Parashat Hashavua

Portion Shemote - after 230 days of reserve duty for a school principal?

 Portion Shemote - after 230 days of reserve duty for a school principal?
 
 
Portion Shemote
 
What do we know, what do we know?
That's what
My teacher Rebbe Shlomo Carlebach 
Used to often say.
And this week we understand that wisdom...
 
An agreement ?   15 months after the kidnapping (and murders)
There May be an Agreement to free others...
 
On the Portion of the
BEGINNING OF THE FREEING OF ISRAEL
From Egyptian slavery (SHEMOS)
 
WHO does understand?
 
Maybe
this father and husband who after 230 days of reerve duty  goes on his days home to visit former students in the army - serving RIGHT NOW 
OR
And the Nachal BRigade general- 
who went to all 18 funerals of his unit killed in Gaza during this war - who is still fighting to protect Israel?
 
I only understand here ñow at the BRIS and naming of a friend's first grandson - see below -
 
So I bring here what Reb Shlomo once said:
 
Reb Shlomo Carlebach taught on this Parsha Shemos - Holding on to Your Name
 
The whole story of our exile in Exodus is called Shemos, 'Names'. In order to go into exile and come out alive, you've got to hold on to your name... (it's so deep; very, very deep...
 )
 
What keeps us going in exile? What's the whole thing...
 (All rights, including copyrights, derived from the articles herein are reserved to the authors identified. For educational purposes only. )...
 
What this about exile? The whole world wants to tear us away from the Land God gave to us. How come Israel is called Eretz Yisrael? (The
Land of Israel) Because this is mamesh OUR name. ...
 
 Shabbos is only once a week. My connection to Eretz Yisrael is even deeper than Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur.
 
 You know something even stronger? It's even deeper than the Torah because the Torah - sometimes I'm learning,
sometimes I'm not learning. 
 
The holiness of Israel is it's so much connected to my name...
 
And what happens to us in exile? The whole world wants to tear us away from that holy name. You know friends, there is
tremendous evil going on in the WORLD.
 
Right now evil is concentrating more than ever before Mashiach is coming. The Baal Shem Tov says, that by the last
battle, evil wants mamesh really to tear us out once and for all. 
 
So first physically they want to tear us out. And now the new thing is
that the world doesn't talk against Jews, they talk against Zionists. They cover it up. 
 
Or they come to you and say listen, you can
go to here, you can be this, you can do that, you can belong to all other religions and you're still a Jew. ...You know what they mean? They want to tear out your NAME...
 
And then they say to us Jews, 'Listen, we have nothing against your religion, you just shouldn't live in Israel because Israel belongs to the Arabs.' Things like that.
 
Everything has to do with the name. At this moment the concentration is on the name, on the name, gevalt. And they
say Israel's name is not Israel, it's Palestine.
 
 That's the whole thing. They want to tear out the name from the Holy Land. Everything
is against the name. 
 
So right now how do you get over this? Everyone has to get for himself - my weapon is Divrei Torah ( Words of Torah) on the level of a name. You have to mamesh dig so deep and find holy words which are mamesh on the level of your name.
 
Maybe that's the profound meaning of Anti-Semitism.      Anti shem . . . Against the name.
 
Good Shabbos! - Am Yisrael Chai ??
 
(Unfortunately could have been written today, but it was written 1987)
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
Rabbi Andy Eichenholz
 

Portion VaYeh Chee - and Holocaust Remembrance 10 Teves

Portion VaYeh Chee - and Holocaust Remembrance 10 Teves
ASPECIAL DAY
 
Jacob blesses his children
 
JOseph and the brothers are together
 
So
 
What day is TODAY?
 
Fast of 10 Teves?
 
Ordained by thd Rabbinate as Holocaust Remembrance Day?
 
Yet not all agree
To the Rabbinate designation
 
But the guy I heard on the radio
 
A DRUZE citizen of I srael who did agree
 
Spent 400 days in reserve duty SO FAR
 
Said to also remember how
 
Hezbollah bombed and killed 12 Druze kids
 
Playing soccer
 
A special day and portion
 
Shabat Shalom
 
Rabbi Andy Eichenholz
 
 
 
 
 
 

Portion VaYeeGash

Portion VaYeeGash and

 

Those Darn Houtis missiles - woke up my little daughter 430 AM

 

All they do is call down more hell on their half of Yemen!

And prove what sickos they Iran and Turkey leaders are.

 

The Torah, however , is eternal

 

Portion VaYeeGash and proving Chanuka : Treasure Trove Of Hasmonean Era Coins Found On Chanukah In the Jordan valley. (See below link)

 

So a little story here (from Alon last night)

 

And a connection to Rabbi Bachya's explanations on the portion, who wrote that

 

On the way down to Egypt, Jacob sacrifices to the Almighty -

Elokei yitzchak - G-d of Isaac, his father

 

As Rabeinu bBachya ben Asher ( not the other one) says,

 

Not to the G-d of Avraham. ..

 

Because Jacob received the powers of Isaac

And the blessings of a return to Israel from various exiles-

From his father Isaac

 

Story:

 

Grandfather Father and little son are taken to Auschwitz

 

And father decides when he is liberated that

 he wants nothing more of Judaism

And brings up the little boy who also miraculously survived

With no religion

 

For the boy's 13th birthday they go shopping for a gift and in the store the boy sees a cheap old menorah,  the boy grabs it and asks his father what it is

Dad angrily grabs it away from him

And they fight over it

And naturally it falls and BREAKS ..  revealing some

Hebrew name on a piece of paper

Reading it out loud, the father says "I don't know if any one will survive this place –

but if anyone is still alive and finds this,

My name is Zecharia ben Asher and I hope that some Jewish person will Some Day

Say kaddish for me.

The Dad faints

It is HIS father's name

Of course it made a difference in their lives!

 

So let me ask...

Ðo Jews still listen to American News reports like that Monday about 1110 pm we all were attacked by another Houtie missile

and

That every day a fèw missiles are still shot out of hiding places in Gaza?

AND

Does anyone really believe the Chanuka story?

See the proof

https://vinnews.com/2024/12/29/treasure-trove-of-hasmonean-era-coins-found-on-chanukah-in-jordan-valley/

and

Does anyone believe that Joseph was the viceroy - king's second in command - in Egypt

 

I have trouble absorbing the miracle of Israel controlling all the former flash points in Syria (some of which I visited in the early 1970's)

See below

Soldiers playing in the snow this week

 

*לַחֲדָשׁוֹת שְׂמֵחוֹת*

chat.whatsapp.com/BZ0EoO7J2ozGTZrIseGnLT\

 

*English*

chat.whatsapp.com/HBYAwMBAaEBID2FGjTqS9h

 

We are being reminded of the miracle of being Jewish

But also the price we pay in soldiers lost

And children crying when the sirens go off at night – to protect us from falling debris.

 

We will need to rebuild what Iran has inspired their followers to destroy.

Together

And the portion begins "And Judah got close to Joseph to speak…"

 

 

Shabbat Shalom
 
Rabbi Andy Eichenholz

Portion MeKaytz ; Chanuka - chickens and charisma -

Portion MeKaytz ; Chanuka - chickens and charisma
-
The first of our holy Jewish morning prayers celebrats chickens' gift from the Almighy!
 
What? Yes.
 
 We Bless the Almighty
"Who gives wisdom to chickens to know the diffrence between Day and Night".
 
All levels of wisdom are "from on High" - and
 
There are no "chickens" in Israel! Even the kids who are afraid - are in touch with reality -
and Israel is pretty safe.
 
Our armed forces (with the help of Almighty's miracles) are protecting us 
AND THE WORLD - from so many crazies - 
 
THEY are Chickens who NEVER see the LIGHT!
 
When I say a Kaddish each morning at prayers I remember the energy and especially their senses of humor - of COA - remember Burt?
 
It's 430 AM, the Houtie missile was shot down, and I have to make some tea and get ready for my 5AM Talmud study and prayers and work.
 
So here is a Chanuka Teaching from Reb Shlomo Carlebach
On Parsha Meikeitz & Shabbos Chanukah (thanksJudy)
 
On - Harmony
 
Sweetest friends, I want you to know that harmony is the greatest thing in the world. I always say that harmony is 
the one thing you can't do yourself.  You can sing a song by yourself,
 but harmony is always with others.
 I want to tell you something, friends.
 
 At the time when Yaakov Avinu (Jacob) sent his children back to Egypt,  ( Joseph)Yosef HaTzaddik was ruler of Egypt. 
 
So Yaakov told his sons to bring him some gifts. And the words he used are just so beautiful,
 
 "K'chu mizimras ha'artez." Bereishis 43:11, take from the spices of the land.
 
Reb Nachman says something so strong which is based on the Zohar HaKadosh(Likutei Moharan 2, Torah63) : Yaakov Avinu told his sons, "When you go down to Egypt, you have to sing him a song. Teach him only holy songs from the Holy Land, After this, how can he be so cruel to you?"
 
So listen to this most unbelievable thing. According to our tradition, the brothers of Yosef came to Egypt on a Friday That
Shabbos, Yosef HaTzaddik invited them for Sudah Shlishit, he invited them for the third meal of Shabbos.
 
 You know what the third meal of Shabbos is? It's when it's getting dark, but a different kind of darkness.
Can you imagine the way the holy tribes were singing, the way they were harmonizing? 
 
Now listen to this, it's mamaesh the saddest thing in the world. I'm sure Yosef Hatsaddik was singing to himself all the time, but he has not heard his brothers singing Shabbos melodies for so long. It had been the longest time since he had had some good harmony. 
 
At that moment he decided, "I can't go on like this, I have to tell them who I am." So early next morning the holy tribes left, but Yosef HaTzaddik brought them back and told them, "I am your brother." (Bereishes 45:4)
 
You know friends, there is a kind of darkness where you are afraid of the person sitting next to you.
 
 And there is a kind of holy darkness here you give your hand to a person sitting next to you. You don't even ask who it is. 
 
This is a holy kind of darkness, a darkness which is so full.
You see what it is, during the three days of darkness during the plague in Egypt, nobody saw each other. It was the same darkness, but for Israel it was light.
 
 So the ordinary meaning is that for Egypt it was dark, and for the Yiddelach there was light. But the real deeper meaning is, in Egypt it was dark. They didn't see anybody else. But us Yiddelach What do we do when it is dark?
 
We look for somebody else.
 
And here I want to tell you something so deep. When there is light you don't feel so lonesome. When it’s dark, you mamaesh need someone. 
 
What do we Yiddelach do when it's dark? We walk around looking for people who are lonesome, You know what the holiest thing is before Mashiach comes?
 It's a little bit dark , but suddenly we are aware - who knows? 
 
Maybe somebody else is in even more darkness.
 
Anyways, I just want to wish all of you that whenever you're living in a little bit of darkness, there should always be
someone sitting next to you, singing a holy niggun - a melody - to harmonize with (you )to take you out of darkness
Good Shabbos!/Happy Chanukah!/Good Chodesh!
 
 
Blessings of PEACE from Israel - also even for the almost chickens out there!
 
Rabbi Andy Eichenholz

Portion VaYayShev : King of Joseph or King of Judah - see the Tel Dan Stele, oldest archaeological evidence of King David, at...

 Portion VaYayShev : King of Joseph or King of Judah - see the Tel Dan Stele, oldest archaeological evidence of King David, at...
 
It is typical
Aram's king kills jewish kings - descended from Joseph AND King David
 
 
Portion VaYayShev : King of Joseph or King of Judah - see address link above the Tel Dan Stele, oldest archaeological evidence of King David
 
And
 
The miracles of today - and yesterday.
 
I woke up to flashes outside - were they rockets? Or lightning. So I prayed for rain.
 
As per request of the Chief Rabbinate here...
 
And went outside to the local Shul to start the new Tractate of Talmud - Sanhedrin - HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE.
 
When I left it was raining ... and thundering
 
Our portion ends with Pharoah judging one minister to hang and another to be exonerated.
 
But our Talmud is the basis of FAIR JUDGEMENT AND JUSTICE.
 
Oh what history and what the world doesnt get!
 
Reb Shlomo said
 
The fixing is Chanukah
Good Shabbos!
Happy Chanukah 
Chanukah lighting begins next Wednesday night December 25

Portion VaYishLach - Peace of Jacob Peace of Esav

Portion VaYishLach - Peace of Jacob Peace of Esav
 
The last few pages of Talmud baba Basra that I have been studying (daily) deal with preventing frauds. (See attached cartoon).
 
We have also been warned to avoid nations of thieves and nations prone to kiilling.
 
 
Dr Moshe wrote this week about
Yakov (Father Jacob) the Ish Tam  ...the incorruptible,
Saying,
unfortunately we all have a little "Eisav " in us,
 so the Torah tells us here
how Yakov struggled through the long night to defeat Eisav (and his protector angel-tendency)
 
Jacob comes out victorious for all of us. 
And the Almighty changes Jacob's name to
ISRAEL
 
To teach:
Hang in there. We may have to struggle to teach morality
But
The morning is coming.
 
What a "middle east" week or two it has been!
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
Rabbi Andy Eichenholz
 
And here's Reb Shlomo Carlebach (thanks, Stuie)
On Parsha Vayishlach - (very abridged here)
 
  I want to share an unbelievable Torah from the Holy Ziditchover(Reɓe)
 
Jacob and Esav meet up after 20 years.
Jacob says to his brother:
 “If it was just you and me, we could go (on) together. 
But it's also my children and your children. 
They are not ready, the world isn't ready yet.
 
Yakov-Jacob- says (in our portion) we arent all together
 
'Until I come to my Lord, at Mount Se’ir.’” 
Yakov promised Esav, “Someday I'll come to your mountain, and we will walk again together.” 
 
Shabbat Shalom (Rabbi Shlomo)
 
 

Portion vaYetzei : Thank youTMR and James Pfeifer

Portion vaYetzei : Thank youTMR and James Pfeifer
(And thank you stuei and Dr moshe)
 
Is James Pfeifer still on this earth?
 
What a grat guy - a fellow camper at TMR many years ago
 
I BLESS all the values I imbued as a yeshiva Bochur hobnobing with Jesuits and Catholics who couldn't understand some priests' negative VIEWS of Jews!
 
Portion "VaYayTzay " meaning "he got out" - ...
 
And the news tells us Congress has just awarded
Gold Medals to beaurocrats the world over who helped
SAVE JEWS during the Nazi persecutions
 
 Now:
 
 
How Many Forefathers of the Jews can you name or relate to?
 
First A litle current Israeli news:
 
A first-level technician course for soldiers from
 
 the charedi sector (ultra orthodox) 
 
took place Tuesday at the technical base in Haifa, according to a report by the IDF
 
  The training was led by the head of the Charedi Air Force Manpower Directorate 
 
Also 130 religious women aged 30-50 joined IDF now -
 
Including social workers amd computer programmers and nurses - stating the need is great because of the war-
 and the army accomodating them with
 a new religious female Batallion!
 
And from our Master Teachers...
 
And as Reb Shlomo taught
 
 
“There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night”
 
Reb Shlomo Carlebach on Parsha Vayetze
 
In MA’ARIV -Evening Prayer
It says
"He encountered the place". (Bereishis 28:11)
Meaning
Ya’akov instituted the evening prayer. (Rashi)
 
The evening prayer has no set time, rather its time is the whole night. 
 
Avraham Avinu brought the morning prayers down into the world, and in the morning you see a great light shining (because of prayer)
 
 Do you know when you have a (REAL) taste of the day? Just before the day is over, at sunset, you taste the day.
 
 Yitzchak was on the level of taste. When he wanted Esav to prepare him a meal, Yitzchak said, "Prepare for me tastes of food which I like"
 
But you know friends, the night is something else. Do you know what the night is about?
 
 Fragrance.
 
When you see a person in the morning, you see their light. When you take a walk with your friends at sunset you taste their souls. 
 
But at night you are connected
 
 to a higher consciousness. And here I need you to open your hearts. 
 
Fragrance has to do with the nose. Do you know what the nose is all about? The Kabbala-
 
The Zohar Hakadosh says that the nose is connected to the “life of life,” “chayei d’chayim.”
 
 The Gemara says (Yoma 85a) that a person is alive as long as his nose is breathing.
 
 Not his heart, but his nose. The heart is connected to life, but the nose is connected to...
 
 the roots of life, to the roots of my roots!
 
It says that 
God breathed life into man ... into man’s nose.
 
 When you want to take a walk, do you take a walk in the sunlight or do we
take a walk in the moonlight?
 
When you see someone at night, do you know what you see? 
 
When Ya’akov came in to tell get the blessings from his father, Yitzchak,
 it says, (Bereishis 27:27),
 
 Yitzchak SAW the fragrance of his son. 
 
He saw the deepest depths of Ya’akov Avinu.
(Our forefather)
Ya’akov Avinu’s holiness was that he connected us to something deeper - 
to the level of the unconscious, 
 
the superconscious, serving of God.
 
It says about Ya’akov Avinu, “vayifga baMakom” (Bereishis 28:11) - so to speak “grabbed” God.
 
 he touched Him, he Mamash touched God. 
 
Good Shabbos!
 
And From Dr.Moshe : Va Yay Tzay
 
Yakov goes out from his comfort zone, 
From Beayr Sheva - from the world of Shabbos where everything is provided for 
 
and he has to go to Charon, the world of challenges.
(Where he gets married?)
 
 A Yid has to be publicizing his Yiddishkeit (everywhere)
 
As Rabbi SHLOMO said the hands are the hands ( even of Jacob they are looking like) 
Eisav, but the voice 
always stays connected to the highest. 
 
On the outside it may look like I carry a weapon just like the goyim
 
 but the voice reveals that I do so only because of circumstance, 
 
I don’t want to kill anyone, I’m praying for peace, I’m praying for God’s light to shine into everyone.
 
 Chodesh Tov
 
From Rabbi Andy
 
Congress finally put out some good news
 
About saving Jews
 
And the world may finally value
All the good coming out in Israel
Even in tough times like today
 
Many BLESSINGS to all
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
Rabbi Andy Eichenholz

Parshat Toldot - and Tikun Hatzot

Parshat Toldot - and Tikun Hatzot

Prayers connect us all

ׂׂAnd I hope I wrote a correct interpretation of this one

Tikun Hatzot is supposed to be an important prayer
Said at night
TIKUN MEANS REPAIR

One great rabbi told me that this "repair" even fixes problems with contractors who do your renovations!

So I sometimes read this prayer and this morning (around 430 AM) I saw something interesting

We ask the Holy One, blessed be He, to "look from heaven and see ׁ(OUR ACTIONSׂ)...for you are our father...
Abraham we did not know...and Israel (Jacob)will not know us...
and pray for deliverance"

Complicated enough - But where is Isaac- the middle forefathers?

- his name does not appear!

So on one foot it seems to me to interpret:
that Yitzchak (ISAAC) was the true tzaddik from birth to the end
The others lived sometimes challenged lives among pretty wierd folks - even for those days
so maybe Yitzchak -Isaac- was wrong to bless Esau? who turned BAD?
My thought is:
we know there are blessings from the now, and there are blessings for generations passing
and then there are blessings for the future .
For approaching the time of redemption

We see Yitzchak in our parsha - as he tries
to give blessings to a wayward son- his blessings being for all these periods !
and he tries with all his mighty blessings to bring his son "back home"

So is it possible that he didn't see the real Esau?
He probably saw that every generation of Esau
could be coaxe a little towards

Repentance- and a return to good -
Despite influences in the wider world,
which you really can see in every generation - their blindness to the truth

May God have mercy on us all

AE

 

and from Reb Shlomo Carlebach on Parshat Toldot

When Yitzchak was praying for children it says the most beautiful thing.
It says “Vaye’aser lo Hashem” (Bereishis 25:11).

the Ropshitzer Rebbe says, “Vaye’aser lo Hashem,” Yitzchak’s praying for children so strong that even God began praying that Yitzchak should have children!


Do you know how deep this is?...
It’s the deepest depths there is.
...
Do you see here what Yitzchak is showing us? Yitzchak brought down into the world that God’s answer to my prayer for children is not just that I’m asking for children and he says, “Okay, I’ll send some orders for the merchandise.”

It mamesh (truly) becomes God’s prayer.

It's funny but-
You can ask me for a glass of water, and suddenly I truly want you to have a glass of water in the strongest way.

When this happens I taste the depths of your soul, and then we are friends forever.

Good Shabbos!

Portion pìctures from Rivka's Golan Heights and Mine

Portion pìctures from Rivka's Golan Heights and Mine
 
 
War war war
missile attacks and more
 
I just saw a picture of a soldier released from rehab with
2 prosthetic feet and one prosthetic hand
 
I started to cry
 
But we are in a war for survival - not those illegals at the southern border! 
Not the gazans refusing a 5 million dollar reward for info (plus escape from Hamasland) leading to rescue of  even 1 hostage!
 
Portion today is the
"Rescue of Rebecca from her conniving family!
 
So
From my friend Dr Moshe on this week's Portion
 
After the Akeida (binding of Isaac)
 the Torah gives us one more bit of news:
 
And Besuel gave birth to Rivka.
 
 Imagine, Abraham Avinu just passes the highest ( spititual)  test SO that even Hashem is
 
 testifying that he’s the greatest!
 
So why stay in touch with your pagan family?
 
(AE note - maybe it was for Thanksgiving??)
 
  So we see that Avraham didn’t distance himself from his previous contacts
 
 and as a result we know about Rivka Imeinu (our great great GRANDMOTHER - Abraham'S Daughter in law - from somewhere between Iraq and THE GOLAN HEIGHTS)
 
 and Mazal Tov you’re all invited to the wedding (of the Patriarchs ) this week!
 
(To pray that is, for happiness health and safety)
 
The peacock below was exercising where I exercise after droping off Leah at school nearby
 
The guy praying on his tank is in the Golan Heights!"
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
Rabbi Andy Eichenholz

??Portion Noah – Apocalypse Then – Apocalypse Now

??Portion Noah – Apocalypse Then – Apocalypse Now

Is the flood story a parable (Noah gets drunk after not being able to deal with the destruction) or is it

A metaphor for every generation that sees perversion and corruption and does nothing

Or is it just an historical account (maybe with a little exaggeration– maybe not)

Or is it a warning to a world (as is written there) where peoples' hearts tend to the "dark side" and they need to always have their Garden of Eden portion opposite the Noah Flood?

So what’s a person to do?

We can't stop North Korea Russia Iran and the Hooties (2 drnes were shot down last night from "the East - mening Yemen)  from blowing up things – or 
can we?
 
My teacher Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook always taught that Torah Portions are Paired!

(Like the animals in the Ark? Like Adam and Eve?)

But ALL IS CONNECTED – and so Portion Noah ends with – against all the forces of Evil Iraq -

The birth of Abraham, his flight with Sarah to the Holy Land

 (and soon to the Holy City of Hevron)

AND THE BEGINNING OF MONOTHEISM AND BELIEF IN A G-D FOR ALL PEOPLE

The Torah is saying that those teachings of Abraham and Sarah will ALWAYS BE RELEVANT

 

So tune in next week for the Saga of Sarah and Abraham

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Andy Eichenholz