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In this week’s Torah portion, “Parshas Vaera/פרשת וארא”, Moshe Rabbeinu confronts Pharaoh, repeating the message from G-d to “Let My people go that they may worship Me.” Pharaoh does not relent and hardens his heart. This repeats for the first five plagues, and then, in response to his willfulness and stubbornness, HaShem hardens his heart for him. The Hebrew word for “heart” is "לב". To show possession, a suffix to the word is added based on the appropriate pronoun. In this case particular case, when the Torah says that Pharaoh hardened his heart, it uses the word, "לבו", "לב" meaning “heart”, and the "ו" for “his”. This is also the case for the beginning of “Pesukei D’Zimra”, “hymns of glory”, the second section of the Shachrit or Morning service. The second or third prayer is a long prayer which was said each morning in the Temple. At the end of that prayer, from Psalms 13:6, it states “…my heart will rejoice in Your salvation.” “My heart” is spelled similarly, "לבי". In the “V’Ahavta”, the first paragraph of the Shema, as well as the second, we are admonished not to follow our hearts in making decisions, but rather only pay attention to the commandments. In these two cases, “your heart” is spelled "לבבך" and "לבבכם", respectively (singular and plural). In this case, the word is spelled with two beits instead of one. The Zohar explains the two beits. Each beit represents our two hearts, the good and the bad. These reflect the yatzer harah and yetzer tov, the evil and good inclinations, respectively. The lesson is that each of us has a choice which inclination to follow. Why, then, only one beit for Pharaoh? Why also only one beit in the prayer from Psalms that states “…my heart will rejoice in Your salvation”? Consider that these two situations address only the evil inclination or heart. Since Pharaoh will willful and stubborn, he only focused on the evil inclination. Likewise, it is thus our evil heart that yearns for the salvation, as HaShem helps us turn the evil into good. The Zohar says that when one pursues evil, the door is opened; when one pursues righteousness, they are led on the way. Our desires and path is thus facilitated in accordance with our desires and actions. Since Pharaoh continued to persecute the Israelites, he only had the evil heart and apparently had no desire to change. We get what we want. According to Rabbinic legend, Pharaoh now stands outside the gates of purgatory and greets newcomers with “did you not learn anything from what happened to me?”. We all have a choice. We can pursue evil or we can pursue righteousness. We pursue righteousness by adhering and treasuring the commandments. We pursue evil by following our “evil heart” or the bad inclination. Pharaoh pursued evil. In doing so, he condemned his country and his army. The path of evil leads to evil consequences. In contrast, the path of good leads to good results. When we pursue righteousness, our lives grow in happiness. Fulfillment is easier and more efficacious.

Enjoy! https://youtu.be/V3OCFZeHofw

We all go through our travails in life. Some of the challenges we face seem so daunting as to be unfixable, and our moods and dispositions inconsolable. What does Judaism offer as comfort to those that face seemingly insurmountable challenges that seem to go on and on? First of all, there are some Psalms—like 23, “The Lord Is My Shepherd—that are good for comforting. Some of the Proverbs are inspirational, like 16:23: “Who is strong? One who controls their passions”. There are some healing prayers—Mi Shaberach—that are also useful in times of distress. And of course, one of the many reasons we pray three times each day is to revisit some of the laws and teachings and behaviors that help us go through life successfully. There are things that affirm that when we call out to HaShem, He or She hears our prayers and responds. Perhaps there is a central theme to all this. Many of us, especially in times of distress, feel that G-d is adversarial. We ask, rhetorically of course but often out of frustration, why G-d puts us in these situations or give us these problems because we have, after all, done our best to be good people? It can almost feel like we are being punished for some unknown sin. Let me offer some of my own feelings with you because I’ve had some very trying times in my life and this realization helped my cope and manage a lot better. This is when I changed my idea of G-d being adversarial to HaShem being a coach. Continuing the analogy, if you were training for a sport, your coach would make you exercise, do drills, practice over and over again. At times, you'd hate Her, wanting to just quit. But then when you're competing, and all that training has given you an edge, and you cross the finish line winning the event, you see how it was all worth it for your victory. After all, isn’t this why we pray, for guidance and help? These challenges that we face throughout our lives are challenges. We can speculate why they occur—past lives, our choices—but the fact is that they do. HaShem has made Herself available for support by giving us Torah. On a more general metaphysical frame of reference, these challenges are there to empower us. We go through them, we resolve them, and we become stronger, more confident, and better able to meet the next challenge. These trying times have compelled us to develop new, maybe different skills and points of view to ascend to the next level of evolution. And then life gets better because we’ve developed new tools and skills, and got better with the skills and traits that we do have. Even beyond working out our problems, we can now relate to others in a different, more effective and efficacious manner. The bottom line here is that for whatever reason, we have to deal with these things. Let’s make the most of them and turn lemons into lemonade, right? Sure, it’s easy to say this rationally sometimes, but being in the thick of battle, sometimes our passions and feeling get the better of us. That’s when we can use those psalms and prayers.

Commentary on this week's Torah portion. Hope you enjoy. https://youtu.be/ksP9kRZy0-g

https://youtu.be/M7Uu8y6-DXY

By now, everyone has heard, and weighed in on the President recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This has, as one would imagine, set off a firestorm of reactions across all spectrums of opinion. The reaction, next to the fires in California has dominated social media. First of all, this is not new. The current administration did not institute this decision. Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was a decision during the Clinton Administration in the ‘90’s. It hasn’t been enacted because each succeeding administration has delayed it, effectively kicking the can until presumably peace would reign in the Middle East and the environment would be more congenial. President Trump had discussed this when he first became president and has now followed through. His remarks were that the peace process is stalled and there is no point in waiting anymore. It will come as no surprise that the Arab world expressed their disapproval of this move, as did most of Europe. Some Arab countries—most notably Turkey and Lebanon—and groups—like the Taliban in Afghanistan—have complained that this move would incite violence in the area. Already, Palestinians are acting up in Israel and there was an attack on a Kosher butcher shop in England. It is interesting when people say that the move would “incite violence”. I am reminded of the scene in the movie, “Liar, Liar”. A distraught Jim Carrey walks into his office and his secretary puts down her phone to tell him that a client of his is in jail again for robbing a bank and he wants to know what to do. He takes the phone with both hands, holds it an arm’s length and yells, “Stop robbing banks!”. Inciting violence is precipitated by people inciting violence—which happens anyway for just about anything. Meanwhile, Israeli’s and Jews live in a world where the governing body, the United Nations, holds a monthly meeting where they issue a resolution against Israel for one thing or another. There is another group calling on countries and businesses to economically sanction Israel for alleged atrocities against Palestinians who attack Israeli’s for the slightest provocation. Again, what peace process? People who are “liberal” are decrying this as the wrong move. Yet when pressed, their only answer is that they should sit down and hold peace talks. They ignore reality. In 2005, Israel pulled out and forcibly removed settlers in Gaza as part of a peace plan. That didn’t work. So really, what are we waiting for? The world consistently condemns Israel while atrocities are committed in Syria, and other parts of the area condemn groups like homosexuals. In fact, the only humane place in the Middle East is Israel. In fact, when one of the heads of Hamas had a granddaughter who needed medical care, where did he take her? To a hospital in Israel where she was treated. No other country in the world has this issue where other countries tell them where they can place their capital. No other country has had the condemnations and chastisement that Israel has had. We are in the season of Hanukkah, where after years of subjugation by a foreign, pagan-worshipping entity, the Judeans finally said, “enough” and after 20 years of fighting, drove them out and restored the synagogue. Certainly, we Jews and Israelis don’t want violence; we just want to live our lives in peace and practice our heritage and culture. We have attempted to talk peace but the other parties refuse to sit down. Instead, they refuse to even acknowledge that we have a country and use every effort to demean us. So what do we do? How do you reach out to people who have shown no interest in cooperating? We propose something, not good enough. Groups outside of the area are getting involved now as well. Unfortunately, it’s a lot like being bullied at school. Someone larger than you keeps telling you to give them your lunch money or they’ll beat you up. So you acquiesce to avoid the punishment. But after years of this, you have enough and decide to fight back. Then people tell you you’re the one behaving badly by lashing out. Just this week, Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has stood up to this bullying by other countries. She has vetoed the resolution condemning Israel and has said that by acknowledging Israel’s choice of their capital, the US is respecting the sovereignty of Israel, the same way every other country’s sovereignty is respected. Good for her. Well, you continue to push for peace, as Israel is doing. You reach out as much as you can—and Israel does that. They tried to send a trauma team recently to help victims of an earthquake wrecked disaster on the Iraq-Iran border. We constantly pray for peace in our daily prayers and we do our best to follow through. But of course, we have to live our lives as well. Maybe sooner than later, peace will prevail.

This upcoming week, we celebrate the festival of Hanukkah. We will light candles, eat jelly doughnuts, play some games and celebrate. Hanukkah is one of those fun holidays and many Jews, even those unaffiliated with a synagogue, will at least acknowledge. During the Second Temple period, the Seleucids, who were Greeks had ruled over Judea for about 100 years. They imposed their pagan culture on the Jews, including sacrificing pigs on the altar, and prohibiting observing Shabbat and circumcision. This ultimately led to a revolt by the Hasmonean (who were also known as Maccabees or hammers since they delivered blows to the enemies), a dynasty of priests, and Judah, son of Mattathias, the chief priest. “Hanukkah” means “dedication”. After 20 years of fighting, in 142 BCE, the Maccabees drove out the Seleucids. The Temple had affected by the fighting and was in need of repair. During this rededication, they went to light the menorah but only had enough oil to last for one day. We all know that miraculously the oil lasted for eight days, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the menorah, and thus the new Hanukkiah or eight-branched Hanukkah menorah. Some say that Hanukkah commemorates the winning of a crucial battle that allowed our people to survive and evolve into the system it is today, others honor the miracle of the oil. In practice today, we do both. Hanukkah is probably the best-known holiday among non-Jews. Unfortunately, many think that it is our main holiday and really the Jewish Christmas since we give gifts as well. The giving of gifts was influenced by the widespread Christian practice of giving gifts, even by secular Christians, agnostics and atheists. And it is because it occurs around the same time as Christmas that people incorrectly assign importance to it. In fact, Hanukkah is, as we know, a minor festival, partly because it does indeed commemorate a battle and Jews don’t worship violence, the religious significance is minimal and it’s not based in Torah. We do, however, insert some special prayers into our daily liturgy to honor the miracle of the oil. We also eat jelly donuts and blintzes, also because of the oily nature of food. Some believe that both Hanukkah and Christmas, and Kwanzaa to some extent, are actually excuses to continue a pagan celebration that ultimately recognizes the lengthening of the days after the waning of the sun. This idea of Festival of Lights is widespread and celebrated differently by different cultures. Of course, we Jews would never acknowledge this, true or not. Most of the Jewish holidays occur in their own time outside of other religions. Since Christianity is based on Judaism, there is some other overlap. Passover, a major holiday, occurs about the same time as Easter and Purim, a minor holiday, occurs around the same time as St. Patrick’s Day. At the time of this writing, with the first candle lighting about a week away, there was barely any mention in media or social media. Contrast this with the attention that is paid to the coming of Christmas. Media is rife with references, especially the giving of gifts. In fact, Black Friday is so named because with the excessive shopping, this is typically when retailers go into the “black” with their profits. Also abounding are the TV specials, live stage performances and music playing on certain radio stations. All of which can make this time somewhat trying for certain people of the Jewish persuasion, such as, yes, myself. Seeing all of the references and people just saying, “Merry Christmas”, can be very uncomfortable. Time was, and some of this still occurs, schools would put on Christmas pageants with Christmas music mixed in with Winter music; sometimes a Catholic priest and/or Protestant minister would be present as well. Some in our country have felt that such emphasis made non-Christians uncomfortable and was not in line with the First Amendment that technically separated Church and State, and lightened greetings the more secular “Happy Holidays”. Some feel that this is a violation of their freedom of expression of religion and have complained that such restrictions hamper their expression. Finally, it can be difficult being Jewish to not get caught up in this foreign secular observance of an ultimately religious holiday, and succumb to the entreaties of stout, white-bearded men dressed in red handing out candy. Jewish kids don’t want to be left out. If you are in a family of mixed observances, you will no doubt be exposed to the practices anyway. What’s a Jew to do? Obviously, come to the local community candle lightings and follow suit in your own home. Attend the celebration in your local synagogue. Most importantly, be involved throughout the year observing the major holidays and attending synagogue for at least those times. This will help reinforce your Jewish identity and alleviate any discomfort. Nothing wrong with getting into the holiday spirit. After all, peace on Earth and good will to our neighbors are very Jewish concepts. But at least we’ll all be able to put it all into perspective. And BTW, both Slacker and Pandora, and Sirius XM offer dedicated stations that play Hanukkah music.

A commentary on this week's Torah Portion: https://youtu.be/vPU8euhZlIY

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.