, we can never stop believing he merited revelations from Elijah the Prophet. He himself in—and working toward—a brighter future. Consider this: records kabbalistic insights that were revealed to him in dreams. Our Holy Temple, along with our entire Jewish R. Shimshon authored Dan Yadin, a kabbalistic commentary, commonwealth, was destroyed by the Romans almost two as well as numerous other unpreserved works. Additionally, thousand years ago. It’s been rough ever since, and we’re many of his interpretations that were preserved orally have been fully aware of our reality. Every year, on Tisha B’Av, the collected and published. R. Shimshon died a martyr’s death at 9th of Av, we mournfully remember the destruction and the hands of a Cossack mob during the Chmielnicki Massacres, while wrapped in his tallit and tefillin. recognize the pain of our own times. Yet, interestingly, the preceding Shabbat is always observed as a “Shabbat of August 5, 2019 - 4 Av, 5779 Vision.” The Shabbat’s reading from the Prophets begins Passing of R. Menachem Mendel of Fano (1620). R. with the words Chazon Yeshayahu, the “vision of Isaiah” Menachem Azariah of Fano, Italy, was a famed Talmudic regarding the destruction of the Holy Temple. scholar and kabbalist. A prolific author, he composed numerous Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, an eighteenth-century works in both kabbalah and Jewish law, the most famous of legendary chassidic master, taught a deeper reason for the which is Asarah Maamaros, a collection of kabbalistic treatises. moniker “Shabbat of Vision.” Every year, he explained, on Additionally, he used his wealth to obtain and publish the works the Shabbat before our collective day of mourning, G‑d of other great sages (such as R. Yosef Caro’s Kessef Mishneh). shows us a Vision of the Future. We are shown a vision of a R. Menachem Azariah was a devoted follower of the great rebuilt Temple, a reconstituted people and a better world. kabbalist R. Moshe Cordovero, whom he also lent financial support. Later, he was introduced to the kabbalistic doctrines of G‑d equips us for the mourning by ensuring that hope—he R. Yitzchak Luria (the Arizal), which he embraced Vision—never diesG‑d equips us for the mourning by wholeheartedly as well. ensuring that hope—the Vision—never dies; this Shabbat ensures that our sobering recognition of “now” doesn’t August 6, 2019 - 5 Av, 5779 Rabbi Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, known smother our hope for the future. I can’t see this divinely Passing of "Ari" (1572). as Ari HaKadosh ("The Holy Lion") passed away on the 5th of granted vision with my physical eyes. But if G‑d is showing Av of the year 5332 from creation (1572 CE). Born in Jerusalem it to me, it must be resonating somewhere in my soul. So this in 1534, he spent many years in secluded study near Cairo, Shabbat, I’ll prepare to tackle reality on Tisha B’Av by first Egypt. In 1570 he settled in Safed, where he lived for two years searching myself to find G‑d’s vision of a beautiful future. until his passing at age 38. During that brief period, the Ari Will you join me? By Mendy Herson revolutionized the study of Kabbalah, and came to be NINE DAYS During the “Nine Days" from Av 1st to the universally regarded as one of the most important figures in Ninth of Av, we mourn the destruction of the Holy Temple.
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