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Commentary on this week's Torah portion. Hope you enjoy! https://youtu.be/EpI9yyuFo6Q

Commentary on this week's Torah portion. Enjoy! https://youtu.be/W3wNobULigI

The incidents of men using their power and position to take advantage of women keeps coming. These have transcended political parties. So far, we have seen these incidents predominantly in the Entertainment and Political fields. Although there has been some discussion on social media about their occurrences in the business world, it is probably a good guess that it is coming. Each Shabbat, we read in the Sabbath Psalm that the evil will be routed and even though evil SEEMS to flourish, their doom is sure to come because Yours in the ultimate triumph. Well, it seems that is exactly what’s happened. After years of abuse, the doom of the perpetrators has come, hasn’t it? And consider that the first person leading this “routing”, Harvey Weinstein, is Jewish. HaShem has spoken. So far exclusively, the situations reported involve men as the predators. Men are typically more aggressive emotionally and stronger physically. Men also seem to be more at the mercy of their physical temptations. This is why men observe all the commandments and women, on a higher spiritual plane, are exempt from the time-based positive commandments, such as praying. That seems to be the reason why men seem to have more difficulty controlling themselves. Yet there is also another issue at hand. There is an old saying: “Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”. Left unchecked, people will do what they want and refrain from exercising social discretion. It is once they’re caught that the apologies flow unabated, perhaps for some it’s a wake-up call. This is a big theme in Judaism. We are all humans; we are imperfect. Temptations that arise from this big physical thing we inhabit called a body. We want what we want when we want it. This is what gets us into trouble. The problems occur when our satisfying those urges imposes on other people’s peace of mind and well-being. Most of us have learned to temper our passions with socially-acceptable outlets. We seek appropriate paths and respect others in the process. That’s either because of our upbringing, or for some, the knowledge that there will inevitably be consequences. But there are people, men mostly, who either feel that they are above the laws of society or just simply don’t care. So is the answer to just ignore those feelings to feel good and be miserable? Of course not! We just want to find ways to feel good and have other people feel good along with us. Isn’t it great for us to feel pleasure and bringing others along with us? The first challenge is dealing with temptations. We know that they are a part of life. There is the yetzer hara—the evil inclination and the the yetzer tov—the good inclination. Of course, we want to focus on the yetzer tov as much as we can because practice makes perfect. Every morning we ask HaShem to help us avoid and control the evil inclination and keep us away from all negative influences. Kabbalah teaches us that when we pursue righteousness, we are led along the path. We also want to focus on controlling our temptations. This is one of the main reasons we fast during Yom Kippur—to master the desire to indulge in temptations, to conquer our bodies. After all, if we can afflict ourselves by abstaining from food and drink and pleasurable activities for 26 hours, avoiding bad situations the rest of the year is easy. We live by a code of morality. As our Torah teaches, we do not follow our eyes or our hearts, but rather the commandments. It’s almost a no-brainer. And we look at our tzitzis to remind us of that. But even without tzitzis or reading the passages each day, we still, as humans, have the capacity to rise above our petty urges. Look at all the good in the world, how countries are now coming to the aid of areas in need of aid after the aftermaths of natural disasters. Maybe that’s why they occur, for HaShem to give us the opportunity to focus on our altruistic qualities. Some of those reminders involve loving our neighbors as ourselves, being kind to the those less fortunate and more vulnerable than us, and being fair in our business dealings. The results of following this code of behavior is that we have a more trusting society where people feel comfortable working with each other; this facilitates a more productive society. Relationships are better, less stress. We are happier, and therefore healthier. Everybody wins. And most important, we don’t have to feel guilty about any bad behavior or worry that we’ll be found out.

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In athletics, people are always trying to do better. Athletes are known for breaking records, training harder, looking for ways to improve performance. They set a goal, set their mind to accomplishing it, and it’s done. Many years ago, runners were always trying to run faster. There was the mile run. For years they worked as hard to run that mile in less than four minutes. They trained, and they trained, and they trained. They got close, but couldn’t do it. Scientists, in fact, said they couldn’t do it, which is why no one had broken that record. They said the human body just wasn’t structure the right way to be able to break the four-minute mile barrier. Someone then did it. They ran the mile in under four minutes. Then someone else did it. Then someone else did it. The four-minute mile barrier became a thing of the past. That first person showed everyone that not only was it possible, but it was reality. Years ago we would hear stories of disgruntled ex-employees who had been fired returning to their former place of work and killing people for revenge. A few times, these were fired postal workers. The phrase “going postal” became a slang phrase for a time. One day a few years ago, someone used it to kill people. The murderer had a grudge against someone and not only killed them, but also relatives and friends. They used this military assault weapon to do maximum damage in little time. While multiple killings occurred, it wasn’t until April, 1999 when two teenagers walked into their high school in Colorado and killed 13 people and wounded 21 others. Even though it was said that they were motivated by revenge for being bullied, they killed anyone they saw; it didn’t matter. Afterwards, they took their own lives. There were a few other incidents that year in which a lone gunman walked into a place of business or church and killed people. People were, of course, horrified. Not only were they aghast at the sheer carnage of innocent lives lost, but also that these were kids. The shock in society may have taken a few years for people to come to terms with it people mourned and questioned how such a horrible thing could happen. But things seem to quiet down for a while without any major incidents. A few years later, a man walked into his place of business and shot and killed seven people. He then turned his gun on himself. A couple of years later, there were multiple incidents of people killing church-goers and students at a college. The incidents after that seem to increase. There were more incidents with more casualties. But these involved semi-automatic handguns and rifles. It wasn’t until more recently that these murderers started using these automatic weapons capable of killing more people in a shorter period of time. As with the athletics, it’s as if as more and more incidents occurred, as more and more people engaged in mass killings, it became more of a possibility, a reality. It became a societal occurrence. Serial killings became the new normal, a part of our society. Can we draw a Biblical reference? In Noah’s time, did people start stealing a little bit, then more, then they starting robbing? Did they start off just taking from the neighbor’s home, then from their neighbor himself? In Abraham’s time, did the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah start off just mistrusting foreigners and then ultimately attacking them? Back then, it was easy. HaShem just destroyed their societies and no more problem. It’s not so easy these days. These potential murderers walk among us. They look just like you and me. Oftentimes they act just like you and me. How we know who to destroy? Some people say the problem is guns. Restrict guns and it makes it harder to get them or get the guns that can do the most damage. In a recent mass shooting, the gunman was able to modify a gun to make it more deadly, so we would also have to restrict that type enhancement. Some people say the problem is the actual person. The issue, they say, is mental health. People need access to human services, they need to be able to go somewhere to discuss their issues and learn more proper and appropriate coping skills. But would they use them? You can lead a horse to therapy, but you can’t make him relate. Or are we the problem? A forest is made up of individual trees. Maybe the key is how we treat each other. People demean others because of skin color, gender, heritage and religion. People judge each other by their socio-economic status. Bullying has taken on almost epidemic proportions. With the advent of social media, bullying has become more accessible and we now have kids taking their own lives because of the emotional pain. Resources to fix this problem may be a start, but ultimately we have to change our culture. We have to change the way we interact and treat each other. The “dog eat dog” culture has to change. We may not like each other, but we have to respect each other. Each person has a life, hopes, dreams, relationships. Everyone wants to succeed and love and be loved. We have to re-create our society to where that becomes the norm. Not just because we want to try and prevent mass killings, but because it’s the right thing to do.

The British government decided to endorse the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine. After discussions within the cabinet and consultations with Jewish leaders, the decision was made public in a letter from British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur James Balfour to Lord Walter Rothschild. The contents of this letter became known as the Balfour Declaration. Foreign Office November 2nd, 1917 Dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying to you. on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation. Yours, Arthur James Balfour And with that, the State of Israel was born. Happy 100th birthday to the idea of our own state, 2000 years in the making. This is cause for celebrating. Gil Troy, a professor of American history at Canada’s McGill University discusses the concept in a commentary that was first published in the Jerusalem Post and then re-published in the Huffington Post. He writes that Israel was born out of a new world nationalism born out of World War I that would give rise to many modern countries. While other countries were celebrating their homes with a sense of pride, they also realized that Jews really had nowhere else to go. As a people dispossessed of their ancient home, we migrated from country to country. In a way, this was the world dealing with the “Problem of Jews”. We don’t what to do with them, let’s just give them back their land. Or is it? With the celebration of we Jews, Israelites really, re-establishing our rightful home comes the contention of local enemies and ire of much of the world. That same organization that voted to establish the modern state of Israel now has established a monthly tradition of enacting resolutions that condemn it for oppressing and dispossessing supposedly indigenous people. Some have said that England had no right to cede that land to Jews at the expense of the indigenous Palestinians. It wasn’t theirs to give; it was imperialism. The British created the problem. Now, if we look at reality, Jews have always inhabited our land. We were the first to settle it 3500 years ago. When we returned to our land, it was nothing but arid desert and mosquito-infested swamps. Through toil and effort, we made our paradise into a paradise. Many people criticize Israel as an oppressive, occupying regime. They say that the Palestinians are the rightful heirs to their land and the Israelis have overtaken their home and cut off their supplies. The want nothing short of the expulsion of the Jews. They are not anti-Semitic, mind you, just anti-Israel. They ignore the facts. The first obvious fact is that in all that time, the people who inhabited the land, the so-called Palestinians, did nothing to make the land habitable. The second thing they ignore is that that region, Israel, was set up for partitions of Jewish and Arab quarters where the two people would live together in harmony. Jordan immediately annexed the area called the West Bank and then Arab-incited terrorist attacks started happening immediately. Third, people ignore in 2005 how Israel ceded last Gaza and part of the West Bank to the Palestinians in a land for peace deal. The Palestinians got the land, but the Israeli’s didn’t get the peace. Where do we go from here? What about the next 100 years? That really depends on the world and local community. We had been without our home land for 1800 years. Since that time, we were a people displaced. While many of us do not live in the promised land, we certainly support it. And we are not ready to give it up anytime soon. #ParashVayeira #TorahPortion

https://youtu.be/syFf63rb_1c

By now, just about everybody has heard about Movie Mogul Harvey Weinstein bullying women. He had built up his business over the years, making very successful movies. People who were involved in those undertakings reaped the benefits of those successes having their careers take off. Naturally, ambitious, rising actresses also approached the mogul to be involved in those projects. Many of them ended up paying a horrific price as he took advantage of their ambition to have his way with them. It wasn’t until an article was written in the New York Times by an investigating reporter that publicized his trysts that many other actresses felt they had the public sympathy and support to reveal their own experiences with this man. Most of them felt that had they accused him before the article was published, they would have been ridiculed and dismissed as wanting retribution for lack of success. Many were ashamed that they traded their sexual integrity for a career. With the amount of accusations now prevalent, Mr. Weinstein’s company had no choice but to dismiss him as these charges are leveled and investigated. Mr. Weinstein for his part has apologized and said he is going into counseling. Many are questioning the sincerity of his remorse. This incident was so far-reaching that it has unveiling a culture in Hollywood that many had been discussing and joking about for years. It is the old story of the “casting couch”, in which an up-and-coming actress trades sexual favors for opportunities. Many have stated that in many cases, this is the only way an actress can expect success. In fact, Linor Abargil, an Israeli who was crowned Miss World in 1998 is now speaking out about being raped. In 1998, two months before crowned, she was abducted and raped in Milan, Italy. It is only recently that she is able to talk about it. It would seem that this is but one example of how women are treated in our male-dominated society. How many cases of wife abuse had to occur before laws were put into place to protect women? There are certainly cases of women abusing men but these are slight compared to the other way around. Now, it is possible that those numbers of man abuse are understated as men as less likely to report being abused by women, but considering that women abuse stretches across different situations and scenarios. We read about honor killings in the Middle East, where a woman gets raped and she has thus dishonored her family. Recently in Saudi Arabia, women are finally able to drive. In China, they tried to control an exploding population by limited each couple to one child; this led to some couples killing baby girls since it was considered much better to have a baby boy. It is sad that the female gender is seen in such a disrespectful light by most of the world. Fortunately, the Jewish world doesn’t see it that way. Or at least, we’re not supposed to. There was an incident in Israel recently where a female Israeli soldier intervened in a conflict between Israeli’s driving in an ultra-Orthodox section was physically attacked by a group of men who apparently thought women did not belong in that type of position. Judaism considers women to be on a higher spiritual plane than men. Women give birth and thus create life just like HaShem. This is why they take care of the household and raise the children. They are therefore absolved from having to comply with positive, time-based commandments, like praying and putting on tefillin. Some will disagree. They will cite the Orthodox version of the Morning Brachot which states “who has not made me a woman”. Others will cite the “Sotah”, that a woman accused of adultery is put through a mystical test to determine her innocence; there is no such similar, corresponding test for a man. Torah understands that men and women are different. Men succumb to temptations in a way that women don’t. Men are driven by a lust that women don’t have. Men come into this life as men to resolve certain challenges. They thank G-d for making them men so they can spend time working them out. And we pray and wear tallitot and tefillin to constantly remind us to contain those urges. Torah is also very explicit about how women are to be treated. Many places in Torah refers to helping the widow (and orphan and stranger too by the way) because they are considered to be the most vulnerable in society. Abusing women then is a major transgression. Harvey Weinstein took advantage of vulnerable people, and he has a long way to go to be forgiven. As does the rest of the world. These men who take advantage of in any capacity and treat them in a demeaning manner are bullies, preying on someone weaker than them. Judaism teaches exactly the opposite, to help the vulnerable in society. Maybe the rest of the world will catch up.

By now, just about everybody has heard about Movie Mogul Harvey Weinstein bullying women. He had built up his business over the years, making very successful movies. People who were involved in those undertakings reaped the benefits of those successes having their careers take off. Naturally, ambitious, rising actresses also approached the mogul to be involved in those projects. Many of them ended up paying a horrific price as he took advantage of their ambition to have his way with them. It wasn’t until an article was written in the New York Times by an investigating reporter that publicized his trysts that many other actresses felt they had the public sympathy and support to reveal their own experiences with this man. Most of them felt that had they accused him before the article was published, they would have been ridiculed and dismissed as wanting retribution for lack of success. Many were ashamed that they traded their sexual integrity for a career. With the amount of accusations now prevalent, Mr. Weinstein’s company had no choice but to dismiss him as these charges are leveled and investigated. Mr. Weinstein for his part has apologized and said he is going into counseling. Many are questioning the sincerity of his remorse. This incident was so far-reaching that it has unveiling a culture in Hollywood that many had been discussing and joking about for years. It is the old story of the “casting couch”, in which an up-and-coming actress trades sexual favors for opportunities. Many have stated that in many cases, this is the only way an actress can expect success. In fact, Linor Abargil, an Israeli who was crowned Miss World in 1998 is now speaking out about being raped. In 1998, two months before crowned, she was abducted and raped in Milan, Italy. It is only recently that she is able to talk about it. It would seem that this is but one example of how women are treated in our male-dominated society. How many cases of wife abuse had to occur before laws were put into place to protect women? There are certainly cases of women abusing men but these are slight compared to the other way around. Now, it is possible that those numbers of man abuse are understated as men as less likely to report being abused by women, but considering that women abuse stretches across different situations and scenarios. We read about honor killings in the Middle East, where a woman gets raped and she has thus dishonored her family. Recently in Saudi Arabia, women are finally able to drive. In China, they tried to control an exploding population by limited each couple to one child; this led to some couples killing baby girls since it was considered much better to have a baby boy. It is sad that the female gender is seen in such a disrespectful light by most of the world. Fortunately, the Jewish world doesn’t see it that way. Or at least, we’re not supposed to. There was an incident in Israel recently where a female Israeli soldier intervened in a conflict between Israeli’s driving in an ultra-Orthodox section was physically attacked by a group of men who apparently thought women did not belong in that type of position. Judaism considers women to be on a higher spiritual plane than men. Women give birth and thus create life just like HaShem. This is why they take care of the household and raise the children. They are therefore absolved from having to comply with positive, time-based commandments, like praying and putting on tefillin. Some will disagree. They will cite the Orthodox version of the Morning Brachot which states “who has not made me a woman”. Others will cite the “Sotah”, that a woman accused of adultery is put through a mystical test to determine her innocence; there is no such similar, corresponding test for a man. Torah understands that men and women are different. Men succumb to temptations in a way that women don’t. Men are driven by a lust that women don’t have. Men come into this life as men to resolve certain challenges. They thank G-d for making them men so they can spend time working them out. And we pray and wear tallitot and tefillin to constantly remind us to contain those urges. Torah is also very explicit about how women are to be treated. Many places in Torah refers to helping the widow (and orphan and stranger too by the way) because they are considered to be the most vulnerable in society. Abusing women then is a major transgression. Harvey Weinstein took advantage of vulnerable people, and he has a long way to go to be forgiven. As does the rest of the world. These men who take advantage of in any capacity and treat them in a demeaning manner are bullies, preying on someone weaker than them. Judaism teaches exactly the opposite, to help the vulnerable in society. Maybe the rest of the world will catch up.