Excerpt Browser

This page displays the full text of excerpts.  When viewing a single excerpt, its “Share,” “Switch Article,” and “Comment” functions are accessible.

GENESIS — 37:17 said

GEN1456 It is hard to predict what influences we will have on [others’] lives.   Recall the man Joseph encountered when he was searching for his brothers.  The man told Joseph where to find his brothers, information that led to Joseph’s sale into slavery.  Without this anonymous messenger, Jewish history would be very different.   The rabbis say this man was a malakh.   However the Hebrew word malakh is ambiguous.  It means “angel” and also “human messenger.”   Being in the right place at the right time can allow us to be messengers of God without even realizing it.  I believe that we are all malakhim at times in our lives.   And, like Joseph’s malakh, we do not always know the significance of our actions.   (By Robert S. Karasov) DORFFBOD 91

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GENESIS — 37:21 save

GEN1458 One who wishes that neither he nor others should give, is wicked.   Pirkei Avot V:16   When we give directly to a needy person, it is well to be discreet and inconspicuous. If the needy one does not meet you or learn your identity, so much the better. But amid a group making contributions or pledges, put modesty aside, for what you do influences others. In fact, herein lies the power and effectiveness of the public appeal: everyone becomes somewhat subject to public scrutiny.  The cause is made explicit; its urgency is explained. And as others respond, you must ponder your heart and your conscience, aware that what you do or fail to do will be significant.  A fascinating passage in the Midrash considers what might have occurred had certain Biblical characters known they wer to be Biblical characters: When Joseph’s brothers plotted to kill him, Scripture says: “Reuben heard, and he saved him from the their hands” by offering (hesitantly) a substitute plan only one degree better: let Joseph be thrown in to a pit rather than be murdered outright. Reuben planned, Scripture indicates, to come back quietly and rescue him. As an early commentary notes, יצלהוו, and he saved him,” is written defectively, a second yod omitted, to hint that this was hardly a way to save Joseph; Reuben meant well but his plan was a shabby subterfuge. [this verse; the early commentary is R’maze R. Joel, quoted from manuscript in Torah Shelemah ad loc. §135, bi’ur.)  And the Midrash notes that “the Torah thus teaches you proper behavior – that when a man does a mitzvah, let him do it with a happy whole heart. For had Reuben known that the Holy, Blessed One would have this written about him, Reuben heard, and he saved him from their hands, he would have carried Joseph on his shoulder back to his father!” SINAI3 165

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GENESIS — 37:24 empty

GEN1462 Unfortunately, many of our children are deprived of a father image at home – and I do not mean only those children whose fathers are m’chal’lei Shabbos, violators of the Sabbath, or do not observe kashrus and taharas hamishpochoh – they are deprived of a father image simply because in their homes, and this includes even some religious homes, there is not the atmosphere of idealism and of a yearning and an aspiration toward things that soar above the mundaneness of the toil and moil of life. This is the main reason why youngsters today are in revolt against everybody and everything, why so many Jewish children become hippies, or beatniks. [Published in 1975 – AJL]   So many of us ascribe to youth all the responsibility and guilt for youth’s revolt and impetuosity without realizing that many times the parents themselves are more at fault than the youngsters for youth’s unrest and rebellion, in that they have failed to instill moral fibre in the hearts of the children by not providing the kind of atmosphere at home to inspire them toward things that soar above the mundaneness and the vulgarities and the profanities of life.   In regard to the verse, “V’habor raik, ein bo moyim” [this verse] – and the pit was empty, there was no water in it, our Sages say: “There was no water in it; however, it was full with serpents and scorpions” This Rabbinic comment is based upon a well-known scientific principle; namely, that “nature abhors a vacuum.” Hence the Torah, when said “v’habor reik – and the pit was empty,” could not have meant that it was void of everything for nature abhors a vacuum. If it was not filled with water, then it must have been full with serpents and scorpions. This scientific principle, namely that nature abhors a vacuum, is as true in the psychological realm as it is in the physical realm. Human nature too abhors a vacuum. Either a father ills us the spirit of his child with spiritual and ethical norms and aspirations or he invites spiritual and emotional scorpions to penetrate the heart of the child.   The only way for principals and teachers to inspire the children in our Day Schools so that they dill not join, when they grow up the ranks of the revolting youngsters is by supplying a sublime father image to the children. If the principals and teachers will consistently and scrupulously furnish a father image to the school children then there will be a spiritual and moral content in their lives and they will not be disposed to conjure up the idols of new morality, immorality and amorality. However, the fulfillment of the father role by the principal and the teacher of the Day School constitutes only one of the two functions incumbent upon a rebbe. For the other function incumbent upon a rebbe is the fulfillment of the mother role.  The mother role is realized through the Torah she imparts to the child, as it is written, “V’al titosh Toras imechah”  Proverbs 1:8 – Forsake not the Torah of your mother. Obviously, a mother does not impart Torah through instruction in books or through intellectual reasoning. The mother imparts the purely practical aspects of Torah, the inculcation of ethical qualities, through tender, tolerant, and sympathetic guidance. And so it should be with the rebbe.  Both the father image and the mother image have to be furnished by the Yeshiva teacher so that the child may be enduringly motivated by the concept of the dignity of man and of man as a being who was created in the image of God and by the concepts of love of God, love of Torah, love of Israel and love of mankind.   BUILD 24-5

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GENESIS — 37:24 empty

GEN1461 Rabban Gamaliel, the son of Rabbi Judah haNasik said; It is seemly to combine the study of Torah with an occupation, for the wearying labor of both keeps sin forgotten. All Torah study that does not have work accompanying it must in the end come to nothing and bring sin in its wake. Let all who work for the community, the people, work with them for the sake of Heaven, for the merit of their fathers sustains them, and their righteousness will endure forever. And as for your, I [the Almighty] will account you worthy of great reward, as if you had done [everything]. Pirkei Avot II:2   Why are there people who sin? Why do so man others have recourse to psychiatrists? In far too many instances, it is simply because their minds are empty of any sense of purpose and responsibility. Without any stabilizing center of purpose, duty, obligation around which to organize their lives, these unfortunates become distraught. But if you immerse yourself in this two-fold program of Torah and derech eretz, Torah study and productive achievement in the secular realm, you will find so much of a meaningful nature to do, that there will be no time to even think of sin. On the other hand, a human spirit that finds no outlets for its energies in Torah, in religious study and observance, is like a “body of water that is blocked: it turns back upon itself, collecting scum, refuse and silt.” As the Sages say, “He who abandons the words of Torah will have no strength to withstand a day of tribulation.” Talmud Berakoth 63a. When his brothers threw Joseph into the pit, the Torah tells us, “The pit was empty; there was no water in it.” [this verse] If it was empty, obviously there was no water in it! Surely the second part is superfluous? The Talmud therefore interprets it to denote that “water there was not in it, but there were snakes and scorpions.” Shabbat 22a, Hagigah 3a.   A profound thought is suggested to us here. When a pit is empty, it fills up with serpents. When a mind is empty, it becomes a snakepit. Nature abhors a vacuum. If there is one, the least desirable of nature’s creatures rush to occupy it. The stomach cannot feed on its own gastric juices, nor can the mind function on its own psychic phantoms. The human entity must be given a sense of purpose and values from without. The prisoner cannot liberate himself from his dungeon. Talmud Berakoth 5b.   When sound, Heaven-blessed values are dethroned, a petty passion climbs to power. SINAI1 133-4

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GENESIS — 37:27 sell

GEN1464 Everyone needs to repent, for we all do wrongful acts sometimes.   As the Bible teaches, “There is not one righteous person on earth who does only good and never sins” Ecclesiastes 7:20. The Bible underscores this by describing transgressions and even crimes committed by its greatest figures, e.g. Judah arranges to sell his brother Joseph into slavery.  TELVOL 1:150

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

RSS
123456789
Back To Top