Parsha Post: Nesivos Shalom

  This parsha mentions most of the ten tests of Avraham, we learn from Pirkei Avot - he faced ten tests and withstood them all… The Torah doesn’t just contain stories - but its stories are main parts of Torah. We are all tested with our ten life challenges as Avraham was. Like him, we’re all tested with ten tests (or categories of tests) repeatedly, to show how much G-d loves us, to make us aware.  Ramban: The test was great for Avraham, this - his passing the tests - made him stand out, more than keeping the Torah.  The key for all of us is how loyal and faithful we stay in the time of being challenged. Chazal: 3 things are present in a student of Avraham - positive/generous eye - seeing the good, humble spirit, nefesh shefeila, a lowered appetite for the physical- holding it down vs nastiness of the eye, haughtiness, strong physical appetite). One could also say that whoever passes his 10 tests is a student of Avraham Avinu, paralleling his major greatness.  And ...

We say this on the night of Rosh haShanah which teaches of the designation and purpose of the world and all that fills it - all for G-d, to bring a Jew closer to G-d.  Relates to this world being ike an antechamber before a hall, the point of this world is to go through it on your path to The Hal/Parlor/Place To Bel. This world is a pathway.  Yet it can seem that this world of desire does the reverse of bringing you to Heaven.  Also we need to understand the concept of Dirah BeTachtonim, the the Lower will be a place where the higher resides. How can that be?  Answer: Maggid of Mezirich - The world is filled with kinyanechah - not things G-d owns, but things through which we gain ownership of/connection to G-d. All the loves and lusts - arousals -  in the world are manufactured in a way, in essence, to bring us to acquire connection with G-d.  Fits w Baal Shem Tov’s statement that no bad descends from Heaven.When seemingly bad lust or love rises in a person...

We say this on the night of Rosh haShanah which teaches of the designation and purpose of the world and all that fills it - all for G-d, to bring a Jew closer to G-d.  Relates to this world being ike an antechamber before a hall, the point of this world is to go through it on your path to The Hal/Parlor/Place To Bel. This world is a pathway.  Yet it can seem that this world of desire does the reverse of bringing you to Heaven.  Also we need to understand the concept of Dirah BeTachtonim, the the Lower will be a place where the higher resides. How can that be?  Answer: Maggid of Mezirich - The world is filled with kinyanechah - not things G-d owns, but things through which we gain ownership of/connection to G-d. All the loves and lusts - arousals -  in the world are manufactured in a way, in essence, to bring us to acquire connection with G-d.  Fits w Baal Shem Tov’s statement that no bad descends from Heaven.When seemingly bad lust or love rises in a person...

From Bamidbar, where we're told about the chatzotzrot: 1 - When a war comes to your land, regarding the tormentor who torments you, you will make sounds (vehereiotem/teruah sounds) with the chatzotzrot… (next pasuk) 2 - and on your happy days andand holidays you will make sounds (utekatem) with these chatzotzrot/trumpets (over the olot and zivchei shalom, before G-d). 2 ideas of tekiah  1 - War in inside you and, coming to you, strife inside your gates.  This is the enemy inside you that you must chase away. You blow to announce the war of chasing the tormenting enemy away.  2 - Coronating the king, accepting his kingship with joy, on your happy, holidays. When blowing in the first case it says ve’harei’otchem - a moaning, groaning, howling (genuchei genach, veyelule yalil) The second instance is utekatem, the blowing of victorious rejoicing. These 2 elements combine in the blowing of RH,  1 - Uprooting the bad, chasing and cleaning out our internal enemy, chasing hi...

Divrei Shmuel - Se’u she’arim rosheichem hints to all the holidays 4 words start w 4 letter of shofar - Tehillim 24 -  Se’u she’arim - RH VeHinasu pitchei olam - YK, the eternal opening is the kodesh hakodashim, first the gate, then deeper through the opening Veyavo melech hakavod  - Sukkos, culminating in yichus of G-d and us These letters form the word shofar because it opens the gateway to all the holidays.  The Medrash cites Yoel - G-d sent His voice/sound before the host… The day of G-d is awesome and great.  This sending is the shofar, the host is Israel, shocked and trembling from the shofar’s sound and doing Teshuva to be meritorious is din on YK.    The upper and the lower tremble because of the sound- this is the gateway to all of the holy parts of this exalted time, the month of the mighty ones. Moshol - King sends son away to fulfil a task, writes to him everyday.  Enemies use sabotage and block the letters from arriving, trying to cut...

  Nesivos Shalom stresses how we must subordinate ourselves, realize that we and all we have and all we do is from G-d. He says this is the idea of the mitzvah of tzedakah in Re'eh being generally read around Elul. Tzedakah is unique in that it says you can't have a bad heart while you do it - and tradition has it that you don't get the mitzvah if you have a sour attitude while giving tzedakah. This is because the essence of tzedakah is not the act of giving but the accepting of faith in G-d, which means realizing that you and yours are His. Thus, doing the mitzvah properly means you have a happy heart, not feeling that you're losing something that's yours. Also, if you do tzedakah in the right way, it brings with it a gratefulness to G-d for counting it as if you gave from what you own, though everything you have is His. He ties this is with a novel interpretation of the theme of the month of Elul, "I am to my beloved, and my beloved is to me": If ...

I. Shavuot, like the eighth day at the end of Sukkot (“And on the eighth day it will be Atzeret for you.”) is called Atzeret. The Rabbis say that we are judged for fruits on Shavuot, which they call Atzeret (Rosh HaShanah 16a). Also, the translation of Unklus for “BeShavuoteichem,” in Bamidmar 28,” is “BeAtzroteichem.” (See Ramban’s awesome explanation of Vayikra 23:36.) Reb Shmuel of Nikolsberg - may his merit protect us - said of the verse.  ”And you will seek me day after day,” that (because the Hebrew word used here also means to give a homiletical speech) that two specific days of speeches are alluded to here.   The two days are Shabbos HaGadol (the Shabbos before Pesach) and Shabbos Shuvah (the Shabbos before Yom Kippur, leading up to Sukkos and Shmini Atzeret).   One could suggest that the two days of seeking alluded to are these two Atzeret holidays, which are two days of seeking a unique direct connection with G-d.   Atzeret connotes what G-d sa...