In this week’s parshah, we see a very interesting criterion for a shidduch. Eliezer is sent by Avraham Avinu as a shaliach to bring about one of the biggest shidduchim in history. The Torah tells us that Eliezer davened to Hashem to send him the right girl for Yitzchak.
These parshiyos of the Torah teach us the foundation of our lives. A foundation is something upon which other things are built. If you have a small foundation, you can build a small binyan. If you have a large foundation, you can build a large binyan.
These parshiyos deal with the development of our Avos, and the common theme between all the challenges that Hashem put our Avos through is Emunah. Throughout our lifetime, challenges never cease. You should know that each one of us, in some form or fashion, endures the ten nisyonos of Avraham Avinu.
We have previously discussed the sin of the dor hamabul and we showed you the words of Rabeinu Tam, who says that if a person starts with a little bit of ta’avah and he allows himself to do whatever he wants, there’s no end to it.
I wanted to just point out that this was clearly demonstrated in the generation of the mabul.
Ais tzora hi l’Yaakov. Although the zman did not begin yet, the tzora, the milchama in Eretz Yisrael is the reason why we’re gathering for this short shiur. Many requests for a shiur were made, so we are hoping to share some words of chizuk and understanding with the olam. Hopefully this tzara should pass…
We see in the gemara Rosh Hashanah (16a) that on the chag of Sukkos we are judged regarding water. It says: On Chag we are judged on water. Now, lechorah on Rosh
Hashanah, a person was already judged regarding all his personal matters and all of it was sealed on Yom Kippur. So what is the idea of being judged on water on Chag?
We are in the middle of the aseres yemei teshuvah and the subject which we want to discuss today is obviously going to be teshuvah. First of all, the question is how do you make someone a ba’al teshuvah? That would be a very nice thing to know. Many of us have relatives that are, nebach, not connected, not observant, maybe grandparents, maybe parents, maybe uncles, cousins, friends, with whom we have some type of relationship;
We are approaching the end of the year. What’s coming in a couple of days is the day of mishpat, of judgment. If a person would take into account the mishpat that he got last year and think about what kind of maasim he is presenting to the Ribbono Shel Olam, he might become afraid.
Our parshah begins with the following words “You stand this day, all of you, before Hashem – your tribal heads, your elders and your officials, all the men of Israel.” A few pesukim later, Rashi brings a Midrash Tanchuma which explains the connection between Parshas Nitzavim and KiSavo, which had the curses. What is the connection between the curses…and the statement of “You stand this day”?
Our discussion today is about the obligation of hakaras hatov. In the hierarchy of all mitzvos, where does hakaras hatov stand? How important is it? What would you say?
