<p>Isaac grows old and his eyes dim. He expresses his desire to bless his beloved and eldest son Esau before he dies. While Esau goes off to hunt for his father's favorite food, Rebecca &ndash; his wife &ndash; dresses Jacob in Esau's clothes, covers his arms and neck with goatskins to simulate the feel of his hairier brother, prepares a similar dish, and sends Jacob to his father with the food. Isaac suspects that something is amiss and insists on feeling his son. He concludes that the &lsquo;voice is the voice of Jacob, and the hands are the hands of Esau.&rsquo; Isaac also mentions that the smell of Jacob&rsquo;s garments are like the smell of &lsquo;the field that G-d has blessed.&rsquo; Isaac then blesses Jacob with &lsquo;the dew of the heaven and the fat of the land&rsquo; and mastery over his brother.'</p>
<p>The questions cannot be ignored: If Rebecca had a good reason as to why Esau was undeserving of his father's blessings, why couldn't she communicate directly to Isaac? Why couldn't Rebecca ""follow"" the glorious old tradition of Jewish wives who commonly explain to their husbands how wrong they are?</p>
<p>Indeed, Rebecca had a good argument against granting the blessings to Esau, one that Isaac would certainly understand. Jacob is ""a wholesome man, a dweller of the tents of study,"" whereas Esau is described as a ""skilled hunter, a man of the field."" Jacob's descendants became the nation of Israel, who granted the world the vision of ethical monotheism, while Esau fathered Roman civilization with its culture of ruthless power and great material achievement. Couldn&rsquo;t she explain this to Isaac?"</p>
<p>Also, what was the uniqueness of the smell of Jacob&rsquo;s garments? Goatskins actually have a terrible stench! The Talmud tells us that Isaac did not smell &lsquo;Jacob&rsquo;s garments&rsquo; (begadav) rather he smelled &lsquo;Jacob&rsquo;s traitors&rsquo; (bogdav). And this is the fragrance he so enjoyed. This, too, is deeply disturbing. What is so pleasant about the &ldquo;aroma of traitors?&rdquo; And why would they inspire Isaac to bless their grandfather Jacob?</p>
<p>The great souls and spiritual giants that would emerge from Jacob&rsquo;s seed throughout history did not suffice to entice Isaac to confer the blessings upon the wearer of the garments; it was only the traitors that moved him so deeply. Why?" "A penetrating insight by Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter of Ger (1799-1866) reveals the depth of Rebecca&rsquo;s wisdom and foresight. Rebecca was seeking a blessing not for Jacob himself, but for Jacob as he was dressed in Esau&rsquo;s garments. Rebecca knew of the state of many a Jew today: A Jacob who presents himself to the world as an Esau. It was Isaac&rsquo;s blessings to even this type of &lsquo;betrayer&rsquo; that has made the Jewish identity so deep and unshakeable in even the most distant and self-hating Jew. The incredible Midrashic stories of Yosef Meshisa illustrate this point unforgettably.</p>

Why Did Rebecca Dress Jacob in Esau's Clothes? Because She Was Thinking About the Jew Who Would Say Goodbye to the Shtetl

Class Toldos

The Story of the Modern Jew

<p>This is an excerpt of the Women&#39;s class on Tuesday, Parshas Shemos, 21 Tevet, 5784, January 2, 2024.</p>

<p>Einav Efrat Danino, mother of Ori, 24, who was taken captive by Hamas on October 7th 2023, attended the class and delivered a life-changing message of resilience and faith in the face of the unfathomable.</p>


Einav Danino Speaks of Resilience, Faith, and Gratitude in the Face of the Unfathomable

Mother of Hamas Hostage Ori Danino: I Say ‘Thank You’ Every Morning

<p><strong>Touched to the Core</strong></p>

<p>The Jewish world is on fire.</p>

<p>The bloodbath orchestrated by Hamas and Iran on Saturday, Simchat Torah (October 7, 2023) in Southern Israel has woken up a part in every single Jew that was dormant. Our people have been touched to the core; Jews are more aware of their own Jewishness than they have been in a very long time.</p>

<p>The glee of the enemy in slaughtering Jewish babies reminded us that this has nothing to do with occupation, colonization, apartheid, or any other myth. This was a manifestation of visceral evil which craves to destroy every single Jew. Had Hamas had its way, it would joyfully perform this mini-Holocaust daily, until all 6.6 million Jews in Israel lay lifeless.</p>

<p>Every Jew living today feels the need to respond. Of course, we must defend ourselves in every possible way; we must support Israel and our soldiers with every fiber of our being—encouraging them to fulfill their moral historic duty of eliminating every vestige of bloodthirsty evil. Of course, we must lift the morale of our brothers and sisters in Israel and the world over through an unprecedented outpouring of support, love and oneness, like never before.</p>

<p>But there is one more critical weapon that every single Jew living today, all 16 million of us, can embrace—and it will change everything.</p>

<p><strong>The Weapon of Eternity</strong></p>

<p>Is there a scientific explanation for our survival and success, 4000 years later?</p>

<p>Death for the Jews has been plotted by tyrants of every age. The greatest Empires of the ancient world—Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Greece, and Rome, all the way down to Stalin and Hitler—attempted to annihilate us; yet they have all vanished, and we survived. Jews have been expelled from nearly every country in which they resided, yet we are here to tell the tale. What did we have that they did not have? How did a hunted-down nation constituting less than one-quarter-of-one percent of humanity survive and thrive?</p>

<p>All these nations and tyrants had large territories of land, mighty military prowess, culture, language, and affluence. What is the secret of our immortality?</p>

<p>There is only one rational way to answer this—to search for the one unique and exclusive weapon that the Jewish people possessed from the day they became a people, and it accompanied them through all their history. Can we identify such a weapon?</p>

<p>In science, we search for the permanent trait in an organism to explain its longevity in difficult circumstances. With the Jewish people, the search is not difficult. There is only one single weapon that has been with us forever, in every milieu, in every location, under all circumstances: The Torah and the Mitzvos that our people studied, observed, and celebrated with unwavering commitment on a daily basis, and bequeathed to their children and grandchildren.</p>

<p>I may logically understand the power of the Torah and the Mitzvos, or not; but I can’t argue with the plain facts: This is the only “weapon” that the Jewish people had from the day they became a people till this very day, which no other army or empire possessed. It is our mightiest weapon—it has outlived every single one of our enemies for over four millennia, and we remain the energetic people we are today, filled with passion, love, and creativity.</p>

<p>This, then, is the historic calling of this time—to encourage and inspire every single Jew living today, to acquire, or finetune, this indestructible Jewish weapon.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>What Hamas and its supporters targeted was not just a piece of land, but an entire people. We have once again been confronted by the force of evil and diabolical hatred that craves to destroy G-d’s eternal people. At such a time, our response must be:&nbsp;<strong>Let’s be Jewish like never before in history, and let's be united like never before!</strong></p>

<p>My beloved brothers and sisters! Let us become the greatest Jews ever, by studying what it means to be a Jew and living it.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Put a Mezuzah on your door.</li>
	<li>Wrap Tefillin each morning.</li>
	<li>Study Torah on a daily or weekly basis.</li>
	<li>Engage in prayer and spiritual meditation.</li>
	<li>Eat kosher and make your home kosher.</li>
	<li>Light Shabbos candles and celebrate our day of peace and rest, the holy Sabbath.</li>
	<li>Give charity every day.</li>
	<li>Give your children an education filled with Jewish love and wisdom.</li>
	<li>Become a passionate ambassador of love and unity among our people.</li>
	<li>Imbue your marriage with purity, love, and holiness, or choose any other mitzvah.</li>
	<li>Come to synagogue and get involved with a community.</li>
</ul>

<p>Judaism is about cultivating an ongoing relationship with your deepest soul-essence, filling your heart with the love and peace beating in your soul, and aligning yourself every moment with the universal Divine consciousness of oneness. Every mitzvah, every prayer, and all of Torah, is about becoming channels for the source of all love, peace, light, and truth—and drawing it down into our world. These are the spiritual weapons of victory and eternity.</p>

<p>We do not have time now to live in fear and paralysis; we are the chosen people, we are a singular spiritual organism, and we have a mission: to draw down each day, each moment, infinite love into our hearts, our homes, our communities, our people, our homeland, and the entire world. We need Hashem (G-d, the Creator and source of all love and peace) in our lives. That’s how we can grant the most profound power and courage to our people, our homeland, and all good people in the world.</p>

<p>The support for Hamas in institutions of higher education, and the silence of people so many of us respected, has sickened us. This is the time for courage, resolve, and fortitude. Let’s not shrink, and let’s not shirk our calling. Some of us were drafted into the front lines of battle with Hamas; the rest of us can’t afford to remain spectators. We were all drafted into battle, on a physical or spiritual level.</p>

<p>You can’t argue with the facts: 4000 years later, we are here, and it’s because of that immortal weapon called Torah and Mitzvos.</p>

<p>16 million Jews are waiting for their marching orders. Will we heed their call?</p>

<p>(<a href="https://onemitzvah.org/israel/rabbiyyjacobson">Here is a link to share with friends and family to accept a mitzvah today</a>).</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>


<p style="text-align:justify; margin-bottom:11px">16 Million Jews Waiting for Marching Orders:&nbsp;Let&rsquo;s Not Forfeit a Historic Opportunity</p>


Let’s Not Forfeit a Historic Opportunity

Essay on Hamas-Israel War

16 Million Jews Waiting for Marching Orders

<p>An excerpt of chassidus morning class:&nbsp;https://www.theyeshiva.net/jewish/8065</p>


YY Moment

Are You a Frog or an Elephant?

<p style="text-align: justify;">This weekly women&#39;s class was&nbsp;presented on Tuesday, Parshas Toldos, 27 Cheshvan, 5782, November 2, 2021, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">The class explores a fascinating commentary by the Italian Rabbi, Doctor and Kabalist, Reb Moshe David Vali (1697-1777) how Yitzchak&#39;s words to Eisav &quot;you shall worship your brother&quot; intimates the future religion of Christianity, choosing a Jew as the son of G-d, and is a sign for the times of Moshiach when the Divinity of each Jew will emerge in its full splendor.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">The class discusses and explained the very delicate topic of the strange fact that Judaism attributes the name of G-d to certain human beings. How can we explain this? And what does this teach us about our lives today?</p>


How Yitzchak's Blessings to Eisav and Yaakov Projected the History of Religion

Women's Toldos Class

Why Did Christianity Turn a Jew into a Deity?

We Don't realize the Impact of Our Words

Words that Saved a Life 

<p>Our Pure &amp; Untouchable Essence</p>


Our Pure & Untouchable Essence

<p>A Miracle in Israel:&nbsp;2,500 Year Old Seeds Come to Life &nbsp;</p>


The Eternity of Our People; the Eternity of a Soul

YY Moment: A Miracle in Israel/Inspiration

2,500 Year Old Date Seeds Come to Life  

<p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">This class, presented to women in Lech Lecha 5770 (October 2010), explores a strange verse: "And G-d took Abraham outside, and He said, 'Please look heavenward and count the stars, if you are able to count them.' And He said to him, 'So will be your children.'"</span></span></p>
<p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 21px; color: #000000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">What do these words mean? Do they mean that the Jews will be uncountable, just like the stars? Well this interpretation is contradicted by the reality of history. In every generation, the members of the Jewish nation could be counted. Before the Holocaust we were 18 million; today we are around 14 million. Yet there are far more than 14 million stars!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;">&nbsp;</p>

To Count the Impossible Count 

To Dream the Impossible Dream 

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Counting the Jews</span></strong></p>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">The opening verses of this week’s Torah portion, Ki Sisa, convey G-d’s instruction to Moses on how to count the Jewish people. When it is necessary to conduct a census, Jews are&nbsp;to be counted not in an ordinary manner, person by person, but rather, every member of the community should contribute a coin for charity, and then the coins should be counted to determine how many people contributed.</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">What is the rationale behind this instruction? Why the need to count the community in such a round-about fashion, rather than simply counting the people directly?</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Two messages, it seems, are being conveyed here.</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">What&nbsp;Are You Worth?</span></strong></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">First, the Torah is suggesting that you are counted not based on who you are but on what you give. Your genuine value and worth spring forth from your contribution to another soul, from the love and kindness you impart to another heart.</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Sir Moses Montefiore, a 19<sup>th</sup> century Jewish international diplomat and philanthropist, was once asked how much he was worth. The wealthy man thought for a while and named a figure. The other replied, “That can’t be right. By my calculation you must be worth many times that amount.”</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Moses Montefiore’s reply was this: “You didn’t ask me how much I own. You asked me how much I’m worth. So I calculated the amount I have given to charity this year and that is the figure I gave you. You see,” he said, “we are worth what we are willing to share with others.”</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Evaluating a people</span></strong></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Yet, there seems to be a one more vital message presented in this instruction, one that would reverberate throughout history.</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%;">To appreciate the value and greatness of a people, the Torah is suggesting, you must study not the number of its bodies, but the breadth of&nbsp;their contributions. What matters most is not the quantity of its adherents, but rather their commitment towards making a difference and their inspiration and readiness to make sacrifices for their values and ideals. Numbers can be deceiving. Large groups of people often barely leave a trace. On the other hand, there are times that small groups, when committed heart and soul to their mission statement, have left an enormous impact, totally disproportionate to their numbers.</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">To appreciate the significance of Jewish existence, the Bible is telling us, you must study not its numbers: Jews never constituted more than one percent of society. Rather, you must examine the impact this little monotheistic group has had on the world. Other nations, cultures and civilizations enjoyed far greater numbers, larger territories and mightier armies. But no other person or nation has left an impression on the very fabric of civilization as the relatively few and often hunted and persecuted descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">As the Irish writer Thomas Cahill wrote in his national bestseller The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels:</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">“Most of our best words in fact – new, adventure, surprise; unique individual, person, vocation; time, history, future; freedom, progress, spirit; faith, hope and justice—are the gifts of the Jews ... We can hardly get up in the morning or cross the street without being Jewish. We dream Jewish dreams and hope Jewish hopes.” &nbsp;</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Here is a passage by historian Paul Johnson in his bestseller “History of the Jews:”</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">"All the great conceptual discoveries of the intellect seem obvious and inescapable once they have been revealed, but it requires a special genius to formulate them for the first time. The Jew has this gift. To them we owe the idea of equality before the law, both divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person; of the individual conscience and so of personal redemption; of the collective conscience and so of social responsibility; of peace as an abstract ideal and love as the foundation of justice, and many other items which constitute the basic moral furniture of the human mind. Without the Jews, it might have been a much emptier place."</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">The Power to Love</span></strong></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Just as this is true concerning our national identity, it is true concerning every individual person. At times you may think to yourself, “I am worthless; I amount to nothing.”</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Comes the Torah and says, that you on your own, cloistered in your vanity and egotism, detached from your true core of absolute dignity and majesty, may indeed amount to a small, futile creature, unworthy of counting (“If I am only for myself, what am I,” Hillel is quoted as saying in the Ethics of the Fathers). However, each of us, at our core, is a "spark of the Divine," a "fragment" of His light, a free, wholsome, confident and happy spirit. As such you have the power to contribute something to the world, to reach out to an individual in need. Each of us has the ability to touch a heart, to lift a spirit, to kindle a soul, to look a fellow human being in the eyes and say “I Love you.”</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">You may be small indeed, but the love and light you can bring to another life through a simple gesture, a sincere “good morning,” or an act of goodness and kindness, is immeasurable and cannot be counted.</span></div>

<div style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">And when you reach out to others, you will discover the depth of the love that G-d has for you. You are part of His light, thus you can share His light with so many others.</span></div>


<p>Searching for Self-Esteem? - How Do You Judge Your Worth?</p>


How Do You Judge Your Worth?

Searching for Self-Esteem?

<p>Lecture at the annual dinner of Toras Emes day school in Los Angeles, California, presented on 19 Shevat 5775, February 8, 2015.</p>


You Never Know

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