Parshas Bereishis

The shir of Shabbos begins with an introduction מִזְמוֹר שִׁיר לְיוֹם הַשַּׁבָּֽת this is the shir of Shabbos. (Point to ponder: why doesn't any other shir shel yom start with the same introduction?) If you read and learn the rest of the chapter you will not find a single reference to Shabbos. How did this chapter become the chapter of Shabbos? Why when you say this chapter, do some poskim hold that you were mekabel Shabbos?
Let us learn the chapter of Tehilim to get a better understanding. טוֹב לְהֹדוֹת לַיהֹוָה וּלְזַמֵּר לְשִׁמְךָ עֶלְיֽוֹן- everything Hashem does is perfect and should be praised. לְהַגִּיד בַּבֹּקֶר חַסְֽדֶּךָ - in the dawn when everything is bright, tell the world of Hashem's chesed. וֶאֱמֽוּנָֽתְךָ בַּלֵּילֽוֹת- when it's dark and there's no hope in sight, talk of your faith in Him. Dovid Hamelech goes on to answer the question that has bothered everyone since Moshe: בִּפְרֹחַ רְשָׁעִים כְּֽמוֹ עֵשֶׂב - Why do the wicked florish? Why is it that the evil can enjoy the world while the rightous suffer? To this King Dovid answers: לְהִשָּֽׁמְדָם עֲדֵי־עַֽד - they will be lost forever. The wicked enjoy this world for it is all they have, they don't have a part in the world to come. צַדִּיק כַּתָּמָר יִפְרָח כְּאֶרֶז בַּלְּבָנוֹן יִשְׂגֶּֽה- The righteous don't need the pleasures of this world. שְׁתוּלִים בְּבֵית יְהֹוָה בְּחַצְרוֹת אֱלֹהֵינוּ יַפְרִֽיחוּ - they will florish and enjoy the house of Hashem in the world to come. The theme of the mizmor is perfection. If you look at the world through Hashem's lens you will not see any bad in the world- every good deed is payed in full, while no bad deed will go unaccounted for. We just dont have the eyes to see it and sometimes we need to rely on our faith, לְהַגִּיד כִּֽי־יָשָׁר יְהֹוָה צוּרִי וְֽלֹא עַוְלָתָה בּֽוֹ - that all of Hashems ways are perfect.
The final posuk of the six days of creation- the posuk that ushered in the first Shabbos is: וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת-כָּל-אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה, וְהִנֵּה-טוֹב מְאֹד - Hashem looked at the entire creation, at everthing that will ever traspire in the world- the yetzar tov and the yetzar horah, the good and the evil, everything- and it was very good- perfect. וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי - with that knowledge the world was ready to enter Shabbos. Shabbos is 'Yom shekulo tov' the day when all in the world is perfect, a day that we leave all of our worries of the week and we enter the world of Hashem- the world of perfection.
What is a more appropriate shir to welcome the Shabbos then the shir that sings of the perfection of the world?

Adopted from Pachad Yitzchok- Shabbos mamer 2.

Simchas Torah

R' Moshe Weintraub (a rebbi in Torah Vodaath) once said: The world says that mikvah is a big mitzva, for it encompasses all of your body without a separation. Succah is a bigger mitzva for you enter your succah even with your muddy clothing. I say that simcha is the biggest mitzva, for you can sit in a succah and yet your mind can be somewhere else, whereas when you are besimcha your entire mind is filled with simcha.
We can say that this refers to the days of Tishrai. Yom Kipper is like a mikvah, for there is nothing that separates us from Hashem on that day. On Succos we come into our succah with our muddy clothing. The climax of Tishrai is Simchas Torah when all of our mind in filled with simcha. We have no mitzvas execpt to fill our minds with happiness.

Mazel Tov to a dear reader (I hope) Luzy Steinmetz on the birth of a baby girl!

Sukkos

We end Neilah with the recitation of the posuk "Hashem hu haElokim" seven times. (R' C. Kompel claims that throughout Tanach we find the words "Hashem Hu Elokim" exactly seven times!) The Levush explains that at the end of Yom Kippur we escort Hashem back to his heavenly throne. We recite the verse seven times to escort Hashem through the seven heavens.
When you escort someone you don't just watch him walk off, you walk with him. Yom Kippur ends with us walking Hashem through the heavens to his throne. It is there- at Hashem's side- that we begin the Yom Tov Sukkos. When we sit in the Sukka we are sitting in Hashem's shadow, being embrached by Him- the place where we escorted him on Yom Kippur. My Shvugger Zalmen Leib told me a insight into the Ushpizen that he heard from R' Aron Fogel. What is special about Sukkos that we greet the Ushpizen into our sukka? When we are seated near Hashem in the heavens - which is where our Sukkas are located- who do we expect to meet? - the ones that mingle there all the time, the Ushpizen. They aren't guests at our table, rather we are guests in their world.

Shabbos Teshuva

There was a Ruv in Germany who had been a Ruv in a small shtetel in Poland and then in England before coming to Germany. One Yom Kipper he started his Drasha saying "One day I met the Yetzar Horah and he seemed to be relaxing- he was sitting in a park drinking a coffe and had plenty time to shmooze. I asked him 'Why is it that when I used to meet you in the shtetel and said hello, on most days you had enough time to give me a quick greeting, but nothing more. When I met you in England you didn't even have time to return my greeting you seemed so busy. And here I meet you and you seem to have all the time in the world?' The Yetzer Horah answered 'Back in the shtetel the Yidden were mostly good and G-d fearing people, I was busy just trying to drum up business, but there wasn't much i could do so I had time fora quick greeting. In England business was booming. I was busy running around getting people to do wrong, I didn't have a spare second to even say hello. Here in Germany all my work is being done by other people- the reformers demolished all of yiddishkeit - I have all the time in the world - there is no work left for me."
The Gemora says that Yom Kipper the Yetzer Horah doesn't have any power to influence us in any way. Why is it that even on Yom Kipper we find that we are not 100 percent perfect? There are things that we do that are wrong but they don't define us as bad people. The things that the yetzar Horah gets us when we have a weak moment. Then there are things which are deeply ingrained in nature, that we do it on our own without the help of the Yetzar Horah. On Yom Kipper we have one day to see who we are. We see what wrong doings can we blame on the Yetzar Horah and what wrongdoings are so ingrained in us that the Yetzar Horah can relax knowing well that his work is being done by us. The work of Yom Kipper and teshuva is to say and truly believe, that I am a new reborn person. The person whose mind strays during davening was me, but is not me anymore. If we truly believe that then we would be flawless on that most Holy Day.

Mazel Tov to Mishpachas Bleeman on the birth of a little boy!!!!

Sorry if the grammer/understanding is not to great, it's getting late. Gut Shabbos!

Point to ponder- Yomim Noraim

During our weekday Shemona Esrah we have one brocha where we daven for the abolishing of the wicked- 'velamalshienim'. And one brocha asking for the welfare of the righteous 'al hatzadikim'. In the shemona esrah of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, both of these tefillos are found in the brocha of 'Ata Kodosh'. We say 'U'vechain Tzadikim'- where we ask that the Tzadikim should live to and enjoy the times of Moshiach. Then we ask 'Vechol haresha kula kason techleh'- the evil in the world should disintegrate.
Why is it that during the year we first ask for the abolishment of evil- sur m'rah and then the asai tov- the longevity of the righteous, while on the Yomim Noraim we switch the order to first aseh tov and then sur m'rah?

Parshas Netzavim

הַנִּסְתָּרֹת--לַיהוָה, אֱלֹהֵינוּ; וְהַנִּגְלֹת לָנוּ וּלְבָנֵינוּ, עַד-עוֹלָם--לַעֲשׂוֹת, אֶת-כָּל-דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת

"The hidden is for Hashem, that which is revealed is for us and our children forever, to upkeep all the words of this Torah."

The Chassam Sofer has a few nice peshutim on this posak.

There are many miracles that happen in this world. Most of them are hidden miracels that the human mind can't fathom and the eye cannot see. These are the miracles of everyday life, the things we take for granted. You happened to meet the right person, saw that something you need is on sale etc. and most of all just that we are alive and healthy. These are the 'nistoras' the hidden which only Hashem sees. There is one miracle that is 'niglah'- open for all to see. The fact that Klal Yisroel, after two thousand years of a dark bitter golus, is still around and we are still learning Hashem's Torah. That we survived a churban, Spanish inquisition, forced conversions, pogroms, holocausts and much more and we are still standing tall and Torah and mitzvos are growing is the greatest miracle that us and our children should see - that nothing stands in the way of 'lasos es kol divrie ha'Torah hazos"

A second prashat.
Every mitzva has many reasons why we do them and what consequences they cause in heaven. That is 'nistoras' the hidden part of the Torah. That part we have no need to know- that's for Hashem. What we do have to learn and internalize is the practicalities of the mitzvos and what they mean to us. The 'niglah' of Torah is for us and our childern to learn.
Theres a story told about the students of the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem told them that the world stands on the Shofer blowing of the Noda B'Yehuda. So the students traveled to Prague- were the Noda B'yehuda was Rav, for Rosh hashana, to hear his shofer blowing. The Noda b'Yehuda got up before the tekias and gave a speech. He opened a Gemora Rosh Hashana. The Gemora asks why to we blow shofer on Rosh Hashana? The Gemora quickly interjects 'Why do we blow? The Torah commanded us to blow' The Gemmora then goes on to clarify what the question was. The Noda B'Yehuda just read that passage of 'Why do we blow? The Torah said to blow' closed the Gemora and thus finished his speech and started the tekias. The students were agahst, they traveled all this way just to hear the Gemora? And they asked their rebbi was this realy what kept the world going? The Baal Shem Tov answered that all the reasons that we know about performing any mitzva are called 'tammai hamitzvos' - the reasons of mitzvos. 'Tammai' can also mean just a taste. The highest leval of doing mitzvos is doing them because Hashem told us to do it. He explained to them that those that cannot get the right feeling of the mitzvos by just listening to Hashem - they need extra flavour, a taste the hidden meaning of the Mitzvas.

Ki Savo

.תַּחַת, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-עָבַדְתָּ אֶת-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, בְּשִׂמְחָה, וּבְטוּב לֵבָב--מֵרֹב, כֹּל

The literal translation of the posuk suggests that the Tochacha comes as a punishment for not serving Hashem with love and joy. The meforshim ask, why is the punishment for not being bsimcha so harsh, deserving of all 98 curses?
R' Yitzchok Hutner Zatzal explains. We are bound to serve hashem. We can do it out of our love for him- with joy. Or we will be forced to do his will- through the tochacha.
If one has weak eyesight there are two ways he can cure and strengthen it. He can cure it naturally, by exercising and strengthening his eyesight on his own until his sight is back to it's natural level. Or he can have surgery to cure him. The second option offers an effortless cure. All he has to do is sleep through the surgery and wait a few days or weeks to recover and his sight will as good as new. This sounds like the easier and better option, but it is fraught with danger and pain. There will be days that he will be bandaged and not be able to see anything. And there will be days that will be filled with pain. After all the difficulties he will have healthy eyes. The first option might be harder work, but is safer and pain free.
Klal Yisroel in galous is blinded. Hashem and his glory are hidden from us. The Kotzker once said "Where can you find Hashem? Where ever you let him in." We have to lift the darkness off our eyes and let Hashem into our lives. We can do it on our own through hard work. Every mitzva we do, every bit of avodas hashem we do, we come closer to Hashem. It's hard work but if we try and start, we are guaranteed to succeed. The other option is for Hashem to 'surgically' remove us from the darkness by shining his great light onto the world. If we choose this option we have to realize that the darkness will get darker and more painful before we are cleansed from the darkness. Only after the birth pangs of moshiach will we be redeemed.
We could, and should, serve Hashem on our own because we want to, with joy- bsimcha uvtov levov. If we refuse to do the hard work the only way we will leave this galous is through the tochacha. It will not be as a punishment, but as the last resort to save us and bring us home to our loving father Hashem.

Parshas V'eschanan- Shema Yisroel

Shema Yisroel Hashem Elokainu Hashem echod. This sentence is usually one of the first and the last uttered by all Jews- the posuk of kabolas ol malchas shamaim. The words 'Hashem Elokainu Hashem echod' are generally accepted as the main part of the declaration of Hashem's kingship and the first two words are just a prefix. Is that true? Or are the words Shema yisroel a vital part of kabolas ol malchus?

After tachnun we address Hashem as 'Shomer'- we daven that he watches over us- with three different merits. The first is for we are Yisroel and we say "Shema Yisroel". The second is for we are one nation as we say "Hashem echod" and the third protect the holy nation who say "kadosh kadosh kadosh". Let us concentrate on the first two. When we ask Hashem to protect us in the merit of saying "Shema Yisroel" what does that mean? Are we referring to the verse as a whole and we just say only the words "Shema Yisroel" for they fit poetically, but in essence we mean the words that follow which are "Hashem Elokainu Hashem Echad"? If so what it is the same as the second merit. Or is there a deeper meaning to the specific words "Shema Yisroel"?
I once heard in the name of R' Y. David Shlita (then found it in a wonderful book 'tachnun') a beautiful answer. To accept Hashem's kingship is the first thing every Jew must do, but there is one thing which we must do before we can even start. In order to talk of Hashem we must first and foremost be part of Knesses Yisroel, we must belong to the nation which is one with Hashem. After we accept upon us the achdus of the entire nation of Yisroel may we address Hashem and accept his oneness. We start the most awesome verse with a prefix "Shema Yisroel" - I am a part of the great nation of Yisroel and I am ready to proclaim to the world "Hashem Echad". Our first tefillah is to protect us because we are the nation of Yisroel- that alone is a reason for meriting divine protection.

Story Time- Nechama

On Friday the 17th day of Av 1929 truckloads of Arabs carried out a terrible massacre on the Yidden of Chevron. By the 20th of Av, the florishing yishuv of Chevron had ended.
The first Rosh Hashana after the massacre the survivors of Chevron with their families, gathered together to daven in yerushlaim. The room wore an air of pain and deep anguish, of dejection bordering on despair. The mashgiach R' Lieb Chasman asked a bucher R' Betzalel Shikovitzky to lead the Yeshiva with marriv the first night. After the conregation finished the second bracha- Ahavas olam, the chazzen began "V'ahavascha al tasir mimenu l'olamim"- And never, ever remove your love from us. Tears choked his throat as he said the words once and then a second time and kept on repeating the words- Hashem always did and continues to love us- over and over again. Like one person all present all the ones that had witnessed that terrible tragedy repeated along with the chazzen "V'ahavascha al tasir mimenu l'olamim". It was that tfillah that gave them strength to accept Hashem judgment with love.

Parsha Point to Ponder

We find that Moshe davened 515 tefillos trying to reverse the decree that he cannot go into Eretz Yisroel.
Why do we not find Aron - who recieved the same decree at the same time- davening at all for the privilge to enter the holy land?