| Shemot: Exodus from Exile - Imagining Life's Possibilities |
| Have you ever imagined yourself up there on stage at the Academy Awards, giving your acceptance speech? Have you ever pictured yourself hitting the winning home run, conducting an orchestra, or singing before thousands of adoring fans? Taken in proportion, human imagination and daydreams can serve as an important safety valve for the ego and for the stresses of daily life. But who would daydream about being hunted down by Nazis, slaughtered in a Russian pogrom, or being part of the long, deadly Jewish march out of Spain in 1492? Hardly anyone. And who would use his or her imagination to contemplate what it was really like to be a slave in Egypt; to imagine the horror of learning that our firstborn sons would be slaughtered. Who would fantasize about being a firstborn forced to watch as every other firstborn Jewish man and child would be drowned in the Nile River. Yet, we will learn in today’s Torah Studies class why contemplating the minutest details of our slavery in Egypt and the decree to kill the first-born males not only will have a positive effect on our minds, hearts, and souls--but we will see how these meditations can be an important component in bringing closer the final end of our last exile from our land and from a truly G-dly world. |
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| Vaeira: Judaism 101 - The Haggadah |
| What lesson should be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records list as the longest-running class in human history? Maybe it’s Humanities 1.01 at Harvard College? Could it be the History of the French Revolution at the Sorbonne? Or maybe it was Socrates’ lesson on Ethics delivered by him, Plato and their disciples in Athens for hundreds of years? Guess again. It’s our Haggadah. We might not think of the Haggadah as a lesson, a class or as a lesson-plan, but that’s exactly what it is. For millennia, Jewish parents in the four corners of the Earth have used the Haggadah to transmit to their children the basic history and lessons of the Exodus from Egypt and our people’s ongoing faith in HaShem. In today’s class we’ll explore the Haggadah as a text that it meant to be taught, and we’ll highlight some of the most important lessons that we need to transmit when we teach it to our children. |
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| Bo: The Tenth Plague |
| If you were in a position to save someone’s life, would you just save them, or would you ask them to do something first? Can you think of any circumstances where you might ask someone who was about to die to take a suggested action before you saved them, even though you could save them just as easily if they did not do as you asked? And if they failed to take your suggestion, to do what you asked, would you fail to save them, and simply allow them to perish? These are complex moral questions, which are highlighted by HaShem’s own actions in this week’s Torah portion. When G-d informed Moshe that every first born in Egypt would be be killed, HaShem simultaneously ordered the Jewish people to wipe blood on their doorposts in order to save their first-borns. Why was this necessary? G-d could certainly have decreed Jewish first- borns wouldn’t die in this the tenth and final plague. In this week’s class we will be studying the tenth and final plague in depth. We’ll be providing a number of perspectives that demonstrate how and why the tenth plague was categorically different from the nine plagues that preceded it, and we’ll discover why the command to paint our doorposts in blood was a natural precursor to the end of the Egyptian exile. |
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| Beshalach: In the Hands of a Leader |
| How important should it be us to believe that our leaders, especially our spiritual leaders, are absolutely perfect? Is it possible for even the greatest of leaders to never make a mistake or an honest error? And if we assume that every human being is fallible to some extent, then what types of mistakes are acceptable in a leader, particularly in a spiritual leader? Can a spiritual leader’s mistakes be rooted in the same weaknesses and hungers that we all are susceptible to? And if not, then what can be an acceptable motive for a leader’s lapse in judgment? In this week’s Torah Studies class we’ll be analyzing a mistake made by the greatest Jewish leader of all, Moshe Rabbeinu. What makes this case so fascinating is that the written Torah itself does not level any particular criticism of Moshe in this instance. Rather, it is Rashi who feels the needs to point out that the situation was the result of a mistake by Moshe. By understanding Rashi’s motive in pointing out Moshe Rabbeinu’s error to us, we will see how in our own battle against our worst spiritual enemies, there is no room for error. |
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| Yitro: The Missing Link |
| When you get dressed for work in the morning, or to go out at night, are you putting on clothing, or are you putting on a costume? Do you ever masquerade as someone who you know you are not on any days of the year besides Purim? In other words, is there ever a complete disconnect between how you present yourself to the world, and who you truly know yourself to be? And who is that person, the person who is the real you? In this week’s Torah Studies class we’ll be discussing impact of the revelation at Sinai in general, and the giving of the Ten Commandments in particular, on the authentic Jewish self. We will see how before Sinai, the authentic Jewish soul could not truly and fully express itself in the world by means of the actions of the body. And we will see how the Ten Commandments provided the missing link, which for the first time enabled the soul and the body of every Jew to truly connect. We will learn how then, and now, the Ten Commandments enable us to express our authentic, holy self in the mundane world in which we all must live. |
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| Mishpatim: In Whom do we Trust? |
| What’s the official motto of the United States? What four words appear on every coin, and on every form of paper currency minted or printed in America? According to Federal Law: In Whom do we Trust? In Congress do we trust? In the President do we trust? In the will of the people do we trust? Of course not. The national motto that sums up the core values and vision of America is: “In G-d we Trust”. What then are the implications of this principle on the formulation of Federal, state and local laws? The name of this week’s parsha, Mishpatim, is rooted in the Hebrew word for Justice, and refers to the statutes necessary to maintain law and order--the laws that codify and enforce the social contract. In this week’s Torah Studies class we’ll be learning about the Torah’s approach to these logical laws at the very beginning of the Jewish nation, and we’ll be discussing how both Jewish law and secular law today can be similarly rooted in humanity’s basic need and desire to trust in its Creator. |
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| Terumah: Getting it Down, Getting it Done |
| Why is it not more important for us to know the location of Mt. Sinai? Did you ever wonder about the exact location of the site where the single greatest revelation of G-dliness in human history took place? Does anyone today even know where Mt. Sinai is? Except for historians and archaeologists, does anyone really care? On the other hand, is there any Jewish adult who does not know that the Bait HaMikdash was located in Jerusalem? Can you find someone today, religious or secular, who is not aware of what the Western Wall is? Instead of streaming from all over the world to Mt. Sinai, why have we since flooded a different location—the last remnant of the Bait HaMikdash, the Holy Temple? In this week’s Torah studies class we’ll answer these questions by examining the name of this week’s Torah portion, Terumah. We’ll learn why our ancestors were commanded to bring the offering of terumah even before they were commanded to build the Mishkan, the place where HaShem would dwell, and in which the terumah itself would be brought. In doing so, we’ll learn some important lessons about the relationship between preparation and application, and we’ll be reminded again of one of the Rebbe’s core teachings: The deed is the thing. |
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| Tetzaveh: High Couture Judaism |
| Have you ever wondered who buys those $10,000 or $20,000 gowns featured every year at the High-Couture Fashion shows in Paris? Why do they buy them, and where on Earth do they wear them to? Most important, whether it is a woman who makes the purchase or a man who buys the gown for a woman in his life, what is their motive for having such an ostentatious show of wealth as part of their presentation of self to the world? Our clothing represents our most evident statement about how we want and need to be seen by others, and Jewish custom and even Jewish law prohibits overt ostentation and showing off our wealth or power through our everyday dress. Nevertheless, we will learn in this week’s parsha that the Torah specifically commands the High Priest to dress in the most expensive, beautiful, elegant garments imaginable. Why would the most spiritual figure in Jewish life dress in such an overtly materialistic way? In this week’s class we’ll explore the reason for this High-Couture Judaism, and learn what some special features in the High Priest’s garments have to teach us about how we should conduct our own lives today. |
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| Ki Tisa: Smashing the Tablets - The Paradox of Intellectual Surrender |
| Have you ever been so upset that you wanted to take something and smash it against the wall? Can you imagine buying a gift for someone, and then becoming so angry at them that you wanted to destroy it before their very eyes? Can you even imagine yourself ruining something that was important and valuable to you personally, just because you thought that doing so would hurt someone else in the process? Becoming overcome by uncontrollable, irrational rage is something that most people are capable of, but we do expect more of our tzadikim, and especially of a tzaddik like Moshe Rabbeinu. So we must ask: How could he do it? How could Moshe Rabbeinu smash the tablets containing the 10 Commandments that were personally formed by HaShem, especially without being given permission to do so? Moreover, how could a person who had just spent 40 days and nights immersed in pure spirituality commit an act of wanton destruction no matter how angry or hurt he was? In this week’s Torah Studies class we will examine Moshe Rabbeinu’s actions after seeing the Golden Calf, and we will come to understand how this seeming act of emotional descent was entirely for the sake our people’s intellectual and spiritual elevation. |
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| Vayakhel-Pekudei: When Obedience is Not Enough |
| Where you ever in a position where you were forced to just “follow orders”, where every detail of your behavior was specified? Have you ever been forbidden to ask any questions, make any variations, or show any personal initiative related to any aspect of your life? What did that feel like? Did the requirement to behave robotically make you feel less than human? Did it make you feel spiritual, or G-dly? Probably not. Yet one of the great goals of Divine service is to attain the attribute of simple obedience to G-d’s command, described as “acceptance of the yoke” of the Divine will. But is obedience all there is to our calling? Or does G-d want us to become true leaders of our mission in our own right, taking responsibility for setting direction, building commitment and aligning and inspiring those around us? In today’s Torah Studies class we will explore the fascinating relationship between leadership and followership in the Torah. We’ll find that following G-d’s commands to the letter will paradoxically force us ask the deepest questions, take the greatest initiative, demonstrate ongoing leadership, and put our own personal, individual stamp on our G-dly efforts in life. |
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