Once again, a very important message from the Torah portion that was read on Shabbos. First the commentary on the Haftarah from the Artscroll Chumash:
Haftaras Bechukosai, Jeremiah 16:19 – 17:14
As the prophet of the Destruction, Jeremiah's message was much like that of the weekly Torah portion: If the Jewish people are devoted to the Torah, they will enjoy respect, prosperity, and blessing. If they forsake the Torah, they will suffer contempt, poverty and curse. The prophet begins with a scathing description of how deeply ingrained is the national sin of idolatry and the coupling of a lack of faith in G-d with an absolute faith in frail man. The latter part of the message is indeed timeless. For, Jeremiah warns, these illusions will all be in vain; any good that comes of them will be fleeting and end in humiliation and tragedy.I have heard many times the Torah being described as a book of history. The most important lesson of history is to learn from it, and not make the same mistakes. The Torah is our handbook of life and uses history to teach us how to succeed in life, how to be happy, how to be prosperous and how to go into the time of Moshiach as well off as can be.
Like even the fiercest prophecies, however, this one ends in words of hope and consolation, as does the frightful admonition of our weekly Torah portion. No matter how dark the present and how ominous the imminent future, G-d does not forsake Israel forever, nor does Israel cut its bond to G-d. The covenant of the Patriarchs remains intact; hope and healing will yet come, for Hashem is our salvation and praise.
This Torah portion has the very simple message that is repeated often: turn to Hashem, follow His ways, trust in Him, have total faith in Him and know that He is our only way to salvation. The Haftarah just lets us know that the theme is repeated throughout history and that nothing has changed, except that we have many more ways of getting into trouble and hurting ourselves these days than ever. The Torah portion is much more pertinent now than throughout history, and should be studied and lived as though our lives depend on it.
To enhance this message that every word, every letter, every numerical value of every letter is prophecy and is guiding us to total happiness and success, I thought I would mention one very interesting key in the text of the Torah that is not so obvious. It is called the "reversing vav.” Did you ever notice how many weekly portions of the Torah begin with the Hebrew letter ו vav? Vayeira, Vayeitzei, Vayishlach, Vayeishev, Vayigash, Vayechi, Va’eira, Vayakhel, Vayikra, Va’eschanan, and Vayeilech. This reversing vav also appears many times in the Torah, not just as Torah portion names. What is the hidden message here? Grammatically, each of these words are written in the future tense, but are read in the past tense. As an example: Vayeira is translated as “Appeared,” telling us that Hashem appeared to Avraham. But, it really should be translated as “And he will appear,” future tense. By adding the letter vav, it changes tense but gives us a very beautiful message that history repeats itself. Even though Hashem appeared to Avraham many years ago, it is a prophecy that Hashem will appear to him and all of us in the future. Many, many times in the Torah where it is read as a past tense event, it is telling us that it will happen again, possibly over and over again.
Such a beautiful way to let us know that history repeats itself, and that we should learn the lessons of the past to guide us throughout life. The handbook of life covers everything, sometimes a simple historical lesson is all we need to help us be happy and succeed in the present and the future.
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Note: I am not posting many comments anymore. I always had in mind that comments are to benefit my dear readers by adding to the subject or asking pertinent questions that everyone can benefit from the answer. I have been getting many comments recently that would not benefit my readers, and I therefore have become very selective in my posting of comments. Examples include: personal comments that would be much better handled by a personal Email, questions that have been covered extensively (often a new reader who is not aware of my previous coverage), incorrect information that benefits no one or, my least favorite, nasty comments from individuals who obviously are in horrible trouble and want me to be the scapegoat.
Any comment can be sent to me as a private Email instead. Consider my readers and ask: is this comment something that would benefit others? I am very happy to discuss private situations since helping everyone is my purpose here. If you disagree with something I said, tell me about it and we can solve the disagreement in a very friendly manner. My Email is: absolutetruth613@gmail.com
If all you need to do is blow off some steam with a nasty response, you should realize that Hashem reads all the comments I receive and judges whether it is something the He would approve of, or whether it is a Torah violation. After all those who bless you are blessed, those who curse you are cursed. If you are trying hard to be in the 2/3rd group, there are many ways to do that. Masochists have a variety of ways to hurt themselves. I also would like to question: if you have a nasty message to report, would you say it if we were face to face? The web makes it easy for cowards to operate, but you really are hurting yourself greatly since Hashem knows exactly who you are, and how He will punish you. If you don't believe this, you will find out soon, the hard way.
It is interesting to me that the one who is trying to save your life is the one with whom you need to take out your ignorant frustrations. Why am I bringing this up? As difficult as it may be to believe, I am more concerned with your welfare than you are. Doing Teshuvah may help, since it is Hashem that you have the conflict with, not His messenger.
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Another very interesting find by Rav Glazerson in Torah Codes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6of3QGOghLs&feature=youtu.be
Thank you Rav.
ReplyDeleteI learn so much from your response to other commenters. Please leave out the ones that are not beneficial and please continue to post and answer the sincere ones.
Thank you so much.
I also agree with the previous post. I learn as much from the comments and your responses as I do from the original post. As one who has just a very basic ability to read a little Hebrew I am always happy to see when one explains the grammar or even the more hidden aspects of Hebrew. I knew that the letter vav meant "and" but never put 2 and 2 together to determine that the word it was with became future tense. I am sure that my teachers know this, but it has never come up in their teachings. One must learn from everyone (and that is why I enjoy the comments of others).
DeleteYou are so correct, even I have learned a lot from comments that I have received. Very often questions that I get lead me to digging to find Hashem's opinion on the subject. What a great benefit that is to me.
DeleteThere are so many hidden aspects to Torah learning. I have mentioned the coded messages many times, but the fact that there are 600,000 ways that information is encoded in the 304,805 letters of the Torah lets us know that it is impossible in ten lifetimes to learn everything about Torah.
Most Torah learning is no deeper than the surface meaning. It is important, but to get a tremendous fascination with Hashem's deepest thoughts couldn't be done in thousands of years. The best part is that at the same time one is doing so much to help ones's well-being and overall spiritual level, it is extremely enjoyable.
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it is a great source of joy and peace of mind to one who studies Torah.
BS"D
ReplyDeleteLechvod the writer of this blog -
I am the one who wrote the comment on how I know Moshiach is truly coming very soon. Would it be possible to post it here as my intent was to give Kovod and Chizuk to all the readers, in addition to the writer of the blog? Mine was one of the last.
2.I would suppose the following can't be printed but I was told from a bas Talmid Chochom who happens to be a friend of mine that the Nile and Blue Nile River are drying up, as is found in the Nevuosin Sefer Yechezkeil and Yishayahu. My friend's father also possesses scientific knowledge. It seems that scientifically it can't be explained why the underwater springs have disappeared; thus the whole delta area is sans real irrigation. The Egyptians seem to be very concerned as the Nile and Blue Nile are their primary water source. Another sign that Moshiach is coming now.
3.Also, Thank you for the Chizuk of this last post and all the posts. The Vav HaHipuch is a great lesson in how things can go "M'Yagon L'Simcha" and will.
Also, I remember learning that Rav Dessler writes that there are four levels of P'shat, the fourth of which one only begins to understand after learning all four levels of the Torah, i.e. PARDES (P'shat, Remez, Drash and Sod). Thank you again for your words of Chizuk. B'virchas Kol Tuv to you and your family.
Also, how does one address the writer Rav? Thank you
P.S. Please excuse mistakes as this is being done on a ph.
I apologize for not knowing which was the comment that you wished to have published. I am presently with a backlog of 267 Emails to be reviewed. It is one of the reasons that I have requested certain types of comments and Emails not be sent.
DeleteIf you could resend the post to which your refer, I would be happy to give it some priority. If you also would send my a private Email to let me know the details, it would be easier to find your comment and post it. Most comments I receive are from Anonymous, it seems to be a very popular name.
Talking about idolatry, I've always wondered why people blame JC, who was a student of the great sage Yeoshua Ben Perachia, for all the stupid people that made a new religion based on him, 300 years after his death, when JC himself and his original disciples were all Jewish and preached the law of Moses. In fact, I don't think he claimed to be the Mashiach (I'm not sure about it, though). Another thing I didn't understand was how could a European idolater in the Middle Ages, the Inquisition or Zarist Russia to think that his idol, who lived and died as a Jew, could have ever approved that his alleged followers torture, oppress and massacre his nation in his name. In fact, during Onkelos' ouija he made a recommendation to ensure the wellbeing of the Jews and never to offend them. That's why I felt pity for JC Penny, until I discovered that the Arizal explained that JC Superstar was the reincarnation of... guess whom! Esav Harashah, nothing less than ESAV the beast, something that makes perfect sense since he is both the founder and idol of Edom (Christianity/Western civilization/Greco-Roman culture and values) that caused so many problems and persecutions to the seed of Yaakov. Not only they have the power on this earth (for now), but they also pretend to be tzadikim! Since then I don't feel any mercy for the mamzer who is burning in Tzoah Rotachat. Unfortunately many Jews who disrespect rabbis spreading the truth like Menachem Robinson will join him soon, unless they do serious teshuva shlemah.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your dissertation on Yushka and the history that his followers left us. I, or you, could write a book about the subject. Even though what you say is true (with some minor tweaking), the reasons for all that are much deeper.
DeleteIn the same way that Israel is told in Parashat Haazinu (Devarim 32:21) that when we provoked Hashem with a non-god (secular ways and vanities), He will provoke us with a non-people, a vile nation. In other words, we with our desire to not follow the ways of Hashem are being provoked by an Arab terrorist organization pretending to be a governed people. They are an allusion to get us back on track.
That has been our history. In every nation the Jews went into, they became secular and assimilated and turned away from Hashem's Torah. For the past two thousand years we have been provoked by the idolaters from Rome. If we had followed Hashem completely, this would never have happened and we would have had the worldwide redemption with the real Moshiach a long time ago. Hashem has been helping us throughout history to turn to Him. We are not robots who are programmed to do so, we are creatures with a free will to decide our own fate.
In the end all will be cleaned up and the good people of this Earth will be taken care of. It is just a shame that we put ourselves through such torture to get to a Tikun Olam that we could have had the easy way -- just follow the ways of Hashem.
The RAMBAM even commented that Yushka was necessary. If the world didn't have a false messiah to follow, it would have forgotten the concept of messiah millennia ago.
Yushka served a purpose, but has come to the end of his history. The prophet Ovadiah tells us of the end of the idolaters, which appears to be very soon, B"H