ב"ה
a) It's a phase we're going through; b) It's an empowerment thing; c) It’s the (spiritual) nature of things; d) Life is what you make it; e) Truth is in the externalities; f) It works.
Leviticus 25:1-27:34 Torah Reading for Week of May 13-19, 2001 
The Sabbatical and Jubilee years, doing business with G-d, reward and rebuke, and a system for evaluating value.The Parshah in a Nutshell Full Parshah summary with commentary More on the Parshah from the Chassidic Masters
His custom was that every morning he would return home from prayer, put down
his tallit and tefillin, and immediately leave his home once again
going from door to door collecting money for the needy. Only after distributing
it to the poor people that gathered each day at his house would he sit and have
something to eat. It wasn't easy work, the rich didn't easily part with their
money and the less rich didn't have much to part with, but he was happy that he
could serve G-d through this all-important mitzvah.But on this particular day, Rabbi Naftali felt that something was amiss. People were nice to him.
Is it true that he shall suddenly appear on a main street in Jerusalem, a poor old man with a wild but angelic look, spewing forth wisdom and declaring the time of redemption has arrived? If so, why will they not lock him up?Is it true that he shall be announced on all the media worldwide at 6 pm, along with offers for free El Al tickets? If so, who will finance this?
What do they know about Jews? Sometimes a lot, sometimes very little,
sometimes nothing at all. And yet all of them have a discomfort with Jews. Some
of the things anti-Semites come up with concerning Jews and Judaism, make us
wonder: What could we possibly have done to cause them to suspect such a thing?
Plotting to take over the world? Where did that come from?In order to examine the mystery of anti-Semitism, one needs to have an understanding of its target, which is the Jewish people. But that's not so simple, and brings us to a second mystery: What exactly is a Jew? What is Judaism? A religion, a culture, a family, a nation? What? |
 The Parshah in a Nutshell
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