יום שישי י"ט באדר ב תשפ"ד 29/03/2024
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  • The Mission Continues

    As in the past so it remains today - we were and still are under the selfsame commitment to adhere to the directions of the Gedolei Yisrael, who stand guard against breaches of purity threatening our camp. When we were required to ask – we asked. When we were instructed to depart – we left. The moment we are summoned back to raise the flag, every other consideration is pushed to the side and we answer: We are ready!

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בראי היום

  • Harav Yisrael Friedman zy”a, the Rebbe of Husyatin

    מוטי, ויקיפדיה העברית

    The ancestral chain of Harav Yisrael Friedman, the founder of the Husyatin chassidic court, originates with the holy Baal Shem Tov. The Husyatin chassidus has its roots in Galicia and eventually came to Tel Aviv, during the turbulent years between the two World Wars.

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Place

  • Maccabi'im Gravesite

    In honour of Chanukah, we will discuss a fascinating, ongoing investigation attempting to establish the place of burial of Mattisyahu Kohen Gadol and his family.

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In Weekly Parsha

Behaalotcha

After Aharon HaCohen received the commandment regarding lighting the flames of the Menorah in the Beis HaMikdash, the Torah tells us how he fulfilled the mitzvah

Menachem Ginosar 31/05/2009 12:30
And thus did Aharon do, [facing] the Menorah, raising up its lights, as HaShem had commanded Moshe.” (Bamidbar 8:3)

Our Sages comment on this phrase, “And thus did Aharon do.” They remark that the Torah specifies that Aharon did “thus” in order to praise him because he did not deviate from any detail of the commandment (Sifri).

The text emphasizes Aharon’s virtue of obeying the word of HaShem, and praises him for not changing any aspect of the mitzvah.

We ask: that’s praise for Aharon? Doesn’t the Torah require of each Jew, great and small, in every place and time, to accept the discipline of the Torah and to fulfill the mitzvos as they are written?

Perhaps one may say that the tribute to Aharon regards his exact execution of the command to light the Menorah lights. As the High Priest, exalted above the rest of the people, Aharon could have altered the ceremonial aspects of the lighting according to the best of his understanding. Aharon could have emphasized the inner meaning of the mitzvah. He could have paid less attention to the format of fulfilling the mitzvah.

Aharon receives praise precisely because despite his high spiritual status he did not change an iota of the outer details of the mitzvah. He performed the mitzvah exactly as commanded.

It is true that the 613 mitzvos serve as rungs in a ladder stretched heavenward. The entire raison d’etre of the mitzvos is that through fulfillment of the mitzvos, we may cling to HaShem and ascend to the summit of spirituality. It is equally important, however, to carry out the mitzvos exactly as commanded. One must not change the form of the mitzvos in the name of “progress, enlightenment or personal understanding".

Such is also the case with prayer, described by our Sages as “the service of the heart.” Even though prayer must come from the heart, we are required to pray according to the liturgy handed down to us by tradition from the Men of the Great Assembly.

These requirements are not contradictory. Even though the order of prayer is fixed and unified for everyone, the individual can still find within it his or her own personal expression of longing for HaShem. The individual can express, through the standardized order of prayer, his or her personal yearning for HaShem.

From this we can understand the meaning of the lengthy discussion of the sacrifices brought by the princes of each tribe during the dedication of the Altar (Bamidbar 7:12). One who peruses this parasha can be bewildered by how much space the Torah devotes to the sacrifice of each prince, when each sacrifice was identical!

Our discussion regarding the fixed order of prayer and the individual’s personal involvement, however, applies here as well. In spite of the outer similarity of the princes’ sacrifices, each prince gave his korban with his own particular enthusiasm and excitement. Each one knew how to express his individuality and his unique spirituality within the communal framework.