Digging for Water

Parshas Toldos

Posted on November 27, 2024 (5785) By Rabbi Naftali Reich | Series: Legacy | Level: Beginner

What do we really know about Isaac, the second of our three patriarchs? The Torah presents vivid and detailed accounts of the lives of his father Abraham and his son Jacob, but Isaac himself always remains an obscure and mysterious figure. We see Abraham prepared to sacrifice him on the mountaintop. We see Abraham seeking a bride for him. We see him bless his sons when he feels death approaching. And in the between, we see him embroiled in a dogged dispute with the Philistines. Isaac digs wells, and as soon as he finds water, the Philistines fill them or claim ownership for themselves.

 

What was so significant about the incident of the wells that the Torah saw fit to record it for all time? What does it tell us about the person inside this enigma named Isaac?

 

The commentators explain that the life work of each of the patriarchs was to blaze a path along which the Jewish people would be able to draw closer to the Creator. Abraham, the paragon of kindness, hospitality and unbounded love, demonstrated that a relationship with the Creator could be forged on the basis of a heart overflowing with compassion. But Isaac perceived that more avenues were required, that it was far too limiting to expect all future Jewish people to derive their spiritual and religious energies from the emotional outpourings of the heart. What would happen if circumstances deprived people of sufficient emotional resources? What if they suffered burnout? Would they also lose their religious and spiritual bearings?

 

Isaac understood that his mission in life was to complement rather than just duplicate his father’s achievements. He bore the awesome responsibility of adding an important new dimension to his father’s revolutionary work. Isaac therefore focused on introducing a solid foundation of discipline and rigorous observance. This would provide religious stability, so that emotional expansiveness and inspiration could then bring a person to the most transcendent levels of spiritual experience.

 

These extraordinary qualities of determination, perseverance and relentless self-discipline were amply illustrated by the incident of the wells. Although the Philistines filled up his newly dug wells with rocks and soil, he was not discouraged. He dug a second set, and once again found water. When the Philistines deprived him of these wells too, he was nonetheless undaunted. He dug a third set of wells, and finally the Philistines, realizing the relentlessness of their opponent, acquiesced. Isaac applied this very same determination to his conduct of his relationship with the Creator, providing his offspring for all time with the paradigm of stable and steadfast devotion.

 

The mystical teachers also discern a deeper symbolism here. They see the entire affair of the disputed wells as a metaphor for the constant struggle that characterizes the human condition. The water represents the pure spirituality of the soul that lies buried deep underneath the suffocating soil of physicality. A person’s life is an unceasing effort to penetrate that physical shell and connect with the spirituality underneath. And unfortunately, success carries no guarantee of permanence. New layers of soil can inundate the liberated water and buried it once again.. Then the process begins again. It takes discipline and determination and a tenacious refusal to concede defeat. With every spade of dirt that was excavated in the search for water, Isaac was sending a powerful message down the halls of time. Never give up. There is water down there. If you refuse to abandon the search for water, you will undoubtedly be rewarded.

 

The young man was very excited. He had been invited to a Passover seder for the first time in his life, and he couldn’t wait to experience this celebrated feast of freedom.

 

As the seder began, the young man waited eagerly as the Haggadah was read and discussed. When would the feast begin? he wondered. Soon, he became impatient, but he was determined to stay. Finally, the meal seemed about to begin, but to his dismay, all the people were just eating matzoh and bitter greens.

 

Disgruntled, he slipped away from the table and made a quiet exit. The next day, his host met him in the street. “Why did you leave?” he chided. “Had you stuck it out a few more minutes you would have been served the most wonderful feast!”

 

In our own lives, we all aspire to bring out the beautiful spiritual and esthetic qualities we harbor deep in our hearts. But just when we feel we have brought them, the grind of daily existence buries them once again under a veritable mountain of rubble. It is terribly discouraging, but it is the way of the world. Life is an unending struggle, and as our patriarch Isaac showed us, determination and perseverance are the keys to ultimate success. Failure is only a temporary setback, and if we dig hard enough and long enough we will reach the sparkling water.

 

Text Copyright © 2009 by Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.

 

Entirely Up to Us

Parshas Toldos

Posted on November 28, 2019 (5780) By Rabbi Label Lam | Series: Dvar Torah| Level: Beginner

And the children struggled within her, and she said, “If so, why is this to Me?” And she went to inquire of HASHEM. (Breishis 25:19)

 

And the children struggled within her: When she passed by the entrances of Torah academies of Shem and Eber, Jacob would run and struggle to come out; when she passed the entrance of a temple of idolatry, Essav would run and struggle to come out. Another explanation: They were struggling with each other and quarreling about the inheritance of the two worlds. – Rashi

 

One could easily argue that Essav was placed in a disadvantageous position in life. He had a prenatal disposition for idolatry. Later he was born ruddy, an indication that his tendency was to spill blood. The poor guy! Why in the world should he be judged and titled as a Rasha- Wicked!? This was who and what he was! This was not the result of his free willed choosing.

 

Then on the other end of the spectrum the same question can be asked. How can Yaakov be crowned a Tzadik? He too had a prenatal disposition, but his innate drive was to learn Torah. So how can he be rewarded as a Tzadik? It wasn’t his doing! He was born intrinsically excellent.

 

This question I presented to Rabbi Ezriel Tauber ztl. many years ago. He explained as follows.

 

There are two general ingredients that make a person into what he is. One is nature and the other is nurture. Sometimes a person is born with difficult nature but he has to counter balance that a warm and loving nurturing environment. Sometimes a person with a very good nature has a rugged and challenging environment.

 

Now we can look at Essav. Although he naturally had terrible tendencies, look at the quality of people that surrounded him. His grandfather was Avraham Avinu. If we would could see Avraham Avinu for one split second, our lives would never be the same. Take any 100 Rebbes and put them together and then multiply their holiness times 1 million and maybe – maybe we have a sense of who he might have been. Then he had a father Yitzchak Avinu and a brother Yaakov Avinu. His mother was one of the 4 great Imahos- Matriarchs that we bless our daughters to be like every Friday Night. He grew in the midst of the greatest of the greatest people that have ever walked on the planet. Yet his heart remained cold and distant.

 

The Talmud declares, “One who is greater than his friend, has a bigger Yetzer Hara –negative inclination.” Great people are not born great. They often have to struggle to overcome some overpowering negativity. In the process they not only achieve goodness but they rise to greatness. A friend told me recently that someone took a handwriting sample of Reb Chaim Kanievsky Shlita to a handwriting expert to be analyzed. The expert said, “I don’t know too much about this person but I can tell you one thing, he can’t sit still for a moment and he has no power of concentration!”

 

The person who brought the sample was astonished. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Reb Chaim learns the entire Torah every year and when there’s a leap year, an extra month, he writes a Sefer. Probably, no one on the planet has proven to have greater power of concentration than Reb Chaim Kanievsky, the greatest Talmud scholar alive today. This man later gave a ride to Reb Chaim and he reported to him the surprising findings of the handwriting expert. Reb Chaim was not surprised. He told him, ”This is my nature but I changed it!”

 

What was Yaakov’s great merit, that he deserved to titled Tzadik? Look at who he had as a near neighbor, a twin brother, Essav, one of the most charismatic fakers of all time. His accomplishment was to remain uninfluenced. Life is dense with advantages and disadvantages. What we become is entirely up to us!

 

 

Focus on the Future

Parshas Chayei Sarah

Posted on October 31, 2018 (5779) By Rabbi Berel Wein | Series: Rabbi Wein | Level: Beginner

The loss of one’s beloved spouse, especially after many years and decades of marriage and shared life, is always a traumatic and shattering blow. Those of us, who unfortunately have also experienced this occurrence of Avraham’s life in our own lives can testify as to the emotional damage and even physical harm that this sad experience can occasion.

 

We see from the life of our father Jacob that even decades later he reminds his children and himself of the pain and suffering caused by the death of his beloved wife, Rachel. In essence, it seems that Jacob never again was the same person after the death of Rachel.

 

However, Avraham apparently dealt with the death of Sarah in a more stoic fashion. The Torah itself indicates this by inference, when it wrote concerning Avraham’s reaction to the tragedy by using a small letter kaf in its description of the grief and weeping of Avraham over the death of Sarah.

 

It is not that Avraham is less grieved at the loss of Sarah then Jacob was at the death of Rachel, It is rather that after all of the challenges and trials that Avraham had already endured, his attitude towards life and its vicissitudes was now always one of looking forward and never dwelling on the past.

 

Those who live exclusively in the past are doomed to self-pity and great emotional angst. This only causes a sense of victimhood and hopelessness. It reflects itself in every aspect of later life and stunts any further spiritual, social, personal or societal growth. The greatness of Avraham, as taught us by the Mishnah, was his resilience and continued spiritual and personal growth. Avraham constantly looked forward – ahead – and never dwelled on past misfortune.

 

I heard an outstanding speech delivered by George Deek, a Christian Arab who is a member of the Israeli Foreign Office. In telling the story of his life he describes how his family lived in Jaffa for many generations and how they fled to Lebanon during the 1948 War of Independence.

 

Sensing the filth and political manipulation of the refugees by the Arab powers, whose sole goal was the destruction of Israel and not in saving and resettling the refugees, his grandfather escaped Lebanon and somehow brought the family back to Jaffa and Israel, regained his job with the Israel Electric Company. He raised generations of successful professionals, all citizens of Israel.

 

He said that the Jewish refugees from Europe and the Moslem world attempted to forget their past and build a new future for themselves and their descendants when they arrived in israel. The Palestinian Arab refugees, under the misguided leadership of their spiritual and temporal heads, reveled instead in their past defeats, in their legend of nakba and, in the main, devoted themselves to attempting to destroy Israel rather than rehabilitating themselves.

 

That attitude and mindset has served them badly and cost them dearly. The past needs to be remembered and recalled, treasured and instructive to us. However, it is the future and what we make of it that ultimately determines our worth and our fate. That is one of the great lessons to be derived from the story of the life of our father Avraham.

 

Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Berel Wein

 

Sarah Lived the Good Life

Parshas Chayei Sarah

Posted on October 27, 2021 (5782) By Rabbi Berel Wein | Series: Rabbi Wein | Level: Beginner

The Torah records for us the years of the life of our mother Sarah. It is done in a lengthy fashion counting one hundred years, twenty years and then seven years, instead of merely stating that she lived for 127 years. Rashi, in his famous commentary, states that this teaches us that that all her years were good ones.

 

At first glance, this is difficult to understand and accept. In reviewing the life of our mother Sarah, we are aware of the difficulties, dangers and frustrations that marked her experiences in life. Always threatened to be taken and abused by powerful kings, a woman who is barren and longs for children, a wife who has a concubine living in her home and presents her with a stepchild who is uncontrollable, and one who is finally challenged by the fact that her only miraculous child is going to be sacrificed by his own father.

 

One could hardly conclude that she had a so-called good life. In fact, I would say that most people would not wish such a life experience upon themselves. Yet, we find this to be the pattern in the experiences of all our forefathers and mothers, with very difficult lives. Rashi will later comment that when Jacob wished to have a more peaceful and serene existence, only then did the dispute regarding Joseph and the brothers blossom and explode. Rashi explained there that Heaven somehow is saying that the reward for the righteous is in the eternal world, and that they are, so to speak, not entitled to a leisurely and tranquil life in this world. And yet, in our Parsha, Rashi states that all the years of our mother Sarah, her entire lifetime, can be summed up as a good life.

 

Over the ages, many thoughts and ideas have been devoted by our great commentators to try and explain this statement and attitude. One of the main ideas is that a person can have a good life only if he or she learns the secret of accepting life in its basic terms and as it occurs. Lofty expectations always bring about disappointment and frustration. Low expectations can allow us to overcome the unavoidable vicissitudes that inflict all human beings during one’s lifetime.

 

Sarah has no illusions about life and about the challenges that she will face, having embarked on the path of her husband Abraham and the founding of the Jewish people. She will view all the occurrences of her lifetime, even those that apparently are negative and dangerous, if not even tragic, with composure and fortitude. There is a higher goal that she is striving to achieve, and this goal is always present in her assessment of life.

 

No matter what occurs in life, it somehow can push her forward on that path towards her ultimate goal. This notion transforms everything that transpires in her life to point towards good and eternity. In her eyes, all her experiences in life had a purpose, a noble one, that transforms the fabric of her life, and enables her to become the mother of Israel for all generations.

 

Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Berel Wein

 

 

Blessing In Disguise

Parshas Vayera

Posted on November 4, 2020 (5781) By Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky | Series: Drasha| Level: Beginner

In Pashas Vayera, Sora, the 90-year-old wife of Avraham, receives a most surprising piece of information from an even more surprising source. She is told by Arab nomads, who had found obliging accommodation in Avraham’s house, that in one year she will have a child. Instinctively, she reacts in disbelief to this predicton. She laughs.

 

Immediately, Hashem appears to Avraham and He is upset. “Why did Sora laugh? Is there something that is beyond the Almighty? At the appointed time I shall return, and behold Sora will have a son (Genesis 18:12-13).

 

Hashem’s ire must be explained. After all, Sora was not told by Hashem that she will have a baby. She was informed by what appeared to be Arab wanderers. And though the Talmud explains that the three nomads were indeed angels sent by the Almighty, they did not identify themselves as such. So what does G-d want from Sora?

 

 

A man once entered the small study of the revered the Steipler Gaon, Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievski with a plea. “I’d like a blessing from the Rav. My daughter has been looking to get married for several years. All her friends are married and she would like to get married too, but nothing is working. Can the Rosh Yeshiva bless her to find her bashert? (appropriate one),” he asked.

 

The Steipler turned to the man and asked, “Is this your first daughter?”

 

“No,” replied the distraught parent, “Why do you ask?”

 

“When she was born did you celebrate with a kiddush?” ( a celebratory party in a religious setting)

 

The man was perplexed. “No. But, that was 27 years ago,” he stammerred, “and she was my third girl.

 

I may have made a l’chayim while the minyan was leaving shul, but I never made a proper kiddush. But what does a missed kiddush 27 years ago have to do with my daughter’s shidduch (match) today?”

 

“When one makes a kiddush at a festive occasions,” explained Rav Kanievski, ” each l’chayim he receives is accompanied by myriad blessings. Some are from friends, others from relatives, and those blessings given by total strangers.

 

Among those blessings are definitely the perfunctory wishes for an easy time in getting married. By not making a kiddush for your daughter, how many blessings did you deprive her of? I suggest you make your daughter the kiddush that she never had.”

 

The man followed the advice, and sure enough within weeks after the kiddush the girl had met her mate.

 

At the bris (circumcision) of his first son (after ten girls), my uncle, Rabbi Dovid Speigel, the Ostrove-Kalushin Rebbe of Cedarhurst, Long Island, quoted the Ramban (Nachmanides) in this week’s portion.

 

The reason that Hashem was upset at Sora was that even if an Arab nomad gives the blessing, one must be duly vigilant to respond, “Amen.” One never knows the true vehicle of blessing and salvation. Hashem has many conduits and messengers. Some of those messengers’ divinity is inversely proportional to their appearance.

 

What we have to do is wait, listen, and pray that our prospective exalter is the carrier of the true blessing. And then, we have to believe.

 

Quite often, we have ample opportunities to be blessed. Whether it is from the aunt who offers her graces at a family gathering or the simple beggar standing outside a doorway on a freezing winter day, blessings always come our way. Sometimes they come from the co-worker who cheers you on at the end of a long day or the mail carrier who greets you with the perfunctory “have a nice day” as he brings today’s tidings. Each blessing is an opportunity that knocks. And each acknowledgment and look to heaven may open the door to great salvation. The only thing left for us to do is let those blessings in.

 

Good Shabbos.

 

Bridging the Generation Gap

Parshas Vayera

Posted on October 25, 2018 (5779) By Rabbi Berel Wein | Series: Rabbi Wein | Level: Beginner

One of the more salient lessons that we derive from this week’s Torah reading regarding Abraham and Isaac is the emphasis that the Torah places on the fact that they went together to ascend to the mountain of Moriah. The hallmark of Jewish life over its long history has been the continuity and bond between generations.

 

Every generation differs in many aspects from the generation that preceded it. This certainly is true regarding the Jewish generations that have existed over the past few centuries. Scientific discoveries, enormous social changes, technology and communication that was previously unimaginable and an entirely different set of social and economic values have transformed the Jewish world in a radical fashion. It is much more difficult, if not even, in some cases impossible for parents and children to walk together towards a common goal.

 

The secularization of much of Eastern-European Jewry during the 19th and 20th centuries is testimony to this fact. Even though different generations will always see matters in a different light there perhaps has never been such a radical and almost dysfunctional separation of generations as were undergone during this period.

 

It is basically true that the new generation of the 20th Century also wanted to reach and climb the mountain of Moriah, but they did not want to do so accompanied by their elders. In discarding the previous generation and its teachings and way of life, the new generation ascended many mountains, but they never climbed the right one. And much of Jewry today is stranded on strange peaks and at dangerous heights.

 

The challenge of the continuity of generations is an enormous one. No matter how hard each family may try, not one has a guarantee of 100% success in maintaining the great chain of Jewish tradition. In fact, in my opinion, the challenge and task of today’s generation, to somehow remain connected and retain their values and purpose in life, is far greater than when I was a child.

 

Being able to walk together, facing the enormous challenges of modern life is a rare blessing in our time. It is not merely a matter of education and finding the right schools and raising children in a positive environment, but it is even more importantly the development of familial pride, with its warmth and love that are important and necessary to achieve the goal of generational continuity.

 

There is no magic bullet, or one size fits all solution to this type of challenge. There is a famous metaphor attributed to one of the great Eastern European rabbis who said that we are all but ships traversing the sea to arrive at our final destination. Every ship leaves a wake in its passing to mark where the safe passage exists. However, that wake soon disappears and every ship must make its own way across the sea of life. The same is true about binding the generations together. The attempt to do so must be constant and one should never despair. It can be achieved.

 

Shabbat shalom
Rabbi Berel Wein

 

 

The Kindness Factor

Parshas Lech Lecha

Posted on November 5, 2024 (5785) By Rabbi Naftali Reich | Series: Legacy | Level: Beginner

Kindness is gentle. Faith is fierce. Kindness is soft. Faith is inflexible. Kindness is accommodating. Faith is dogmatic. Does this mean that a person cannot be kind and faithful at the same time. Of course not. A person can certainly be kind-hearted to other people yet rigidly faithful in his own beliefs. Nonetheless, these two characteristics tap into distinctly different parts of the psyche.

 

And yet, in this week’s Torah portion we find a strange paradox. Abraham, the first patriarch of the Jewish people, is introduced as the paragon of faith. In a world seething with idolatry, Abraham sees through the myth and the nonsense and recognizes the one and only eternal omnipotent Creator. With extraordinary faith, he follows Hashem’s commands enthusiastically and without question. He becomes the ultimate man of faith, the perfect role model for all future generations.

 

At the same time, Abraham emerges from the pages of the Torah as a man of incredible kindness. Amazingly, he even begs leave from a divine encounter to run after three ragged dusty travelers and invite them into his home. There is no greater role model for kindness and hospitality than Abraham in all the history of the world. Is it merely a coincidence that the same person achieved the ultimate levels of kindness and faith, these two widely disparate virtues?

 

Or is there indeed some connection between the two?

 

Let us reflect for a moment on a rather intriguing question. For twenty generations before Abraham, idolatry had held the world in an iron grip. No voice of reason declared the unity of the Master of the Universe until Abraham. Why was this so? Were there no intelligent people among the millions who passed through the world during this time? Was there no one clever enough to discern the utter foolishness of the idolatrous cults?

 

Quite likely, there were considerably more than a few people capable of recognizing the Creator in the centuries before Abraham. Why didn’t they? Because they preferred not to think about it. Idolatry demanded a considerable amount of duty from people, but it also allowed them unlimited license. The idolatrous cults espoused no systems of morality. They did not encourage self-improvement and the striving for transcendent spirituality. Instead, they allowed, and even encouraged, the indulgence of every carnal impulse. The people of those times were steeped in greed and all sorts of gratification, and they had little interest in ideologies that would restrict their pleasures.

 

Why then was Abraham able to escape this mold? Because his innate kindness and compassion led him to rise above base egotism. Because he was able to look beyond himself, he recognized the truth of the universe. It was his kindness that led him to faith.

 

A young man from a religious family strayed and eventually abandoned his religion altogether. His family persuaded him to discuss his newly chosen way of life with a certain great sage.

 

“Tell me, young man,” said the sage. “Why did you abandon the ways of your forefathers?”

 

“Because they didn’t make sense,” the young man replied, and he went on to list numerous questions and arguments.

 

The sage listened gravely and nodded from time to time. “Very interesting,” he said. “You know, of course, that it’s not the first time we’ve heard these questions. When did you first think about them?”

 

“Well,” said the young man, fidgeting. “In the last year or two.”

 

“When you discovered the outside world?” asked the sage.

 

“Yes,” the young man replied, his voice barely audible.

 

“You are an intelligent young fellow,” said the sage. “Yet you didn’t have these question until recently.

 

You know why? Because you had no need for them. But now that you see what kind of opportunities await you out there, you needed these questions to set you free.”

 

In our own lives, contemporary society constantly presents us with all sorts of distractions and temptations which can easily lead us away from the pure path of Judaism. In these circumstances, it is easy to rationalize, to tell ourselves that the Torah is being unnecessarily stringent in certain things and that a little bit of this and just a wee bit of that cannot really do any harm. But is it truly our rationalism speaking?

 

Or is it perhaps our wants and desires? Only when we rise above our self-interest can we expect to recognize the true meaning of life.

 

Dissections and Connections

Parshas Noach

Posted on November 1, 2024 (5785) By Rabbi Naftali Reich | Series: Legacy | Level: Beginner

The parsha chronicles the continuation of the downward spiral of man’s behavior as it evolved from the beginning of creation. We read of Kayin and Hevel, two brothers who could have lived in peace and unity, benefiting together from the beautiful world. But Kayin surrendered to jealousy and hatred and killed Hevel. The degeneration of humanity continued until in this week’s Parsha, we find Hashem condemning the entire world to destruction.

 

It’s interesting to note that civilization’s fate was sealed not for man’s crimes towards His Creator, but because of his inability to respect the rights of his fellow man. The Torah tells us ‘vatimalay ha’aretz chamas’, society was so degenerate that robbery and injustice went unpunished. Because they failed to maintain a lawful and peaceful society, they were doomed.

 

Since the times of the mabul, the Great Flood, the underpinnings of civilization has been the understanding that the only way to preserve stability within a society is to maintain a sense of community enforced by a system of government, buttressed by alliances with other nations.

 

The United Nations was meant to be the most powerful embodiment of the concept of nations joining together to ensure world peace and freedom from oppression. Delegates to the United Nations gather together from every recognized state with the stated purpose of upholding these noble ideals.

 

However, because so many member nations have subverted the U.N.’s lofty ideas with their own selfish agendas, the institution has been rendered a hollow charade. While poetic and eloquent speeches flow from its podium, both blatant and behind-the-scenes corruption has become the norm for the world body.

 

The lesson of the failure of this grand institution is that true unity is only achieved when nations and individuals surrender their individual needs for the higher common good. This seems to be the underlying message of the Parsha and the lesson that mankind was to glean from in the aftermath of the flood.

 

In order to rectify the corruption and disunity that resulted in mankind’s obliteration, Hashem took Noach and all the species of the world and placed them in the incubated and protected environment of the ark for an extended period. It was here that they co-existed not simply because it was pleasant to function in an orderly environment. For peace to persevere, the interactions in the ark had to be elevated to a level where each one’s needs took second place to the well-being of the entire assemblage. All were thus bonded in a deep and lasting cohesion.

 

Furthermore, the ark, explain the commentaries, was similar to a mishkan where all components served an equally vital role in serving as integral cogs whose overall purpose was to reveal Hashem’s presence to all. As the Torah tells us, ‘vayishaer ach noach vechol asher ito bateiva;’ Noach humbly remained “Noach” with all who were with him in the ark. He was not haughty at being the selected survivor of Hashem but rather equated himself with the other species, cognizant that he, no less than all the creatures around him, lived only to fulfill His will.

 

The ability of those in the ark to live in harmony demonstrated the unity of Creator and creation.

 

Our society has lifted the banner of superficial unity to a lofty plane. Creating a global village where human rights reign in an enlightened society sounds wonderful on paper. But if, at the end of the day, these developments serve only to facilitate the aggrandizement of private individuals and corporations, they are destined to fail. Only when mankind recognizes that its overarching mission is to dedicate itself to the moral and ethical roadmap the Creator has charted for us, can world society move forward to a lasting peace.

 

The very first step towards that exalted goal is ensuring that within our own little microcosm, we devote ourselves to carrying out this mission vis a vis our fellow man; using the Creator’s blueprint-the Torah-to mold our outlook and our behavior. Only thus can we launch ourselves on the path to true harmony and inner peace.

 

Wishing you a wonderful Shabbos.

 

Sincerely,

Rabbi Naftali Reich Text Copyright © 2012 by Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.