Elizabeth

A couple is in the midst of a tremendous fight, as a gunman breaks into their home. Pointing his rifle at the woman of the home, he asks her for her name. The terrified woman mutters, “Elizabeth.”

“This is your lucky night,” the gunman responds. “I just can’t get myself to kill somebody who carries my mother’s name, may her soul rest in peace. My mother was a special woman. I won’t shoot you.”

He then points the rifle at her husband’s head. “What is your name?” thundered the gunman.

“My name is Harry,” the horrified man replies, “but they call me Elizabeth.”

Today You Become a People

It is a strange verse. The Israelites have been wandering in the desert forty years. An entire generation passed since they were liberated from Egyptian bondage. Moses is speaking to the people weeks before his own passing. He tells them:

תבוא כז, ט: וַיְדַבֵּר משֶׁה וְהַכֹּהֲנִים הַלְוִיִּם אֶל כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר, הַסְכֵּת וּשְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה נִהְיֵיתָ לְעָם לַיהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ.

Moses and the Levitic priests spoke to all Israel, saying, "Pay attention and listen, O Israel! This day, you have become a people to the Lord, your God.

“Today you have become a people?” This is strange. They have been a free people for four decades. Even before, while in Egypt, they have been a distinct people. How can Moses deny the long and arduous history of his nation?

Imagine if at a State of the Union address the President of the United States declares: “Today you have become a people!” Americans would, naturally, be offended. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams are meaningless? How can Moses bluntly say, “This day you have become a nation”?!

Rashi is perturbed by this question. Rashi answers that Moses was giving a message that “Every single day, it should seem to you as though you are today entering into a covenant with Him.” Judaism ought to be fresh and novel.

Yet the plain meaning seems to suggest that Moses was saying that precisely now, as they stood poised to finish their years in the desert and enter the land, that is when they became a people.

Genesis of Nationhood

I heard a marvelous insight by Israel’s former Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau. When is the first time we, the Jews, are defined as a nation? Who conferred on us first the title of Nation?

Throughout Genesis we are never called a people; we are a family, titled “benei Yisroel, the children of Israel,” children of Jacob who was later named Israel. Who, then, decided to alter us from a family into a people?

The answer is counterintuitive and astounding, but so profoundly telling. It was Pharaoh, the tyrannical Emperor of Egypt, in the opening of Exodus, who called us a people.

שמות א, ח: וַיָּקָם מֶלֶךְ חָדָשׁ עַל מִצְרָיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָדַע אֶת יוֹסֵף: וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל עַמּוֹ&nbsp;הִנֵּה עַם בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל&nbsp;רַב וְעָצוּם מִמֶּנּוּ: הָבָה נִתְחַכְּמָה לוֹ פֶּן יִרְבֶּה וְהָיָה כִּי תִקְרֶאנָה מִלְחָמָה וְנוֹסַף גַּם הוּא עַל שׂנְאֵינוּ וְנִלְחַם בָּנוּ וְעָלָה מִן הָאָרֶץ:

A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know about Joseph. He said to his people, "Behold, the nation of the children of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we are. Get ready, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they increase, and a war befall us, and they join our enemies and [cause us to] depart from the land.”

Pharaoh then develops a systematic program of genocide for the blossoming nation who, he fears, will take over Egypt and expel the natives.<a onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref1')" id="_edn1" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a>

130 years have passed since Pharaoh called us a people. And now, in the wilderness, Moses declares: “Hayom hazeh nehayata Laam, today you have become a nation!” How can this be? Why would Moses say to the people that they have become a nation today, more than a century after Pharaoh defined the Jews as a nation?

What Is a Jew?

The Torah, in a subtle and sophisticated way, is addressing one of the great questions that would define the Jew throughout history. What does it mean to be a Jew? What makes you Jewish? What is the common thread that binds all Jews?

There are two possible answers to that question—one is given by Pharaoh; the other by Moses. Pharaoh defines us as a group that poses a challenge to the Egyptian Empire. What sets us apart as a people is that Pharaoh is threatened by us and determined to rid the world from our influence. What binds us as a people is the fact that Pharaoh hates us.

This is astounding. Our first mention ever as a people, a collective unit within humanity, is in the context of anti-Semitism, when the Egyptian monarch declares, that “Behold this nation, the children of Israel, pose a threat to the rest of us.” What makes us Jewish? What is the definition of our nationhood? We are the group that triggers profound hate. What does it mean to be a Jew? That someone out there despises me.

Moses’ definition of our peoplehood is radically different. “You shall become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” he tells us at Mt. Sinai. Or in his words in Ki Tavo: “Today you have become a nation, and you shall observe all of G-d’s Mitzvos.” We are bound together by a vision to construct a holy world, to grant history the dignity of purpose, to build a world saturated with morality, compassion, and love. What unites us is a covenant of love, a shared commitment to recognize the image of G-d in every human being and the unity of humanity under a singular Creator.

What binds us as a people, says Moses, is not that you Pharaoh hates you, but that G-d loves you and chose you as His ambassadors to sanctify the planet.

Which is why Moses is so adamant, declaring: “TODAY you have become a nation.” Not yesterday, but today. I know that, as history drags on, some of you might be tempted to define your nationhood in terms of anti-Semitism. I know that some of you may allow Pharaoh to define the meaning of being a Jew.

No, says Moses. Don’t allow the Pharaohs of history to define the meaning of being a Jew. “Today you have become a nation.” Today, after forty years of studying Torah in the desert, internalizing its vision at Sinai, you can finally appreciate what binds you together as a people: the courage to live with the consciousness of Oneness; the dedication to the Divine blueprint for life, Torah and Mitzvos; the readiness to become beacons of spiritual light to all of humanity.

What Connects Us?

The famed 9th century Babylonian sage Rabbi Saadya Gaon was confronted with this question: Lacking a sovereign state and a national identity, scattered around the earth, what defines us as a people? What binds the Jew of Morocco with the Jew of Spain? The Jew of Iraq with the Jew of France? What makes them part of a single nation?

In his great philosophical work, he would write:

אומתנו איננה אומה כי אם בתורותיה.

Our nation is not a nation only because of its Torah.

His answer was this: The Jew in Morocco and Spain do not share the same land, culture, national identity, language, government, and social climate. What makes them, then, one people? How can they be seen as part of one nation? Is it that they are both despised in their countries? No! It is that they both cherish, breathe, and live the same Torah. “Today you have become a people.”

Shared Destiny

We often talk of the fact that all Jews are united by the fact that anti-Semites hate us all. Mengele sent every type of Jew to the gas chambers.

This is true, but it’s missing something. This definition alone is the one that Pharaoh gave us. In his mind we were “Am Bnei Yisroel,” a nation in the sense that our blood is less red, our honor less valued, our freedom can be snatched. Discrimination against us is justified.

80 years ago, we experienced the same fate. Jews from Berlin and Warsaw shared the same fate. Chassidim, Litvaks, Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Jews from Bulgaria, Greece, Ukraine, Italy—all shared the same destiny. Left-wing communists and right-wing Zionists, reformers and Orthodox Jews, were all decimated with the same passion.

Comes Moses and tells the Jewish people, “Hayom hazeh nehayata laam, today you have become a nation!” We must discover a deeper, eternal vision that can unite us. You can’t inspire your children to remain proud Jews if their only understanding of Jewish identity is the dangers we endure. Why would you want to be part of such a people? Besides, when you are living in a country that treats all its citizens with equal dignity, what keeps you Jewish then?

This question we must answer today: Who will define us as Jews? Pharaoh or Moses? Titus or Reb Akiva? The Crusaders or Rashi? Richard Wagner or the Vilna Gaon? Julius Streicher or the Lubavitcher Rebbe? Jewish children studying Torah or the mullahs of Iran?&nbsp; &nbsp;

Will we be bound only by a covenant of fate, when we face a common enemy, or will we be bound by shared dreams and ideals? Can we be defined not by what happened to us but by what we commit ourselves toward? Not by a covenant of fate but by a bond of faith?

The anti-Semite can’t create the Jew; the Jew must create the Jew.

Say It Louder!

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, today the chief Rabbi of Efrat, Israel, related this personal experience from his youth in Brooklyn, NY:

“I had never been to this particular shul before, this renovated hospital turned into a synagogue about two miles from where I grew up in Brooklyn. Nor had I ever prayed with Hassidim. But the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehuda Halberstam (1905-1994), was particularly well-known as a saintly Chassidic master who had re-settled those of his Hassidim who had survived the Holocaust in and around the Beth Moses Hospital, in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. And so, one summer morning in 1952 on the Shabbat of Ki Tavo I set out from my home on Hart Street to the world of black gabardines and round fur hats, eager for the opportunity to be in the presence of a truly holy man and to experience a Hassidic prayer service.

“Now the Torah reading of Ki Tavo is punctuated by 53 verses which catalogue the punishments in store for Israel when they forsake G-d’s teaching: “If you don’t obey the Lord your God and all His commandments and statutes, then these curses shall come upon you… God will smite you with consumption and with a fever and with an inflammation and with an extreme burning and with the sword... God will turn your rain into dust, and it will come from the skies to destroy you... And your corpses shall be meat for all the birds of the sky and for beasts of the earth. God will smite you with madness and blindness and a confusion of the heart. God will bring a nation from afar against you, from the end of the earth, swooping down like an eagle, a nation whose language you don’t understand. A haughty arrogant nation which has no respect for the old nor mercy for the young.” (Deuteronomy 28:15- 50).

It’s easy to understand why Jewish custom mandates that these verses be read in a low voice. The Tochacha (“Warning”) is not something we’re very eager to hear, but if we have to hear it as part of the Torah cycle, then the hushed words, without the usual dramatic chant, are shocking enough.

“I arrived at the huge study hall even before the morning service had begun – and although I was the only pre-bar mitzvah boy in the congregation not wearing a black gabardine, I felt swept up by the intensity of the people praying, swaying and shouting as though they suspected that the Almighty might not bend His ear, as it were, to a quieter service of the heart.

“Then came the Torah reading. In accordance with the custom, the Torah reader began to chant the Warnings in a whisper. And unexpectedly, almost inaudibly but unmistakably, the Yiddish word ‘hecher’ (‘louder’) came from the direction of the lectern upon which the Klausenberger Rebbe was leaning at the eastern wall of the synagogue.

“The Torah reader stopped reading for a few moments; the congregants looked up from their Bibles in questioning and even mildly shocked silence. Could they have heard their Rebbe correctly? Was he ordering the Torah reader to go against time-honored custom and chant the tochacha out loud?

“The Torah reader continued to read in a whisper, apparently concluding that he had not heard what he thought he heard. And then the Klausenberger Rebbe banged on his lectern, turned to face the stunned congregation, and cried out in Yiddish, with a pained expression on his face and fire blazing in his eyes: ‘I said louder! Read these verses out loud! We have nothing to fear, we’ve already experienced the curses. Let the Master of the Universe hear them. Let Him know that the curses have already befallen us, and let Him know that it’s time for Him to send the blessings!’

“The Klausenberger Rebbe turned back to the wall, and the Torah reader continued slowly chanting the cantillation out loud. I was trembling, with tears cruising down my cheeks, my body bathed in sweat. I had heard that the rebbe lost his wife and 11 children in the Holocaust… His words seared into my heart.

“I could hardly concentrate on the conclusion of the Torah reading. “It’s time for Him to send the blessings!”

“After the Service ended, the Rebbe rose to speak. His words were again short and to the point, but this time his eyes were warm with love, leaving an indelible expression on my mind and soul.

“’My beloved brothers and sisters,’ he said, ‘Pack up your belongings. We must make one more move – hopefully the last one. G-d promises that the blessings which must follow the curses will now come.”

He then spoke of the blessing of Eretz Yisroel, the eternal homeland of the Jewish people.

Some years later, he established Kiryat Sanz – Klausenberg in Netanya where the Klausenberg Rebbe built a large community, and the acclaimed Laniado Medical Center.

We cannot be a nation that dwells on the “curses” that have befallen us. Of course, we must remember our past, and fight with unwavering clarity and passion against every enemy that wishes to bring curses to our people, Heaven forbid. We must never ever forget that Iran and all fundamentalist Jihadists do not distinguish between the most right-wing Chassidic Jew and the most left-wing liberal Jew. They want them both cursed and hunted down. We must thus unite as true brothers and stand up for our people, for Israel, for our homeland, for justice and peace.

But our curses must never define us. Our blessings must inspire us and catapult us into action.

Indeed, “it is time He sends the blessings!” It is time He sends the greatest and most vital blessings, the blessing of Moshiach and our true and complete redemption, now!

&nbsp;______________

<a onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn1')" id="_ednref1" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> Indeed, in this week’s portion, Ki Savo, in Deuteronomy 26: 4, the Torah states: “Our ancestors went down to Egypt and there they became a nation…” In Egypt we are defined as a nation, and the title is bequeathed to us by the Egyptian king.

It is a strange verse. The Israelites have been wandering in the desert for forty years. An entire generation has passed since they were liberated from bondage and left Egypt. Moses is speaking to the Hebrews just weeks before his own passing. He tells them: &quot;Pay attention and listen, O Israel! This day, you have become a people to the Lord, your G-d.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

&ldquo;Today you have become a people?&rdquo; Really? They have been a free people for four decades. Even before, while in Egypt, they have been a distinct people. Imagine the President of the US at the State of the Union address declares: &ldquo;Today you have become a people!&rdquo; People would, naturally, become deeply offended. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams are &ldquo;chopped liver?&rdquo;

When is the first time we, the Jews, are defined as a nation? When is the first time we are mentioned as a people? Who conferred on us first the title of Nation? Throughout Genesis we are not called a nation even once. Then we are a family, &ldquo;benei Yisroel,&rdquo; &ldquo;the children of Israel,&rdquo; coming from our father Jacob who was later named Israel. Who, then, decided to alter us from a family into a nation? At what point did we cease to be merely a &ldquo;family,&rdquo; children Israel, and they became an &ldquo;am,&rdquo; a nation? Who crafted this transition?

The answer is astounding. The title &ldquo;nation&rdquo; is conferred upon the Hebrews by non-other than&hellip; Pharaoh, the tyrannical Emperor of Egypt, in the beginning of Exodus.

Some 130 years passed since Pharaoh made that claim, and Moses&rsquo; words in Ki Savo: &ldquo;Hayom hazeh nehayata Laam!&rdquo; Today you have become a nation! How can this be? 

In a subtle way the Torah is addressing one of the great questions about Jewish identity and the meaning of Jewish nationhood. Its message is particularly poignant today.

In 1952, in a Chassidic shul in Brooklyn, stood the Klausenburger Rebbe, listening with his congregants to the &ldquo;curses&rdquo; read in Ki Tavo in a hushed voice. Suddenly, the Rabbi began to scream: &ldquo;Louder! Louder! Read the curses out loud. Let G-d hear them,&rdquo; this man, who lost his entire family in the war, said.&nbsp;&nbsp;

When the Klausenburger Rebbe Demanded the Curses be Read Aloud

Essay Ki Savo

On the Definition of Jewish Nationhood

This women&#39;s class was presented on Tuesday Parshas Ki Savo, 17 Elul, August 28, 2018, Ohr Chaim, Monsey, NY

"A Person Never Finds Himself in a Situation"

Women's Elul/Ki Savo Class

The Power of Now

This women's class was presented on Tuesday Parshas Ki Savo, 14 Elul, 5777, September 5, 2017, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim, Monsey, NY.

Confessing Your Sins Reflects Your Infinite Majesty

Women's Ki Savo/ RH YK Class

You Can Only Do Teshuvah If You Get Rid of Guilt

A speech given in Aventura, FL on September 3, 2015.

Awareness of your Awesome Essence is the Prerequisite for Repentance

Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur Lecture Aventura, Florida

Bring Back Confession To Judaism

Imagine the delivery-boy brings the new fruits of the season to the synagogue, places the fruits on his shoulders and begins lecturing on the history of the US and the Founding Fathers. Sound a bit strange? Well in ancient biblical times, a youngster brought a fig, a date and a cluster of grapes to Jerusalem and the entire city went out to greet him. The flute played and the Levites sang. The youngster then entered the Holy Temple and gave a declaration about the genesis and evolution of Jewish history. Does this ceremony not seem an over the top dramatization of a simple, nice gesture?&nbsp;

Here, in the mitzvah of Bikkurim, we discover how Judaism sees a &ldquo;world in a grain of sand and eternity in the palm of your hand.&rdquo; All of Jewish history can be captured in a single fruit basket in the palm of your and. It is not about how much you offer, but that YOU show up and bring YOUR contribution. That you offer your individual verse to the play of life; that you bring to the table your passion.&nbsp;

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Contributing Your Verse to the Play of Life

To Hold Eternity in the Palm of Your Hand

This text based class on Likkutei Sichos vol. 9 Parshas Ki Savo, explains why Jews were not obligated to perform the mitzvah of Bikurim (bringing the first ripe fruits to the Kohen in Jerusaledm) till the entire land was conquered and settled by the entire natiuon. It moves on to explain the diffrence between teo giants in Jewish history who share the birthday of 18 Elul: the Baal Shem Tov&#39;s school of Chassidic thought vs. the Alter Rebbe&#39;s school of Chabad thought.

General Chassidus and Chabad Chassidus -- Nuclear Energy vs. Channeled Energy 

Likuttei Sichos Savo: Between the Baal Shem Tov & the Alter Rebbe

Children's Wisdom
A new teacher was trying to make use of her psychology courses. She&nbsp;started her class by saying, "Everyone who thinks he's stupid, please stand up!" After a few seconds, little Johnny stood up. The teacher was&nbsp;surprised, but realized this was an opportune moment to help&nbsp;the poor child. "Do you think you're stupid, Johnny?" she asked.&nbsp;"Why do you feel so my dear child"? "No, ma'am," Johnny replied, "but I hated to see you standing there&nbsp;all by yourself!"
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A Visit to the North
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Some time ago, during a visit to Israel, I traveled to the twin mountains of Gerizim and Ebal, to stand on the soil my ancestors treaded 3,280 years ago, during a historic moment when they had just entered the Promised Land.&nbsp; &nbsp; Located in the north of Israel, in the area known today as Samaria (Shomron), towering over the city of Shechem (Nablus) and the gravesite of Joseph, the two majestic mountains dominate the horizon for the many Jewish settlements located in that area<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref1')">[1]</a>. &nbsp; As I entered into the wellspring flowing on Mt. Gerizim for a spiritual pre-Sabbath cleansing, I closed my eyes, and allowed my imagination to take me back more than three millennia, to the time when the Jewish people, according to Moses’ instructions in this week’s Torah portion, Ki Savo, gathered atop these mountains shortly after their entry into the Land in order to rededicate themselves to the ethical values of Torah.
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Moses’ Directive
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These were Moses’ instructions to the people in the book of Deuteronomy<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref2')">[2]</a>: “When Your G-d brings you to the land, to possess it, you shall deliver the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.” &nbsp; Later in the Bible<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn3" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref3')">[3]</a>, Moses is more specific. Six tribes were to ascend Mt. Gerizim, while another six tribes were to ascend Mt. Ebal. The elders of the Levites were to stand in the valley between the two mountains. They would loudly pronounce 12 basic moral commandments of the Torah. &nbsp; As the Talmud explains<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn4" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref4')">[4]</a>, turning their faces to Mt. Gerizim, the Levites declared that fulfilling these commandments would bring blessings, to which all of Israel responded Amen. Then, turning their faces to Mt. Ebal, they declared that violating these commandments would cause detriment, to which all of the tribes again responded with an Amen. &nbsp; In Moses’ words (3): “The Levites shall speak up and say to every man of Israel in a loud voice… ‘Accursed is the man who will make a graven or molten image, an abomination of G-d… and the entire people shall speak up and say ‘Amen’… Accursed is the man who degrades his father or mother… Accursed is the one who steals the property of his fellow… Accursed is one who causes a blind person to go astray on the road… Accursed is the one who perverts a judgment of a proselyte, orphan or widow… Accursed is the one who has intimate relations with the wife of his father… Accursed is the one who has intimate relations with any animal… Accursed is the one who has intimate relations with his sister… Accursed is the one who has intimate relations with his mother-in-law… Accursed is the one who strikes his fellow stealthily… Accursed is the one who takes a bribe to kill a person of innocent blood…’”
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The Implementation
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Indeed, Moses’ instructions to the people of Israel were fulfilled meticulously. Here is the report in the eighth chapter of the book of Joshua<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn5" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref5')">[5]</a>: &nbsp; “Then Joshua built an altar to G-d, G-d of Israel, on Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of G-d, has commanded the children of Israel<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn6" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref6')">[6]</a>… All of Israel and its elders and officers and its judges stood… half of them on the slope of Mt. Gerizim and half of them on the slope of Mt. Ebal, to first bless the people of Israel.”&nbsp; This was a profoundly dramatic moment in our early history. Entering for the first time into their homeland, the Jewish people, atop these two mountains, defined their mission statement as a people, rededicating themselves to the novel and revolutionary system of biblical ethics still unheard of in that milieu of cannibalism and pagan feasts of child slaughtering. According to the Talmud, it was at that moment that the Jewish people accepted shared duty for each other as a single spiritual organism (6*). &nbsp; Incidentally, it is worth noting that at the northern corner of Mt. Ebal a great archeological find was excavated a number of years ago. After searching the entire area for signs of an early Israelite settlement, a solid stone structure was uncovered on the northern summit of Ebal surrounded by large amounts of animal bones. After the bones were submitted for testing the results showed that 93 percent to 97 percent of the bones came from kosher animals, and specifically animals that were permitted for use on a Jewish altar. The nonreligious archeologist who discovered the sight concluded that he had excavated the altar described above in Joshua chapter eight. (Because of safety concerns, the sight today is mostly off limits.) &nbsp; Another fascinating fact I observed is that although the two mountains are closely situated to each other, and subject to the same rains and climates, Mt. Gerizim is green and fertile, while its neighboring Mt. Ebal is tark white rock and barren. This is easily observable, perhaps a result of Ebal being designated as the mountain of curse<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn7" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref7')">[7]</a>.
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Why Two Mountains?
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Yet the obvious question is, why the need for two distinct mountains in order to proclaim the benefits of loyalty to the Torah ethic and the detriments resulting from abandoning the Torah? Why couldn’t the entire ceremony be performed on one mountain? &nbsp; Even if all of the Jews could not fit on a single mountain, why were blessings directed toward one mountain, while curses directed to another? &nbsp; The answer seems to be uniquely relevant to our age. &nbsp; With the vivid visualization of two distinct mountains, separated by a valley, one of blessing, the other of curse, the Torah is attempting to convey the message that life can and should be divided into two distinct pathways: one path as a source of blessing and growth; the other as a source of curse and devastation. A very real gulf separates the moral life from the immoral life and it ought not to be obfuscated<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn8" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref8')">[8]</a>. &nbsp; With this clear designation of a mountain of blessing vs. a mountain of curse the Bible is rejecting the notion that the true progressive personality is open to all kinds of people, all kinds of lifestyles, all ideologies, all choices. According to this modern-day ethos, the primary enemy is the person who cannot be tolerant to all forms of behavior, the individual who believes that some deeds are absolutely blessed, while others are absolutely cursed.
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The University Failure
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In the introduction to his book "The Closing of the American Mind," the late Chicago University professor Allan Bloom argued that higher education in the U.S. has failed democracy and impoverished the souls of today’s students. The great virtue of the day, he wrote, became the unshakable belief that all truth is relative, and that no one idea or moral value is truer than any other. Openness to every culture and tolerance of every idea has become the greatest insight of our time. The notion of absoluteness, naturally, became the great foe of our times. The true believer is the real danger. The study of history and culture taught the youth of today that the greatest evils of the past came from people who thought they were absolutely right. Our mission today was not to correct the mistakes and learn what is really right, but rather to abolish the very concept of right and wrong. Everything became right. What right, students continue to ask, do I or anyone else have to say that one way is better than the other? &nbsp; In Bloom’s own words: “If I pose the routine questions designed to confuse them and make them think, such as ‘If you had been a British administrator in India, would you have let the natives under your governance burn the widow at the funeral of a man who had died?’ they either remain silent or reply that the British should never have been there in the first place.” &nbsp; In the Dec. 17, 2001 issue of Newsweek, Yale University student Alison Hornstein wisely observed: &nbsp; “On the morning of Sept. 11, my entire college campus huddled around television sets, our eyes riveted in horror to the images of the burning, then falling, Twin Towers… But by Sept. 12, as our shock began to fade, so did our sense of being wronged. Students' reactions expressed in the daily newspaper and in class pointed to the differences between our life circumstances and those of the perpetrators, suggesting that these differences had caused the previous day’s events. &nbsp; “Noticeably absent,” she wrote, “was a general outcry of indignation. These reactions, and similar ones on other campuses, have made it apparent that my generation is uncomfortable assessing, or even asking, whether a moral wrong has taken place. My generation may be culturally sensitive, but we hesitate to make moral judgments.” &nbsp; This is a tragedy raging in American campuses across the country. The fact that so many otherwise intelligent university students cannot recognize some actions as objectively evil, despite differences in cultural standards and values, is not only philosophically problematic, it is practically dangerous and suicidal. If we cannot define anything as evil, we cannot stand up to it. We then ensure its victory. &nbsp; If hijacking planes and killing thousands of civilians is not objectively bad, what then can be deemed evil? If blowing up two buses filled with civilian men, women and children, blowing to pieces ten or twenty innocent human beings—as Hamas has done for years in Israel—is not absolutely evil, what is?&nbsp; &nbsp; Three thousand and two hundred years ago, the Torah taught us that some acts constitute blessings; others constitute curses. They ought never to be equated. They ought to be distinguished not only conceptually, but also physically. They could never be associated together in one domain. An absolute, though narrow, gulf separates the two. &nbsp; Distinguishing good from bad is not an act of arrogance, peasantry or a display of closed-mindedness. It is the only way to purge our beautiful world from militants who slaughter people who do not adhere to their beliefs.
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<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn1')">[1]</a> See Sifre to to Reah; Soteh 33b; Yerushalmi Soteh 7:3 for the differing opinions on the exact location of the mountains.
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn2')">[2]</a> 11:29.
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref3" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn3')">[3]</a> Ibid. 27:11-25.
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref4" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn4')">[4]</a> Soteh 32a. Quoted in Rashi to Deuteronomy ibid.
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref5" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn5')">[5]</a> &nbsp;8:30.&nbsp;
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref6" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn6')">[6]</a> This commandment is in Deuteronomy 27:5-7. 6*) See Talmud Shvous 37b.
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref7" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn7')">[7]</a> See Shalah Parshas Reah and Or Hatorah Parshas Reah pp. 678-680 for an explanations of the names of these two mountains and their connection to blessing and curse.
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref8" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn8')">[8]</a> This concept is conveyed, in Kabbalistic and spiritual terminology, in Or Hatorah ibid. and references noted there. My thanks to Shmuel Levin, a writer and editor in Pittsburgh, for his editorial assistance.

September 11th and the University Crisis - A Tale of Two Mountains

A Tale of Two Mountains

September 11th and the University Crisis

We all know Moses for his phenomenal national accomplishments: He stood up to Pharaoh, brought the ten plagues, redeemed the children of Israel from slavery, split the sea, received the Torah, and talked &lsquo;face to face&rsquo; with G-d. Yet a fascinating Midrash tells us that Moses&rsquo; prolific career and great accomplishments actually started long before the Exodus, and even long before his striking an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew.

Moses&rsquo; leadership began minutes after he was born, and climaxed moments before his death. And it wasn&rsquo;t about saving the nation from slavery, transmitting the Torah, or talking to G-d. It was about his efforts to help and heal individuals and bring them the answers and comfort they are searching for.

Moses&rsquo; life began and concluded in acts of outreach, and in each case, to a rebel.

There were three children who rebelled against their father: Reuben son of Jacob, Miriam daughter of Amram, and Batya daughter of Pharaoh.

This class will analyze the different natures of their &lsquo;rebellions&rsquo; and show how the greatest accomplishments in life are sometimes much less glamorous than we would have imagined. How the signs of a truly great man are found in his sympathy and sensitivity to the outcast.

The class will teach us who invented the term &ldquo;kiruv rechokim,&rdquo; bringing close those who are distant, and the work of &ldquo;kiruv&rdquo; began by Moses but completed only by the Moshiach.

The Story of 3 Rebels: Reuven, Batya and Miriam

Ki Savo Class

Moses’ First and Final Act: Outreach

Why?

Why Do the Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer? The king allowed all of his subjects to make a wish, but while everyone asked for their needs, only one person thought of the king.

Why Do the Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer?

The king allowed all of his subjects to make a wish, but while everyone asked for their needs, only one person thought of the king

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