Terumah 5782 – Building a Mishkan in our Homes
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A TECHNICAL MITZVAH WITH TREMENDOUS REWARD
In Honor of Our Parents
ראובן בן רוזית
רחל בת בילא
On their 50th Anniversary
The Kassin Family
I
A TECHNICAL MITZVAH WITH TREMENDOUS REWARD
In Honor of Our Parents
ראובן בן רוזית
רחל בת בילא
On their 50th Anniversary
The Kassin Family
In the past, we mentioned a medrash (Bereishis Rabbah 68:2) that describes how Yakov Avinu was going to look for a shidduch, but was faced with a dilemma: he was penniless.[i] He had nothing at all because he had been robbed. He was accosted and lost everything. But he accepted it as a nisayon from Hashem. My Rebbi (Rav Meir Soloveitchik, zt”l) pointed out that Yakov Avinu faced very evil adversaries many times in his life, and situations where people usually stand up in their own defense.
The subject we’d like to discuss today is an important one because many people pose the following question. The Torah says: I created an evil inclination, and I created Torah as its antidote (Kiddushin 30b). So that means to say that the antidote, the counterforce for the yetzer hara, is Torah.
We are in the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, and most people are challenged by the yetzer hara about what teshuvah is, and how it works. You realize that the greatest challenge to the yetzer hara is teshuvah. To the yetzer hara, the most ‘feared’ tool that Hashem gave us is teshuvah.
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In this week’s parshah there is a moradige yesod with an interesting new twist. It’s something that a person can employ in every endeavor that he undertakes in his life. The passuk says, כל אלמנה ויתום לא תענון, “you should not afflict any widow or orphan,” אם ענה תענה אתו, “if you’re going to afflict them,” be careful, כי אם צעק יצעק אלי, “for if they will cry out to Me,” שמע אשמע צעקתו, “I will hear their cry”
In this week’s parshah we encounter an episode of unimaginable proportions. It’s a ma’aseh that we can’t imagine doing. We can’t even fathom it. But we all descend from the person who is the ba’alas hama’aseh.