Bereshit- October 9th, 2015
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 6:08 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 6:55 pm
Torah Message:
The narrative of Cain and Abel (Kayin and Hevel) presents numerous difficulties. Why did they choose their respective professions? Why was only Hevel’s sacrifice accepted? Why does G-d challenge Kayin’s justifiable anger? Why does Kayin murder his brother, and why does he lament his punishment of being forced to wander? He should have been executed for murder!
Kayin, the farmer, saw that the ground was the source of all life. His name, which means “acquisition”, indicates that he was rooted in materialism. Hevel, as a shepherd, pursued the less material objectives of leadership, honor and power, as the shepherd is the leader of his flocks. The word “hevel” which connotes the ethereal is an indication of his lack of concern for materialism. Kayin, the firstborn, chose farming, since plant life precedes animal life, just as acquisitions precede honor. Hevel, on the other hand, viewed shepherding as a higher and more honorable profession, as evidenced later by the Patriarchs.
Abarbanel on Succot- October 3rd, 2015
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 6:17 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 7:04 pm
Torah Message:
Prose and Poetry
Abarbanel offers several insights into the holiday of Succot and the succa itself. First of all, the temporary nature of the succa is a reminder of our temporary life on earth. The seven days of the festival correspond to the seven decades of the average lifespan. The number of bulls which were brought as sacrificial offerings decreases with each day of the festival. This is to remind us that each passing decade brings us closer to the inevitable end, and encourages us to make the best use of our time to develop our spiritual potential.
Vayelech – September 18th, 2015
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 6:37 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 7:23 pm
Torah Message:
Prose and Poetry
“And Moshe wrote this poem…” (31:22)
Prose and poetry are worlds apart.
Prose is more or less like someone speaking from a page.
No one speaks like a poem.
Prose is speech committed to writing.
Poetry is a written concentration of words divulged by speech.
Nitzavim – September 11th, 2015
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 6:47 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 7:33 pm
Torah Message:
Little David
“You are all standing today…” (29:9)
Who would have thought that anti-Semitism would make such a virulent comeback?
As a schoolboy in 1967 I remember reading the Sunday Times reporting the Six Day War. You would have thought that the English army had just won the war. Plucky little David against the Arab Goliath.
And now, little David has been recast as the “blood-thirsty Goliath” devouring the “hapless waifs” of Gaza.
Ki Teitzei – August 28, 2015
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 7:06 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 7:52 pm
Torah Message:
The Evanescence of Desire
“And it will be that if he did not desire her…” (21:14)
Nothing is as transitory as desire.
Really, there are two kinds of desire: There is the lust of the feelings for immediate gratification — a craving, doomed to the law of diminishing returns; and then there are the true deep-seated desires of the soul — the aspirations that express who we really are.
In this week’s Torah portion there is a grammatical anomaly that captures these two kinds of desires precisely.
Shoftim – August 22, 2015
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 7:14 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 8:01 pm
Torah Message:
Did You Hear That?
When you go out to battle against your enemy and you see horse and chariot. Let not your hearts be faint; do not be afraid, do not panic, and do not be broken before them. For Hashem, your G-d is the One who goes with you, to fight for you with your enemies, to save you. (20:1-4)
The Torah gives four warnings here: Let not your hearts be faint; do not be afraid, do not panic, and do not be broken before them. Rashi comments that these four warnings correspond to four strategies that the kings of the nations use in battle: Let not your hearts be faint — from the sound of the stamping of horses hooves and their neighing. Do not be afraid — of the sound of shields being banged together. Do not panic — from the sound of horn blasts. And do not be broken before them — from the sound of their shouting.
All of these fears are based on sound. The power of sound is that it draws from the world of imagination, intimation. It lacks the immediacy of sight, but therein lies its power.
Re’eh – August 14, 2015
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 7:23 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 8:09 pm
Torah Message:
Ladies and Gentlemen, Due to Circumstances beyond Our Control…
“The blessing that you listen to the commandments And the curse that you do not listen and turn aside from the way” (11:27-8)
I remember being the grateful father of a newborn son.
There are very few occasions that compare with the joy of a brit mila, the spiritual rite of passage when a Jewish boy is brought into the covenant of Avraham on the eighth day of his life. A feeling of expectancy filled the house. Relatives came from thousands of miles away. The sage and the saintly were duly informed of the time and the place.
Everything was set.
Ekev August 7, 2015
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
- Teen Late Night @ Speedzone SOLD OUT!!
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 7:30 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 8:40 pm
Torah Message:
Fire
The carved images of their gods you shall burn in the fire for it is an abomination of the L-rd, your G-d. (7:25)
Our Sages teach us that extreme anger is like worshipping idols. What is the connection?
Imagine you’re a courtier in the palace of the king. While walking past you, one of the other courtiers treads on your toe, and rather than apologize he turns around and pokes his tongue out at you.
Do you curse and shout at him? I doubt it. Not, that is, unless you are unconcerned about your head staying in nodding contact with the rest of your body. Your awe of the king, not to mention the fear of his punishment, makes it easy for you to swallow your pride and smile a wan and insincere smile at your fellow courtier.
Va’Etchanan July 31, 2015
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 7:35 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 8:46 pm
Torah Message:
Drawing by Numbers
“Hear O Yisrael…” (6:4)
The first verse of the “Shema” is like “Drawing by Numbers”.
At one time, we must have all followed the numbers on a seemingly inscrutable page of dots, and watched as a perfect picture slowly emerged.
There are really three elements to drawing by numbers: The numbers themselves, the connection of the numbers one-by-one by lines, and the final emergence of the picture from the lines.
In the first verse of the Shema there are three Names:
“Hashem” – the Tetragrammaton – the ineffable four-letter Name of G-d.
“Elokeinu” — literally, “Our G-d.”
And then the Name “Hashem” again. However, this second mention of the Name is different to the first, as it is connected to the last word of the verse, “Echad” — One.
The Arizal explains that the three Names represent chochma, bina, and da’at — three distinct concepts that are variously translated into English by the catch-all (and not very illuminating) word: “Wisdom.”
Ethereal and Kabbalistic as chochma, bina, and da’at normally sound, they all originate in a verse in Proverbs: “Hashem, with chochma founded the Earth, established the Heavens with tevuna(synonymous with bina); with His da’at the deep was made permanent.” (Proverbs 3:19-20)
Let us explain.
Devarim July 25, 2015
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 7:35 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 8:46 pm
Torah Message:
This week we complete the synagogue reading of the fourth of the Five Books of the Torah, Bamidbar — “In the desert.”
What is the theme of the Book of Bamidbar?
The captivity of the Jewish People in Egypt was more than just physical bondage. On a deeper level Egypt represents the enslavement of the power of speech. Egypt not only enslaved the bodies of the Jewish People, it put in chains the major weapon of the Jewish People — speech. Thus, the Torah writes that the Jewish People “cried out” to G-d. It never writes that they “prayed.” For in Egypt, speech itself was bound.
The power of speech is synonymous with the power to give direction. The word dabar can mean a leader or a director in Hebrew, as in “One leader for a generation, and not two leaders.”