“She’ma Yisrael” is the most quoted verse in the Torah, having been recited hundreds of million times since its revelation at Mount Sinai. There are many ways to understand these six words:
Listen (hearken, be attentive) Yisrael, the Lord our God the Lord is one.
I would like to deal with two meanings: one of which has to do with our parasha – Vayechi.
It is a fundamental law of creation that HaShem does not coerce people into doing things, because free will is a basic component of humanity. Nevertheless, HaShem lets His will be known by creating situations which cause rational people to make requisite choices.
The sands of time for freedom of choice are running out.
Chanuka is essentially the holiday of Kohanim. The rebellion was started by the Kohanic family of Mattityayu, son of Yochnan the Kohen Gadol and ended with Kohanim restoring the Bet Hamikdash to its purity and to their divine service.
Kohanim more than any single group have played prominent roles in our history. Chazal say that the forefathers were Kohanim.
Yerushalayim – the very word resonates as a symphony in the authentic Jewish soul.
Yir’ah (fear of God) and Shalem (perfection) combine to form the name Yerushalayim; for these are the qualities which the city bestows upon those who love her and are faithful to her.
The real story behind President Trump’s recognition of Yerushalayim as Israel’s capital…
Much like a motion picture which is composed of thousands of individual frames passing before the viewer’s eye, life too consists of a series of individual time frames of 70 years (“The span of our life is 70 years or with strength 80 years” – Tehillim 90:10). And just as one cannot understand the plot of a movie from a fleeting glance, one cannot decipher HaShem’s intent in history from one- or two-time frames or even from a thousand years. Our parasha relates that Yosef found his brothers in the Valley of Dotan…
The weekly Torah readings are approaching the end of the patriarchal and matriarchal period, the founding fathers and mothers of our nation who are very much with us, due to the pivotal role they played in the future direction of the Jewish nation and world history.
