In This Issue:
Note from the Director
Women and Prophecy - JewishAnswers.org
The Grand Finale - TorahMedia.com
New Installments of our Ongoing Classes
This Week's Torah Reading: Chayei Sarah
Featured Article: Parshas Chayei Sarah Glory Days & Golden Years
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In our Torah reading this week, Eliezer goes out to find a wife for Yitzchak. When he arrives in Charan, the land of Avraham's relatives, he asks for a sign that he has found the right person: he will ask her for
water to drink, and that she will not only give him water, but also water his camels.
The Beis HaLevi explains that there was great wisdom in Eliezer's request. The future wife of Yitzchak would be a generous person, who would give him water. She would have to dispose of the water, not knowing if he was carrying any germs or illness, but would have to do it in an inoffensive manner –- by offering to give the remaining water to the camels. She had to be both generous and considerate.
Eliezer, in other words, was looking for someone who would act like Avraham. When Avraham received his three visitors, he first offered them a light meal, because as they were traveling, they might not want to stop for several hours. He offered more extensive hospitality only once he knew they were interested.
This week, I stumbled upon the story of Don Ritchie, who lives on a hill in Sydney, Australia, overlooking the magnificent cliffs called "The Gap." It has gained a sad reputation as a suicide point, and over the past 45 years Mr. Ritchie has saved nearly 200 lives -- simply by inviting people in for a cup of tea.
With a wise combination of consideration and generosity, we, too, can accomplish great things.
Good Shabbos!
Rabbi Yaakov Menken
Director, Project Genesis - Torah.org
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Women and Prophecy - JewishAnswers.org
See it at JewishAnswers.org
Question: Is there any evidence to indicate an instance where G-d speaks directly to women in the Torah?
Answer: This is an interesting question, because it made me aware of something I had not previously thought of -- namely, that there is no verse which explicitly says, “And G-d spoke to so and so” where He directly addresses a woman. However, there are many verses which indirectly speak of such communication, and Jewish tradition states that many women were prophets, which by definition means that they received communications from G-d.
Certainly there are many prophecies in which women are the subject. For example, G-d tells Avraham that he will have a son FROM SARAH and that only SARAH’s son will be his heir in founding the Jewish people (not his son from another wife). Also when Sarah sees that Ishmael is behaving improperly and endangering her son’s life, she wants Avraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away and Hashem tells Avraham “Whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her.” Our Sages state that indeed Sarah had a higher level of prophecy than Avraham.
Another case in which G-d speaks directly about women is when the daughters of Zelaphchad request the right to inherit land in Eretz Yisrael (Israel), since their father had no sons, and Hashem tells Moshe, “Yes, the daughters of Zelaphchad speak correctly.”
Other women who come to mind are:
1. Miriam, who led the women in dancing while Moshe led the men in dancing after crossing the Red Sea. Her Song of the Sea was prophetically inspired as was Moshe’s.
2. Devorah the Judge who sang a prophetically inspired song of thanks after leading her people to victory against a terrifying foe.
3. Chana (Hannah) who wept and prayed for a son and whose prayers were answered by G-d, with the birth of a son who grew up to be the great prophet Samuel.
Toby Katz
The Grand Finale - TorahMedia.com
New Torah.org classes on Chayei Sarah
The Passing
by Rabbi Yochanan Zweig
Read more in Rabbi Zweig on the Parsha
Sarah Had It All Together – Throughout Her Life
by Rabbi Yissocher Frand
Read more in Rav Frand
Make Every Day a Jewish Holiday!
by Rabbi Label Lam
Read more in DvarTorah
"These are the Lives of Sarah"
by Rabbi Berel Wein
Read more in Rabbi Wein
Facing God's Challenges
by Rabbi Pinchas Winston
Read more in Perceptions
Read previous years' classes on Chayei Sarah on Torah.org:
By Rabbi Jon Erlbaum
http://torah.org/learning/edutainment/5769/chayeisarah.html
· This Week’s RRR (Relevant Religious Reference): “Any
love that depends on a specific cause, when that cause is gone, the love
is gone; but if it does not depend on a specific cause, it will never
cease...” – Ethics of the Fathers (Avos), 5:19
· This Week’s SSC (Suitable Secular Citation): ♪ “And I
hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it, but I probably
will... well time slips away and leaves you with nothing mister, but
boring stories of – GLORY DAYS” ♫ – From “Glory Days” by “The Boss”
Bruce Springsteen
SPRINGSTEEN’S HIGH SCHOOL FRIENDS
In the first verses of his hit song “Glory Days”, Bruce Springsteen speaks about two of his friends who are “past their prime”, feeling hopelessly compelled to pine away for the old days. The 1st is a guy who had been a “big baseball player back in high school”, and the 2nd is a woman who “could turn all the boys’ heads” back in her heyday. I’m pretty sure Bruce is on to something big here! Think about it: in illustrating the “has-been” characters that are fated to pine away for the past, look at the examples he chooses. He specifically references people who had been highly regarded in their youth for their PHYSICAL prowess.
A STOCK THAT IS DESTINED TO GO DOWN
So what makes Bruce’s friends – and others who are highly regarded for the PHYSICAL prowess of their youth – especially vulnerable to latter-life letdown? Our Sages provide a hint in their following Talmudic statement: “Any love that depends on a specific cause – when that cause is gone, the love is gone”. True, on one level the Sages are speaking about interpersonal love & romantic relationships (e.g. if a man marries a woman that he “loves” PRIMARILY for her looks, as her youthful charm vanishes, the “love” gradually vanishes along with it). But we can also apply the Sages’ quote to “self-love”, or even to “love of life”. Let’s speculate into the early life of Bruce’s Baseball Friend – called “BBF” below – to demonstrate how “love of self” and “love of life” fit into the equation:
1) Young BBF has some serious baseball skills, for which he attracts much recognition & admiration
2) The thrill of being admired causes BBF to base more and more of his esteem and identity – his “love of self” and even “love of life” – around his baseball skills
3) DANGER AHEAD: any love – whether of others, of self, or of life – that depends on a specific cause (like baseball skills or looks), when that cause is gone, the love is gone
4) CRISIS: Despite the fact that some stars like Roger Clemens & Jamie Moyer play well into their 40’s, BBF’s skills go the way of all physical greatness and fade away with time. He had become known as “Mr. Baseball”, which he proudly adopted as his self-defining label. Now what? What happens to a “Mr. Baseball” that can no longer play the game? What happens to a “Miss Head-Turner” that can no longer turn the heads?
THE GENERAL PROBLEM: PHYSICALITY DETERIORATES WITH TIME – physical matter, physical strength, physical beauty, and so on! Therefore, basing our identity and esteem around our physical greatness, much like marrying mostly for looks, IS LIKE HEAVILY INVESTING IN A STOCK THAT WE KNOW WILL GO DOWN! So now we can plug in all the variables to our new equation: any “self-love” that depends on the physical greatness of our youth, when that physical greatness is gone, the “self-love” is gone.
100 IS THE NEW 20
You’ve heard that 60 is the new 40? Well in this week’s portion, we learn how 100 can be the new 20! We are told that our Matriarch Sarah lived her life in such a way that when she was 100, it was as though she was 20. 100-year old Sarah didn’t need to look back at her glory days – her “Golden Years” were her “Glory days”! How did she do it? Perhaps because when she was 20, she invested more in the rising stock of spiritual pursuits than in the plummeting stock of superficial preoccupations. And while we said above that physicality deteriorates with time, spirituality flows in the opposite direction and can actually get better with time! [Incidentally, this is one reason we use wine to sanctify experiences like Shabbat, which represents the elevation of our physical world for a spiritual purpose. Wine and “spirits” (aptly named) are perfect choices to symbolize this triumph. Since they are famous for improving over time, they are prime examples of physi cal substances that are influenced by spiritual properties].
OLD-AGE & BEYOND
Two final points that stem from these principles are important to consider. First of all, the value that we place on physicality vs. spirituality will also likely determine the appreciation we have for elderly people. On a societal level, those cultures that place the highest premiums on physical accomplishments seem to be the same cultures that place the lowest premiums on their senior citizens. And finally, one more crucial concept comes out of the “love of life” analysis: we have established that the more occupied and obsessed we become with our fleeting physicality, the more we can expect a later life of frustration, disappointment, and meaninglessness. But this conclusion also holds true for our afterlife experience, for the very same reasons: the more our “love of life” is wrapped up in our physical preoccupations, the more difficult our transition to an afterlife where that physicality is no longer accessible. The more our souls would be fated to grasp for a gratification that is no longer available!
Of course, “spirituality” from a Jewish perspective is not synonymous with deprivation or full-time mountaintop meditation! “Spirituality” involves engaging in the physical world and harnessing its resources to fulfill the meaningful missions for which we were created. With that in mind, we can thank our Sages. They may not have been seasoned stock market analysts, but their hot tip on spiritual awareness provides us with a top investment strategy: one that can perpetually take us from strength to strength – ever looking ahead to greater Glory Days!
Have a Wonderful Shabbos! Love, Jon & The Chevra
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