ד״סב Torah Journeying Through A young boy was traveling livestock and the land east of Life from Jerusalem to the the Jordan River was Weekly Galilee. He arrived at a four- especially suitable for The Torah speaks in great way crossroads and grazing. They July 4-10, 2021 detail about the journeys of 24 Tammuz – 1 Av, 5781 discovered, to his horror, asked Moses if they could the Children that the sign had fallen receive this land rather than Torah Reading: Matot-Massei: of Israel through their years Numbers 30:2 - 36:13 down. land west of the Jordan. In in the wilderness. Now he had no way to know making this reQuest they Haftarah: Jeremiah 2:4-28; The Torah specifies each expressed themselves thus: Jeremiah 4:1-2; Isaiah 66:1; Isaiah which road to take to reach 66:23-24; Isaiah 66:23 and every one of the forty- his destination. What was he "Pens for the flock we shall two journeys which they build here for our livestock, PARSHAT to do? undertook. and cities for our small MATOT-MAASEI The answer was simple. He The Torah does not just tell children." We have Jewish knew where he was coming us things for no reason. from—Jerusalem. By Immediately, Moses Calendars. If you There is always a lesson chastises them and corrects would like one, arranging the sign so that which we can take away for Jerusalem pointed to the their mistake. "Build for please send us a our everyday lives. letter and we will path he had just come from, yourselves cities for your send you one, or All of us have embarked he was able to figure out small children and pens for ask the upon many journeys which way to go. your flock." Moses turns Calendars around their sequence, Rabbi/Chaplain to throughout our lives, both When we know where we contact us. physically and spiritually. putting the children ahead of have come from, we can We make many stops along the animals. Do you have family know where we are going to. the way. These stops are This Torah remind us of this. Rashi observes that these on the outside important—they are rungs tribes were more concerned struggling? May we all strive for, and on the ladder, stages on the about their money, i.e. Please contact or ultimately reach, our way to our destination. It is livestock, than they were have them contact destination. all too easy, once we get about their sons and our office to learn there, to forget about the By Rabbi Mordechai more about our daughters. Moses needed to stages we passed along the Wollenberg family programs. give them a lesson in values way. Sometimes we forget You and they are Priorities and Price and priorities. Put family about the people who helped first. Possessions come later. Family Programs not alone, we are Tags us along the way. here to help. Is it the money or the man, The veteran American The Torah reminds us that the cash or the kids? Of spiritual leader, even though we may have We offer free Grape course, no one would ever Rabbi David Hollander, reached our destination, we Juice and Matzoh admit to putting money once told me the story of a should always be cognizant for you to be able to ahead of their children; but is fellow who somehow of the path which brought us make the blessings it not an all too common managed to get himself there and not take for every Shabbos. phenomenon? Aren't most locked in inside a big granted those who have Please have your parents, even good parents, department store after they encouraged and guided us chaplain / Rabbi guilty of making that closed up for the day. To throughout our “journeys.” contact us to enroll mistake now and then? compound the problem, it (available to all Those previous stages may was over a holiday weekend. In this week's Parshah the Grape Juice & Matzah prisons). seem like mere “stepping- When all his attempts to get Jewish People are preparing stones” now that we have out proved futile, he decided Hyman & Martha Rogal Center for the conquest reached our goal, but they to give vent to his 5804 Beacon Street of Canaan and the allotment are nonetheless important. frustrations by taking Pittsburgh, PA 15217 of the Promised Land 412-421-0111 At the time, they represented revenge on the store amongst the twelve tribes Fax: 412-521-5948 a journey, progress, a step management. He spent the of Israel, when the tribes www.alephne.org closer to our destination. time of his incarceration [email protected] of Reuben and Gad make a They are still important now, swapping price tags as without them we would special request of Moses. not be where we are today. They had abundant herds of IN JEWISH HISTORY Sunday, July 4, 2021 --- 24 Tammuz, 5781 on the merchandise. The result? A mink coat Jews of Jerusalem are set aflame (1099) was now priced at $29.99, a necktie at $999.00. When the crusaders captured Jerusalem during the First Crusade, the Jews of Jerusalem fled into a synagogue. The crusaders then set flame to the synagogue, burning alive all the Jewish Furniture was going for the price of peanuts, the men, women, and children who had taken refuge there. All Jews were barred from living in latest hi-fi for a song, and a set of underwear the city of Jerusalem for the following 88 years. was absolutely unaffordable! Imagine the chaos Monday, July 5, 2021 --- 25 Tammuz, 5781 when the store reopened. Passing of Rabbi Aharon Berachia of Modina (1639) The question is, are our own price tags correctly Rabbi Aharon Berachia ben Moshe of Modina (? - 1639) was an Italian Kabbalist and a marked? Do we value the things in our own student of Rabbi Menachem Azariah of Fano. At the request of the Burial Society at Mantua, he instituted rites for them. The author of many Kabbalistic works, he is perhaps best known lives correctly? Are our priorities in order? Or for his work Ma'abar Yabbok, which contains mystical dissertations on purity and holiness. do we too put the cattle and the sheep — the car He also wrote additional prayers to be offered for the sick and the dead, as well as a code of and the office — ahead of our children? conduct for their treatment. Many of the prayers recited at the gravesites of the deceased were composed by him. How many workaholic husbands have told their Tradition has it that an angel called a "maggid" would come and study with him, similar to wives, "Honey, I'm doing it all for you and the the angel that would visit Rabbi Yosef Caro. kids." But the businesses we are busy building Tuesday, July 6, 2021 --- 26 Tammuz, 5781 for them actually take us away from them in the Frankists Vanquished (1759) most important and formative years of their The Frankist sect was created by Jacob Frank, who claimed to be the reincarnation of the lives. Rightly has it been said, "the best thing false Messiah Shabbetai Zvi. In the mid-1700’s, he sought to create a new religion that would incorporate both Judaism and Christianity, leading to the formation of the Frankist you can spend on your kids is not money but sect, centered in Poland. time." In 5519 (1759), the bishop of Lvov arranged for a debate between the Frankists and three I've seen many people become "successes" over prominent Jewish leaders: R. Israel of Mezhibuzh (the Baal Shem Tov), R. Chaim Rappaport, and R. Yitzchak Dovber Margulies. The four-day debate ended with a the years. They achieve professional success, resounding victory for the rabbis, and the date was instituted as a day of rejoicing, career success, business success, growing their celebrating the successful halt of the Frankists’ evil influence. (Hatamim, pp. 550, 558. See fame and fortunes. Too many in the process also Igros Kodesh, vol. 19, p. 81) have become family failures. At the end of the Wednesday, July 7, 2021 --- 27 Tammuz, 5781 day, our deepest satisfaction in life comes not Third expulsion from France (1322) from our professional achievements but from After having been allowed back into France in the year 1315 (after the expulsion in 1306 by our family — the growth, stability and Philip IV), the Jews were once again expelled from France by Charles IV, who thus broke the pledge made by his predecessors in 1315 that the Jews would be able to stay in France togetherness that we have nurtured over the for at least 12 years. years — what our Jewish parents and grandparents simply called nachas. Thursday, July 8, 2021 --- 28 Tammuz, 5781 Passing of "Yismach Moshe" (1841) To paraphrase the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Tammuz 28 is the yahrzeit of Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum (1759-1841) of Uhely, Hungary, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, "Jewish author of Yismach Moshe and patriarch of the Hungarian Chassidic dynasties. wealth is not measured in property portfolios or Passing of Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried (1886) Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried (1804-1886) was born in Uzhhorod (Ungvar) in the Carpathian stocks and bonds; true Jewish wealth is being region of the Habsburg Empire (now Ukraine). When he was eight years old, Shlomo's blessed with children who walk in the ways father, Rabbi Yosef, passed way, and Ungvar's chief rabbi, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Heller, of G-d." For that, we need to be there for them assumed legal guardianship of Shlomo.