by Rabbi Nachman Kahana | Jun 8, 2016
Sunday of this week, the 28th of Iyar, the citizens of Medinat Yisrael celebrated the 49th anniversary of HaShem’s liberation of Yerushalayim and the Temple Mount from its Arab-Nazi occupiers, through His holy messengers of Tzahal.
I was invited to a celebration at the Almiya Hall situated near the beautiful promenade in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in the south of Yerushalayim.
Three thousand five hundred years ago, this area witnessed a most significant, even critical, event in the creation of our holy Jewish nation – Akeidat Yitzchak – the binding of Yitzchak.
by Rabbi Nachman Kahana | Jun 1, 2016
HaShem commands Moshe to conduct a national census of men of military age – 20 to 60 (excluding the tribe of Levi), resulting in the final number of 603,550.
There was probably a similar number of women, and at least 10 times as many children and adult men above the age of 60, bringing the total number of Jews who were supported in the 40 years of desert life by the Manna and traveling water well to around the number of Jews in the Medina today.
Rashi comments that HaShem commanded Moshe to conduct a national census several times during our desert sojourn because of His love for Am Yisrael; as a man repeatedly counts his beloved wealth.
Now one might ask: Why did HaShem command Moshe to count the nation, in the light of what was taught in Rabbi Yishmael’s yeshiva and quoted in the Gemara (Ta’anit 8b)?
by Rabbi Nachman Kahana | May 26, 2016
The rebuke and warning to the Jewish nation of the punishments which would be our lot if we forsake the Torah characterizes our parsha. Moshe relates to the nation the suffering of individual and of the nation as a whole in graphic detail, culminating in our being expelled from the Holy Land to suffer in galut.
To our chagrin and disgrace all of Moshe’s abstract scenarios have come about, with the grim reality even worse than what was predicted.
However, there is one punishment inherent in galut which was not mentioned by Moshe, but stands as one of the most depressing and ominous. It is our inability to deal with complex halachic issues in the absence of a Sanhedrin and the ru’ah hakodesh (holy spirit) that nurtured the spiritual capabilities and needs of the rabbis in Eretz Yisrael, as I will explain.
by Rabbi Nachman Kahana | May 18, 2016
Religious disputations between Jews and gentiles have a long and mostly tragic history for the Jewish side, especially when we came out victorious in the debates.
The first religious disputation is recorded in the book of Shemot, when Moshe in the name of HaShem demanded that Paro permit the Jews to worship HaShem in the desert.
by Rabbi Nachman Kahana | May 12, 2016
Medinat Yisrael is 68 years young. In terms of nation building we are still in our infancy, and like an infant that cries and grows, we cry at the cost of the 23447 lives of our defense forces from the turn of the 20th century and the more than 2500 citizens who lost their lives through Arab terror from the beginning of the Medina, as we continue to grow in every field of endeavor.
If anyone doubts the miraculous existence of the Medina just consider the following statistics…
by Rabbi Nachman Kahana | May 5, 2016
Rashi explains the sequence within the pesukim – theft, denial, swearing falsely in HaShem’s name. A thief will eventually deny his act and sustain his lie by swearing falsely using HaShem’s name.
To steal is iniquitous. Denial of the theft is a sin accompanying the iniquity. Then to swear falsely using HaShem’s name is the thief attempting to make the Almighty an accomplice to his vile conduct.
The lessons of this pasuk became very clear to me in an incident at the Rabbi Jacob Joseph High School in New York’s Lower East Side. I was a student in the journalism class where we put together the yeshivah’s monthly newspaper.
