Two factors in the parsha are puzzling: Why was there not even one person who was affected by Noach’s warning of the pending annihilation of humanity? Why did HaShem have to promise Noach that He would never again flood the world?
I suggest… Conceptual Challenges
Two excerpts from my book “With All Your Might” dealing with the holiday of Sukkot
1- An allegory relating to Jewish life in the galut when the gate to Eretz Yisrael is open.
2- The testimony of this incident that occurred during the Shoah was brought to the attention of Dr. Shlomo Zalman Kahana, who established the Holocaust Museum on Mount Zion, by a survivor of one of the extermination camps.
On Shabbat I met a Jew from London who told me of an abomination and abhorrent event which occurred there several days ago. Thousands of Satmar followers holding PLO flags marched through the city streets screaming anti-Israel slogans, calling for the destruction of the State. If that was not bad enough, this gentleman said that in the area where he was standing, not one Jew protested what these pseudo Jews were doing, because these Satmar are violent fanatics.
This scene could very easily be repeated in New York or any other place where the teachings of Satmar and Naturei Karta poison the Jewish mind.
Perhaps this is what the prophet Zecharia is referring to in chapter 14,14 that Yehuda will join with the enemies of Yerushalayim.
Dear friends: A short message for the new year 5775
What kind of a year will we be experiencing here in Eretz Yisrael?
Modesty, humility, propriety of manner, love of fellow Jew these are the links which form the chain of protection which stands between us and the forces of evil which surrounds us.
“Achdut” (Unity) is predicated on being physically together in Hashem’s Holy Land. Without that “togetherness”, all the platitudes of love and unity and even financial help cannot forge the integrity of being “one” which is necessary for the sacred coalition of Am Yisrael.
As stated by the illustrious Hillel, the principle of “Love thy fellow Jew as yourself” is the basis of Judaism. For just as a parent wishes that his children live in peace and harmony, so too does our Father-in- Heaven seek the peace and unity of His children – Am Yisrael.
Surrounding Eretz Yisrael are myriads of God’s angels protecting His children in the Holy Land.
The Days of Awe are quickly approaching. It is that time when we must begin to appraise, consider, measure, judge and list our actions and thoughts of the past year(s).
If I may draw upon my own experience, I can say that the “mother of all sins” – and the prime mover of all others – is “rosh katan” the opposite of “rosh gadol”.
“Rosh katan” is a narrow, restricted state of mind when a Jew negates his eternal and unique spiritual status as was revealed to us by HaShem at Mount Sinai, and seeks to draw closer to foreign cultures and nullifies his historical mission of “tikun olam” – universal reformation.
Rosh katan is illustrated in a short Yiddish story by Y.L. Peretz called Bonche Shveig – Bonche the silent.
