This weekly women&#39;s class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Devarim, 4 Av, 5781, July 13, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson&#39;s home in Monsey, NY.

The Trauma Shows Up When We Begin to Sense Freedom

Parshas Devarim/Tisha B'Av Women's Class

Does Hashem Hate Us?

This is a text-based class, in Likkutei Sichos vol. 14, Parshas Devarim. This class was presented on Thursday Parshas Devarim, 2 Av, 5780, July 23, 2020, streaming live from Rabbi Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY

How Do I Rebuke Someone Suffering from Trauma?

Likkutei Sichos Devarim

Always Find Something Positive

This women&#39;s class was presented on Tuesday Parshas Devarim, 29 Tammuz, 5780, July&nbsp;21, 2020, streaming live from Rabbi Jacobson&#39;s home&nbsp;in Monsey, NY&nbsp;

As Moshe Gave His Final Speech, He Reminded the People That G-d's Love Is Unconditional

Devarim Women's Class

You Never Ever Disown a Child

This women&#39;s class was presented on Tuesday Parshas Devarim, 5&nbsp;Av, 5779, August 6, 2019 at the Ohr Chaim Shul, Monsey, NY&nbsp;

As Moshe was About to Say Goodbye, He Left His People with Nine Life-Changing Insights

Women's Devarim/9 Days Class

Judaism’s 9 Step Program for Life

Why Is Israel Scared of the Truth? - At the end of the day we have one moral argument. Why don&rsquo;t we use it?

At the end of the day we have one moral argument. Why don’t we use it?

Class Devarim

Why Is Israel Scared of the Truth?

Willpower

A woman is leaving her multimillion-dollar mansion in Beverly Hills when a poor man approaches her and cries, "Oh ma'am, I haven't eaten in three days." To which the woman responds: "I am so envious of you; I wish had your willpower."

Three Prophets

An intriguing Midrash states<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref1')">[1]</a> that three of the great Jewish personalities communicated their prophecies using an identical Hebrew term, eicha, which means "how" or "alas."

The first one to utter this word was Moses.

At the beginning of this week's portion, Devarim, Moses, speaking during the last weeks of his life, recalls how many years earlier he shared with his people his profound frustration as the leader of Israel. "I said to you at that time, 'I cannot carry you alone...How (eicha) can I carry your contentiousness, your burdens, and your quarrels if I am all by myself<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref2')">[2]</a>?"

The second was Isaiah.

In the opening chapter of Isaiah, this extraordinary man of G-d laments the moral degeneration of Jerusalem and its Jewish inhabitants 700 years after Moses' death<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn3" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref3')">[3]</a>. "How—eicha—has the faithful city become a prostitute?" Isaiah cries. "She was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn4" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref4')">[4]</a>."

The third was Jeremiah.

Jeremiah's heart-wrenching book of Lamentations, written 200 years after Isaiah<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn5" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref5')">[5]</a> and depicting the bloody destruction of Jerusalem, opens with the word "Eicha," alas. "Alas—she sits in solitude! The city that was great with people has become like a widow."

The Midrash concludes:&nbsp;Said Rabbi Levi, it is compared to a noblewoman who had three friends. One saw her in her negligence, one saw her in her recklessness, and one saw her in her degenerateness. So did Moses see Israel in their honor, and in their negligence, and he said, "How will I carry their burden alone?" Isaiah saw them in their recklessness, and he said "How she has become a prostitute..." Jeremiah saw them in their degenerateness, and he said, "How does she dwell..."

Three Linked Messages

It is logical to assume that the Midrash is not making a random observation of three people using the same term. Rather, the Midrash is attempting to tell us that there exists a subtle link between the three messages of Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. It is this connection that compelled the three prophets to choose the dramatic term "eicha" for their conversations with the people of Israel<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn6" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref6')">[6]</a>.

On the surface, no link is visible. Moses was discussing the enormous burden of leadership; Isaiah, the ugliness of promiscuity; and Jeremiah the tragedy of loss. Yet, the Midrash is hinting to us that these three messages are not only intertwined but actually evolve one from another<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn7" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref7')">[7]</a>.

The Tragedy of Silence

What was Moses' complaint? This great leader,&nbsp;"Whom G-d had known face to face<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn8" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref8')">[8]</a>," was not lamenting his stressful schedule or the lack of time for leisure. What perturbed Moses was that he was the only one taking ultimate responsibility for the fate of the nation. Others were willing to assist during their free time, but it was only Moses who felt that the needs and struggles of the people of Israel were his own.

"How (eicha) can I carry your contentiousness, your burdens, and your quarrels if I am all by myself?" Moses cries. If only one person is ready to put himself on the line in the fight for a better world, while others just emit a sigh and go on with their personal affairs, we are bound to crumble.&nbsp;The triumph of evil does not occur as a result of the perpetrators of evil per se; it happens because of the many ordinary men and women who don't care enough to stand up for what is right. When ordinary people of good moral standing lose the courage or willingness to protest injustice, morality is dead.

This is what Moses protested: the notion that ordinary people need not share equal responsibility in mending the world, combating immorality, and transforming human society into an abode for G-d.

Aicha, says the Midrash elsewhere,&nbsp;is comprised of the same letters as the word Ayekah, the question G-d asks Adam after eating from the Tree of Knowledge: Where are you?! The Aicha&nbsp;becomes a call for Ayekah.

The cry of Moses' "How can I carry you alone" ultimately evolved into the second stage of degeneration, which reached its peak during the time of Isaiah. "How has the faithful city become a prostitute?" Isaiah asked. "She was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers."

How indeed? Because Moses was left alone on the front lines of the battlefield for goodness and morality. When multitudes of people of moral stature do not feel an urgent responsibility to combat the flames of hate and evil burning in their society, a city once full of justice becomes, instead, a haven for murderers; a city of light turns into darkness.

Isaiah's call of "How has the faithful city become a prostitute," evolved into the third stage of degeneration, when Jerusalem destroyed itself, reaching the abyss during the days of Jeremiah. "Alas—she sits in solitude! The city that was great with people has become like a widow," he lamented<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn9" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref9')">[9]</a>.

The three "eicha's" represent three levels of moral degeneration: Passivity, destruction, and isolation.

Contemporary Jewish Silence

This painful truth was demonstrated once again in most recent times, during the destruction of our brothers and sisters in Jerusalem and in the entire land of Israel, following the signing of the Oslo accords in 1996 and the Gaza withdrawal in 2005.&nbsp; The tragedy of Oslo was twofold. Israel withdrew from most of its own territories, facilitating the creation of a massive terrorist infrastructure right at its back door. And&nbsp;Israel extended incredible tolerance toward the terrorists, allowing them to continue the bloodshed.

Following the Gaza withdrawal, leaving it vacant of every Jew, Gaza was transformed to Hamastan, committed to the destruction of Israel. Tens of thousands of rockets were launched from Gaza, targeting innocent civilians.&nbsp;

Yet this was not solely the result of erroneous decisions by some self-deceived individuals on the top of the government—the late Yitzchak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Yossi Sarid, Ahud Almert and Ariel Sharon. Such a perverse perspective on good and evil&nbsp;could have been fermented only because so many decent and nice people in Israel and abroad succumbed to the temptation of remaining silent and politically correct.

The same is true concerning every crisis—physical or spiritual—that faces our people today, from mass assimilation to inner conflict and disharmony, to domestic abuse, teenage despair, and the dangers of Anti-Semitism the world over. If we rely on "Moses" to do all the caring for us, our future is endangered. Every individual ought to lose a little bit&nbsp;of sleep because of his or her personal concern on how to bring redemption to a hurting world.

"Why Did You Not Faint"?

A moving tale<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn10" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref10')">[10]</a>:

Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagen, the saintly Chafatz Chaim (1838-1933), once dispatched a delegation of Jewish representatives to the Polish prime minister in an attempt to nullify a new decree against Jewish ritual slaughtering (shechitah).

Upon their return, they reported to the great rabbi that their mission was a failure. "The minister did not understand our Yiddish, and the translator did not do a good job conveying our message," the delegation reported.

"Yes, yes," cried the Chafatz Chaim. "But why did none of you faint? Had one of you been genuinely affected by the decree against Judaism as to faint, the prime minister would have understood you very well," he concluded.

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn1')">[1]</a> Midrash Rabah Eicah 1:1. 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn2')">[2]</a> Deuteronomy 1:9; 1:12. 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref3" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn3')">[3]</a> Moses spoke his words in the year 2488 since Creation. Isaiah began to prophecies in the year 3142 since Creation. 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref4" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn4')">[4]</a> Isaiah 1:21. -- These words of Isaiah are also read on this Shabbos, in the Haftorah. 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref5" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn5')">[5]</a> According to most opinions, Jeremiah wrote Lamentations in the year 3320, while imprisoned by the Jewish king Yehoyakim. He then distributed it through his disciple, Baruch ben Neriyah. When king Yehoyakim read it, he tore it up and burned it, demonstrating his lack of faith in Jeremiah's despairing prophesies. 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref6" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn6')">[6]</a> This is further underscored by the custom in some Jewish communities to read on this Shabbos the verse of Moses' stating "eicha," in the same sad melody in which we read Jeremiah's book of Eicha (Lamentations) on the 9th of Av, when we commemorate the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple on that day. 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref7" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn7')">[7]</a>&nbsp;As stated above, the Midrash itself comments that Moses observed the condition of the Jewish people during a time of serenity and comfort when they could afford to complain and quarrel. Isaiah saw the people during a time of frivolity and promiscuity. Jeremiah witnessed the Jewish people during their time of tragedy and loss. It seems quite clear that the Midrash is denoting an evolutionary process of degeneration. 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref8" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn8')">[8]</a> Deuteronomy 34:10. 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref9" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn9')">[9]</a> This interpretation in the Midrash is based on a lecture presented by Rabbi Adin Even-Yisroel (Steinzaltz) in Jerusalem, during the summer of 1999. 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref10" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn10')">[10]</a> This story was told by the Lubavitcher Rebbe at a public gathering in the winter of 1975. 
My gratitude to Shmuel Levin, a writer&nbsp;and editor in Pittsburgh, for his editorial assistance.

The Dangers of Passivity: Three Levels of Moral Degeneration&nbsp;-- Passivity, Destruction, Isolation

Three Levels of Moral Degeneration: Passivity, Destruction, Isolation

Essay Tisha B'Av/Devarim

The Danger of Passivity

An intriguing Midrash states that three of the great Jewish personalities communicated their prophecies using an identical Hebrew term, eicha, which means &quot;&quot;how&quot;&quot; or &quot;&quot;alas.&quot; The three were Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah.

It is logical to assume that the Midrash is not making a random observation of three people using the same term. Rather, the Midrash is attempting to tell us that there exists a subtle link between the three messages of Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. It is this connection that compelled the three giants to choose the dramatic term &quot;eicha&quot;&nbsp;for their conversations with the people of Israel.

The class will show how these three messages are not only intertwined but actually evolve one from another, both historically and mystically.

Did Moshe Love Jews?

What was the Benefit of Wandering 40 Years In the Desert?

Class Summary:

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