Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Parshas B’shalach- Torah for your Table- Spice up the Shabbot table in under 1 minute!


 This weeks parsha discusses Bnai Israel’s journey into the desert. After hundreds of thousands of Egyptians were killed from the tenth plague, the slaying of the first born, Pharaoh finally allowed the Jews to leave Egypt.  He was so happy to have them leave at this point; he basically escorted them out of his land. However, after Pharaoh had sent out the Jews, some of his noblemen admonished what he had did, saying,
“What have you done? There were many wise men and professionals among them, and consider all the men, women, and children whose assignments were left unfinished on account of their leaving. In addition, they asked us for gold, silver, and vessels, thus carrying away our entire fortune. “

After hearing this, Pharaoh had recognized how valuable the Jews really were to him, and regretted letting them free.
From this, we can learn that only after something is gone do we really appreciate it. We all take things in our lives for granted, our family, friends, health, home, food, clothing, shelter, etc., because it may not be up to par with what we think we want. We should look at all the beauty in our lives and remember to have the utter most gratitude for it now, rather than appreciating when it’s gone.

Every force has an equally opposite force--


“The greater the person, the greater the yetzer”   
(Dessler)
            Our rabbis say, “the greater the person, the greater the yatzer hara (evil inclination)” (Kiddushin 52b).  This is a way of making a great person reach the height of his spiritual potential. Thereby, Hashem has decreed that a person will never lose his behira- free will.  When a person has overcome a challenge, induced by the yatzar hara-evil inclination, a new, more difficult challenge will be on the horizon.  The yatzar hara loves a good challenge and picks a person who will put up a good fight.
Moreover, the essential difference between a tzadik- a righteous person- and a rasha- an evil person- is that the tzadik, always chooses good, even though the scales of good and evil are presented before him equally. The rasha, however, having no desire to choose good, will not choose good, even thought he also has the equal scale between choosing good and evil.
In the past few weeks, we have seen from the pasha’ot, that through all the plagues and miracles Hashem brought upon Bnai Israel, Pharaoh came to realize Hashem’s power and enormity.  In a sense, he became “greater.” As a result of this, Hashem needed to continuously increase his yatzar hara, and -harden his heart- to create a balance and restore Pharaoh’s free will. By hardening Pharoah’s heart, Hashem aroused a forceful and vigorous reaction from Pharaoh’s yatzar hatov- a good impulse to enable him to repent. From that we can see that Pharaoh indeed did have the free choice to let Bnai Israel free during each plague, and the free will to allow them to leave Egypt.

            Each of us struggles with our yatzar hara. However, this should not us and turn us away from Hashem. Rather, when Hashem hardens our hearts- and makes our yatzar hara stronger, Hashem is just giving us harder challenges because He knows we can handle them. Remember, where there is a strong yetzer hara (evil inclination), there is an equally strong yatzer ha tov (good inclination). In all, as Hashem continuously hardens our hearts, He is giving us opportunities to develop ourselves so that we can become greater.

Power of Tefillah


After Pharaoh realized what a mistake he made letting the Jews free, he went with his finest chariots and army to bring them back to Egypt. At that point, the Jews had been traveling for three days, and Pharaoh and his army were able to catch up to them in only one day.
When Bnai Israel saw the Egyptian army approaching them, surrounded by the sea, they felt utter distress and hopelessness. Why had Hashem caused them even more suffering, wasn’t their suffering in Egypt enough?
In Egypt, Bnai Israel had suffered tremendously and cried out to Hashem endlessly. Their teffillot - prayers- were filled with intense kavona- strength.  However, once they were freed, there teffilot were not as strong and they neglected them more so. Hashem missed hearing teffilot from His children so He called Pharaoh down from Egypt to pursue them once more. Immediately after Bnai Israel saw Pharaoh and his army approaching, they did teshuva and cried out to Hashem to be saved; thereby, Hashem split open the sea for them.
Tefillot represents our closeness and relationship with Hashem.  In order to strength our teffillot and connect with Hashem, we need to recognize that Hashem brings us trials and tribulations in order for us to get us closer to Him.  We tend to think that Hashem is punishing us when we are struck with hardship, but rather, this is Hashem reminding us that He desires a stronger more connected relationship with Him. Let us all strive to daven to Hashem in times of strength and in times of weakness with as much kavona and emunah as possible.            

What to focus on in your teffilah this week



As Bnai Israel was leaving Egypt into freedom, the freedom they yearned for all their years of slavery, they were blocked by the Red Sea. However, as we can see from the parsha, after Bnai Israel reached out to Hashem in prayer, He removed the blockade and split open the sea for them, and freedom was theirs. They were now on their way to receive the beautiful Torah, which would give them access to reaching their highest potential.  Similarly, we all have many blockades in our own lives that prevent us from reaching our fullest potential. The two major blockades that affect people most are financial distress and finding ones bashert- soul mate. Therefore, this week our teffilah regarding those issues will be heard even louder. Because of Bnai Israel’s teffilah, Hashem removed their blockade, so to, we should have additional kavona and daven for our blockades to be removed in order for Hashem to bless us all with financial stability and finding our basherets.

DID YOU KNOW?


Q. Why do we have Torah reading designated in shul 2x a week- on Mondays and Thursdays?
A. The answer comes from this weeks parsha:
When Bnai Israel left Egypt, they traveled for three days and neglected their Torah study, as our sages teach us. Because of this lack of Torah study, Hashem was displeased with them, so He subjected them to a test. After the 3-day period, Bnai Israel realized that all their vessels and canteens ran dry. Luckily, they found a well in the place of Mara. However, in order to test Bnai Israel’s faith in Hashem, He had made the water bitter tasting and undrinkable. Some people indeed did complain about the lack of water; nevertheless, a majority of Bnai Israel stayed faithful to Hashem. Bnai Israel’s complaining was justified; however, Hashem was displeased with how they voiced their complaint, rather than speaking courteously to Moshe. Seeing that they lacked sufficient Torah study, we can see how their character traits were negatively reflected upon that deficiency. Thereafter, the prophets instituted that there should always be Torah reading in the temple every Monday and Thursday, that way, no Jew would never go 3 or more days without hearing the beautiful words of Torah.

DID YOU KNOW?


 Q. Why do we cover the challah on Shabbot before we say hamotzi? And why do we use two challahs?
A. A simple answer to why we cover the challah is, so we should not embarrass the challah. According to halachah, we give precedence to the bracha of hamotzi; however, we are sanctifying Shabbot with the kiddish first, rather than with the challah; thereby, the challah may get jealous for giving precedence to the wine. So to, we cover the challah respectfully. However, to get the true source behind where this ritual originates we see the source from this week’s parsha.
After the splitting of the Red Sea, Bnai Israel was camping in the desert. While in the desert, Bnai Israel was famished. Hashem revealed to Moshe and Aaron that He will have bread rain down from Heaven. Every morning Bnai Israel would find the bread prepared for them. The earth would be sweep clean by the north wind, and then rain would come and wash the ground. Subsequently, dew came down from Heaven and converted the ground into a shimmering table. Immediately afterwards, the manna would fall down, warm and ready to eat on the table. To protect the manna from being infested with bugs, after it came from Heaven, Hashem provided another layer of dew to protect it.  Here we can see how the manna was covered on both sides; thereby, on Shabbot we cover the challah to remember how Hashem provided delicious clean food for Bnai Israel’s in the desert.
Additionally, Hashem commanded that Bnai Israel was to collect only as much as they needed to eat, no more, no less, but on the sixth day, Bnai Israel was to collect two servings of manna in order to honor Shabbot. Hashem was taking care of Bnai Israel daily. Furthermore, on Shabbot, in order to be reminded of the beautiful miracle of manna falling from the Heavens each day, and needing to collect extra manna for Shabbot, we use two challahs during Kiddish to symbolize how great Hashem was to us in the desert.
The Midrash continues telling us that the manna was so Heavenly, it tasted like any flavor one wished and it had the most scrumptious smell. The manna provided Bnai Israel with all the spiritual nourishment they needed.
In all, this Shabbot you should take note at what the challah and challah cover really represent. When you take your first bite into the warm doughy challah, think of the Heavenly manna Hashem provided Bnai Israel all those years in the desert, and all the detail He put into provided them with the most delectable tasting bread. Moreover, learn to have gratitude for the Heavenly Bread Hashem has fortunately given you on this special Shabbot.

Slave or Jew?
 Hashem finally liberated the Jews from Egypt and their treacherous slavery. However, He freed the Jews so they could be slaves to Him.  Nevertheless, Hashem does not treat His servants in the manner a normal master would treat his slaves.       
Normal masters have their servants clean for them, dress them, cook for them, hold a lantern in the road for them at night, etc. However, we see Hashem never demands such things from the Jewish people. During their sojourn in the desert, Hashem provides the Jewish people with their every need.  He provided them with the seven Clouds of Glory, four Clouds provided shelter for the camp in all directions, two Clouds protected Bnai Israel like a shelter, from the blistering desert sun, and the last Cloud guided the camp on their journey into Israel. Hashem in His great might even provided Bnai Israel with light during the night, the seventh Cloud, which was replaced by a burning fire to illuminate their tents.
Moreover, during their journey in the desert, Hashem continuously provided Bnai Israel with food and water no matter where they were, ie. the manna which fell from Heaven each day. Clearly, we can see that Hashem is indeed the Master of the universe, and we are His slaves; however, the relationship we have with Him is not the conventional master/servant relationship, where the servant provides the master with his every need, it is a father/son relationship, in which the father is and will continuously care for and nurture his son- Bnai Israel.
From this, we should all recognize that Hashem is our Father and we are His children. So to, just as a father only wants what’s best for his children, we need to remember that everything that happens in our lives is done with the best intentions from our Father above.