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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Rabbi Wein - Parshas Ki Sisa

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Rabbi Berel Wein and torah.org?
That also through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?

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Parshas Ki Sisa
Shabbat Precedes the Building of the Mishkan

The Torah reading of this week is naturally dominated by the description of the tragedy of the Golden Calf and its consequences. But the story of the Golden Calf in the parsha is preceded by teachings regarding the sanctity of the Shabat. The rabbis attributed the presence of this Shabat subject in the parsha as a further indication that even the construction of the Mishkan cannot take precedence over the sanctity of Shabat.

But there is another insight that is available here as well. The dangers of Golden Calves, false gods, apparently shining and enticing ideals that only lead to eventual disaster, is something that is always present in Jewish society. In our long history as a people there is a long list of Golden Calves that have led us astray and at great cost to us.

Paganism, Hellenism, false messianism, Marxism, secularism, nationalism, humanism and unbridled hedonism, just to identify some of these Golden Calves, have all exacted a terrible toll from us over our history. The Shabat and its holiness and its enforced withdrawal from the mundane and impious world have always stood as the bulwark of defense against these Golden Calves.

The Shabat is our first and strongest line of defense against the sea of falseness and evil that constantly threatens to engulf us. Without Shabat we are doomed and lost. With Shabat we are strong and eternal. There are not many things in history that are that simple to discern but the saving grace of Shabat for Jewish society is one of these really no-brainers.

This is why later in the Chumash in parshat Vayakhel the admonition regarding the laws of Shabat is again repeated in conjunction with a further review of the construction of the Mishkan. The Torah wishes to emphasize that short of human life itself, no cause no matter how seemingly noble takes precedence over the sanctity of the Shabat.

For all human causes, no matter how noble, contain dross with its gold. The Shabat in its eternity and God-given holiness is likened to the World to Come, eternal and everlasting. For many times in our rush to build, we destroy, and in our desire to accomplish great things we trample upon nobility and moral righteousness. The great sage, Baba ben Buta in the Talmud warned King Herod not to destroy the old until the new has already been erected.

The world oftentimes believes that the destruction of the old is somehow a necessary prerequisite to construct the new. The Torah comes to teach us that the old Shabat already observed by the People of Israel even before the granting of the Torah to Israel at Mount Sinai will definitely outlive and outperform the shiny new Golden Calf that is now being worshipped so avidly.

Golden Calves come and go but the eternity of Shabat and Torah remain valid for all times and circumstances. This reflection is buttressed in the Torah by its repetition of the sanctity of Shabat many times in these parshiyot that mark the conclusion of the book of Shemot. Our Mishkan is built only with Shabat and never in contravention of Shabat.

Shabat shalom,
Rabbi Berel Wein
   
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Perceptions - Parshas Ki Sisa

Can we do תפילות prayers for:

Rabbi Pinchas Winston and torah.org?
That also through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?

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Parshas Ki Sisa
The True Purim Experience

    They got up early the next day and offered burnt-offerings and brought peace-offerings. The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to make merry. (Shemos 32:6)


This Shabbos is Shushan Purim Katan. This means that had it not been a Jewish leap year, it would be Purim, at least for those people living in cities whose walls date back to the time of Yehoshua bin Nun. However, being Shabbos, they would celebrate Purim on Sunday instead.

But, even though it is not Purim until next month, it is still a holy day today, or rather, an even holier day, since it is also Shabbos, and a time for additional joy. It is a time to make merry, as the verse above mentions, except not in the way that the people of the golden calf did. Their party led to their deaths; ours has to lead to a higher level of spiritual existence.

This is different from the oneg of Shabbos and the simchah of Yom Tov. On Shabbos there is a mitzvah of oneg, to do those activities, or to eat those foods, that give us physical pleasure, provided that they can be used to increase our sense of oneness with God, and our appreciation of the holiness of Shabbos.

Though we partake of physical pleasures on Yom Tov as well, the mitzvah is one of simchah, that is, to get into an intellectual mindset that throws us back to Temple times. This is why eating meat and drinking wine is more of a mitzvah of Yom Tov, because the meat is an allusion to the sacrifices that were brought up to the Temple of Yom Tov, and the wine alludes to the libation that accompanied the sacrifices.

However, mishteh is a different experience, as is Purim. For, as the Leshem explains, the holiday of Purim is rooted in the sefirah of Chochmah—Wisdom —which is why it is the last holiday to go. Even after Yom Kippur no longer requires a special day to access its holy light in the eighth millennium, Purim will still be a unique time. Only in the ninth millennium will the light of Purim shine everyday, at a very advance stage of Olam HaBah—the World-to-Come.

This means that when Purim occurs for us now, a spiritual portal opens up that allows us access to the light of the ninth millennium, the light of the sefirah of Chochmah. This is not true for Shabbos, which gives us access to the light of the seventh millennium for a day, or Yom Kippur, which gives us access to the light of the eighth millennium for a day.

Purim, it seems, is the World-to-Come incognito. Indeed, so-much-so that many people who celebrate it miss the portal altogether, either because their celebration of Purim more closely resembles the one in this week’s parshah before the golden, or their Purim is so subdued it could almost be confused for Yom Kippur.

What is the key to unlocking the true Purim experience?

The Talmud says regarding a child in the womb about to be born:

    A candle is lit on his head and he is able to see from one end of the world until the other end … There isn't a better period for a person than these days ... They teach him all of Torah ... and as he enters the world, an angel hits him on his mouth and he forgets it. (Niddah 30b)


Forgets it? Completely? What was the point of teaching the unborn child all of Torah in the first place if not for it to enter the world already knowing all of Torah, at least on some level? If so, then what was the cause of forgetfulness, and why must a person undergo this process?

Almost everyone has seen a picture of a fetus in the womb, suspended in liquid, dormant. If we didn’t know better, we’d think that the baby, even just moments away from delivery, wasn’t alive, God forbid. Yet, as the baby enters the outside world, all of a sudden it wakes up, and in a big way. As it gasps for air it cries, and it continues to cry until it finally calms down.

From that point onward, life outside the womb is nothing like it was on the inside. The body that was dormant is now very much alive, demanding attention, stealing the show to such an extent that it can be quite easy to forget that it is merely a house for the soul inside of it. In fact, as the baby becomes a child, then an adolescent, then a teenager, and finally an adult, the prominence of the body become even stronger as the need for independent survival increases the involvement of the body in everyday affairs.

“I remember those days in the womb,” the soul says with a sad fondness. “Those were the days when the body was neutral, and we didn’t have a physical care in the world! In fact,” the soul continues, “I was the main event, as angels came down and shared the entire Torah with me, greatly enhancing my relationship with God and my sense of self.”

“But then came birth,” the soul continues, with a sense of sad withdrawal. “All of a sudden, I had no one to talk to … no one with whom I could share my knowledge and experiences. When I want to speak, I have to do it through a body that can’t even talk intelligently. When I want to pursue greater spiritual heights, this body to which I am attached, and which feeds off of me for survival, chases after the material world instead. It should be asking me for directions in life, but instead I am forced to follow its every whim!”

It’s like interviewing a brilliant man, who happened to bring along his agent. Even though you pose the questions to the brilliant man, the agent always jumps in and answers instead, obviously not to the same degree that his client would, given the chance. Even the genius gets frustrated, because though he keeps opening his mouth to answer a question, he can’t a word in edgewise.

Likewise, the soul would like to speak, but every time it tries to, the body jumps in and steals the show, usually misrepresenting it. How many times the soul must cringe when it hears what the body has to say on behalf of both of them. How often the soul must want to escape and run the other way when it sees what the body is up to, and the way it is behaving.

    I created the yetzer hara and I created Torah as its spice. (Kiddushin 30b)


A spice can work in one of two ways. Either it can enhance the taste of something that is weak, or it can weaken the taste of something that is strong. This is why the rabbis chose the word ‘spice’ to refer to Torah, and not something more vague. They are indicating that Torah can be used to either spiritually strengthen a person where they are weak, or to weaken the yetzer hara when it is too strong, and in some cases, even neutralize it for a period of time.

For example, the mitzvah of tefillin puts a person in a spiritual frame of mind that makes it easier to think like God, as does the learning of Torah. Other mitzvos create an environmental change, such as Shabbos and Yom Tov, that have the same effect on a more public scale. They create a tefillin effect in an all-encompassing way, allowing a person to reach greater heights of spiritual consciousness, neutralizing the body at least to the extent that it is forced—depending upon how seriously one takes Shabbos and Yom Tov— to take a break from mundane activities for about 25 hours.

But I have been a lot of Shabbos tables, and on many occasions, the body still fought to steal the show. For Shabbos to really work, everyone has to be on the same spiritual page, or close to it. Otherwise, while some of the people at the table are trying to have a spiritual experience, others keep trying to turn the Shabbos table into a more mundane, week-like activity.

Shabbos is a compromise between the body and the soul. The soul says to the body, like a mother might say to her complaining child, “If you behave yourself, I’ll feed you well.” The soul tells the body, “You let me do my thing on Shabbos, and I will reward you with things that you like to do, like eating good food, for example.”

But, just as a child has difficultly keeping his word sometimes, being a child, the body can also have difficulty sticking to its part of the bargain, even though the soul has, and still on Shabbos act occasionally below par. I have witnessed first hand at my own Shabbos table how easily things can become undone, and the next thing you know you are struggling to resume a higher level of spirituality befitting Shabbos.

In the cartoons, when someone acted out of line and didn’t respond to polite insistence, they bopped the person on the head, after which he usually saw stars, heard birds chirping, and became totally submissive to the commands of others. The hit on the head neutralized the personality of the obnoxious person until only his most basic functions were working, allowing everyone else to behave more naturally.

We may not knock the body out on Purim by hitting ourselves over the head, but we do it with wine instead. The point of wine on Purim is to neutralize the body, so that it steps aside for a period and lets the soul be itself. With the proper amount of wine, a body seems content just to sit around and feel good.

Of course you have to be careful. Sometimes a body can get so drunk that it becomes even more obnoxious than it was while sober. How many people have had to carry their friends home, forced to listen to all kinds of abuse while the person remained without his senses? How many Purims have been ruined by people who drank for drinking’s sake, and became drunk to the point of ridiculousness, if not worse. Instead of Purim, it was the golden calf revisited.

To help myself recall the point of the drinking on Purim, and to prepare myself for a holy experience, I drink from my Shabbos Kiddush cup. In fact, I set up my first drink as I do for Kiddush on Shabbos, and make a declaration, before drinking the wine, what I intend to accomplish through the drinking. Then, completely focused and with a tremendous sense gratitude to God for allowing me to celebrate another Purim, I make my brochah very slowly and with a tremendous amount of concentration.

I also begin my mishteh—drinking feast—with an agenda, what I hope to spiritually accomplish that day, even preparing certain material to refer to, if necessary. With my body neutralized, I plan to access that heavenly knowledge, as much as possible, that angel shared with me inside the womb. With the source of my forgetfulness on the sideline, it is far easier to recall what I was once taught.

And lastly, it is important to surround yourself with like-minded people, friends and family that can either give good divrei Torah or listen to them, or ideally, both. With these elements in place, the rest of Purim seems to take care of itself, and the feeling of pure simchah is tremendous.

I know I have been successful if, by the end of Ma’ariv that night, after I have sobered up and Purim has clearly moved on for another year, I feel a sense of spiritual accomplishment. If everything has gone right, then I will have gained valuable insight into life that day, and that is what I will take away even after Purim has passed.

For, when God sees people acting like souls, celebrating life for the sake of becoming more God-like, then He opens up His well-springs of wisdom for the souls that have gained their freedom, if only temporarily, and thirst for soul-knowledge. It is such knowledge that allows a soul to grow, to become rectified, and stronger to the point that even the body is forced to move up a spiritual notch or two.
   

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Perceptions, Copyright &copy 2011 by Rabbi Pinchas Winston and Torah.org.
Questions or comments? Email feedback@torah.org.

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"Two Egypts - Both in Turmoil / The Judgment is in Motion"

Can we do תפילות prayers for:

Nathan Leal and his ministry?
That also through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?
"Two Egypts - Both in Turmoil / The Judgment is in Motion"  

Nathan Leal's Survive2Thrive Radio: 02-15-11

 
 
 
Topics:

1. The Spirit of Egypt has entered America.
2. America and Anabis - The "god" of Death!
3. Two Egypts are on this earth / Physical and Spiritual!
4. Prophecies about Egypt.
5. Famine's arrival, now on mainstream news!
6. Time is running out!

 
 
These topics concern all of us!

 
-------------------------------------------
 

Please share this audio with ALL of your loved ones and everyone that you know including pastors and church members.

God Bless You,

Nathan Leal - The Watchman's Cry
---------------------------------------------
 
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God Doesn't Love You

Can we do תפילות prayers for:

Daniel Rendelman ~ emetministries?
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What is true love? 
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 God Doesn't Love You?
truth about true love

By Daniel Rendelman ~ emetministries@gmail.com
 



From the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet to today's blockbuster movies, the world is in love with love.  People sing about it, dream about it, and write books about this most natural of all feelings.  Everyone has two basic emotional needs: the desire to feel loved and the desire to show love.  A major malfunction in humanity occurs when these desires are mixed up, and when love is not properly received or given.

People say that they "love the New Orleans Saints."  Girls fall in and out of love all through high school.  Mankind is searching for true love, but as one classic Country music song puts it, the world is "looking for love in all the wrong places."  The fact is that true love is not found in receiving love from others.  Being the center of your mate's attention isn't all you need.  Love isn't about getting some feeling or fix, it is about giving devotion and time.  It is better to give than receive.

In modern thought love is often confused with lust and is usually considered an emotion that can be turned on and off like a light switch.  The concept of love in the Bible is very different.  Love or "ahava" in the Hebrew means "to give."  The word "ahava" is usually used in the Scriptures as a verb.  This means that love is something you do and not just what you feel or believe. 

Biblical love is more concerned about giving than receiving.  Giving is the vehicle of love.  "For YHWH so loved the world that He gave His only Son," John 3:16.  (YHWH is the Hebrew name of the Creator as given to Moses at the burning bush.  To learn more about this name visit www.emetministries.com)  True love is not even based on feelings, as feelings can actually stop someone from giving love to others.  We treat people the way we feel.  Therefore, if we feel loved of the Almighty then we will treat other people with that same love.  When you treat others rudely, it's simply because you are not feeling loved.  Feelings are symptoms of thought.  The problem is that most of people think that they are unlovely.  Masses think that God doesn't love them.  When we have these thoughts we then are inclined to act unloving to others.  Understand that if you are not feeling the love of the Almighty, then it is your emotions that are stopping His ahava from filling your life.  But, if you meditate, think, sing, or pray about YHWH's ahava then your emotions and actions will reflect His love.  Your actions go along with what you think about.  "Beloved, if YHWH so loved us; we also should love one another," 1 John 4:11. 

Don't allow bad problems or emotions to convince you that YHWH doesn't feel compassion towards you.  Regardless of what you have done in the past, YHWH loves you and you are special to Him.  His love is unconditional because it is His nature to love.   "But anyone who does not love does not know YHWH, for YHWH is love," 1 John 4:8.

A person of faith should overflow with the love of Christ; a love that constantly gives to others.   "He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me," John 14:21.  Notice the pattern in this verse - first you do love and then you feel it and receive it.  For faith to be effective, each religious action, each prayer, and each good deed must be from the motivation of showing love.   Biblical love is an unconditional gift that is freely offered from the heavens.  The Savior said, "My command is this: love each other as I have loved you," John 15:12.

Here are a few Bible verses to consider about YHWH's love:

 
 
  • For YHWH so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16
  • I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of YHWH, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20
  • Know therefore that YHWH your Elohim is Elohim; he is the faithful Elohim, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. - Deuteronomy 7:9
  • For YHWH loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones.   - Psalm 37:28
  • I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. - Proverbs 8:17
  • This is how YHWH showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since YHWH so loved us, we also ought to love one another. - 1 John 4:9-11
  • And so we know and rely on the love YHWH has for us. YHWH is love. Whoever lives in love lives in YHWH, and Elohim in him. - 1 John 4:16
  • We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love YHWH," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love YHWH, whom he has not seen. - 1 John 4:19-20
  • This is how we know who the children of YHWH are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of YHWH; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. - 1 John 3:10
  • So be very careful to love YHWH your Elohim. - Joshua 23:11
  • The Savior replied: "'Love the YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' - Matthew 22:37-39