Monday, July 20, 2015
It is an established fact that Shabbat trumps almost every other commandment, custom and practice in Jewish life and law. Allowing circumcision on Shabbat is the exception and not the rule. Whether confronting the fast days or feast days, Shabbat takes precedence. It rules, by rabbinic decree, over shofar and lulav as well as over the mournful commemorations of personal and national grief, loss and tragedy. It seems fair to say that Shabbat is the linchpin of all Jewish observances and of Judaism itself.
Shabbat has two components to it: remembrance and observance. Both of these qualities are demanded of us in order that Shabbat may be experienced in its fullest holiness and beauty....
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Sunday, July 19, 2015
The book of Dvarim begins on a somber note. In fact the entire book, for most of its contents and statements, is a very sobering volume. Our teacher and leader Moshe reviews for us his career and the events of his leadership of Israel over the past tumultuous forty years. He spares neither himself nor the people of Israel in his assessment of the mistakes and misfortunes that occurred over that period of time. Only at the very end of this volume with soaring poetry and exalted prose does Moshe predict the eventual happy ending to the story of Jewish and general human civilization.
But it seems apparent from the entire tenor and tone of the book that this essential success and happiness...
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