I teach and study with people in Israel, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Australia, Monsey, Passaic, Brooklyn, Monroe, Tribeca, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and St. Louis. Most are not the most learned people. They would not be the normative superstars in Yeshiva or Beit Yaakov. But there are no other people with whom I would rather stand before the Ultimate Judge on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. They are all real human beings, struggling to master themselves, and searching for meaning in everything they do.

My friend and teacher, Rabbi Chaim Goldberger, also a rabbi of many such people, met some of these students, and was moved to remark how fortunate I am to have such people in my life. He is convinced that they represent the magnificence of Judaism.

Last night, while teaching prayer, my students took a basic idea I presented and flew with it. I sat back and listened to them expand an idea until it literally touched the Heavens. I was granted the gift to see my students taste eternal life in this world. When a father circumcises his son, he intends to do whatever he can to help his child live as a Ben Olam Habah, a person who lives with a sense of eternity. Over the past few weeks, God has gifted me with the realization that many of my students, children, according to the Torah, have become exactly that.

I realized that I can look forward to standing before God in total humility and gratitude for allowing me to have such wonderful people as part of my life. I also look forward to standing before God as one of such a group of incredible human beings. I am a fortunate man.

I thank God for the gift, and I thank them for being part of my life.

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

“God is King. God was King. God will be King forever.” Once I heard Rabbi Zweig’s lecture on the Portion of the Week for the first time, I decided that I would make him my Rebbi.

The next morning I was waiting outside his home to walk him to Yeshiva. I had a list of questions ready. “What are you doing here so early.” he asked. “I have some questions,” I said, and began to ask. I immediately wrote down all his answers, and by the time he walked home for lunch, I had more questions ready, including some on his morning answers.

I waited outside his house until he was ready to return to Yeshiva. I used the time to write down his answers and prepare more questions.

This went on for more than two weeks until he felt obligated to invite me in to his home. His wife did not appreciate my incessant questions during the meals so we negotiated regular meals in exchange for some quiet time.

All this time, I was working at making Rabbi Zweig my Rebbi, but he was not yet.

It was two months later as we were learning in his study at 2am, when I came up with a “Rabbi Zweig” answer on my own, that he became my Rebbi. Our relationship changed.

What was interesting was that my long list of questions and his answers were no longer a record of my challenge to him, they became more precious as a record of my Rebbi’s teachings. Our new relationship changed the past.

People often ask about the order of the key verse of Hashem Melech; should it not begin with God was King, then move to the present and then the future? Why.does it begin in the current then switch to the past and then leap to the future?

Our Rosh Hashanah experience of God as King, can change the past. We look back through the lens of this new awareness of God Is King and see His Royal Hand in the past.

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

I am thrilled to offer another superb essay by my dear friend, true Ba’al Tefillah, Reb Sam Glaser, with important reflections appropriate to this time of Teshuva:

One thing we share as human beings is a deep, unspoken connection to our past.  Intense events that stick to our psyches like a thistle in a ball of cotton.  Some of those moments create potholes in our lives that we vow to avoid in the future at all costs.  Others create cravings that we still try to satisfy.  Single frames of the movie of our lives create our personality, our predilections, our phobias.

 

I recently saw the movie KPAX where Kevin Spacey’s character is tormented by a terrible episode in his past and convincingly adopts the character of an alien to cope with the trauma.  I have friends who have been raped and even decades later must deal with the resulting anger and lack of feelings of security. Kids who suffer abuse must work overtime as adults to prevent the destructive chain from continuing into their own children’s lives.  There’s a window of time when we are so vulnerable.  It’s that same timeframe when we are more open and available to learning core modalities like taking on a new languages and musical instruments.  I have six cousins who lost their father when they were kids.  The destruction that this event wreaked upon their lives was commensurate with how old they were when it occurred.  Those too young or old enough to wrap their heads around the tragedy escaped the degree of damage that their other siblings had to endure.

 

At a seminar I attended I was challenged to recall an incident during my teen years that scarred me and created a force that would inform my lifelong choices.  An incident where perhaps I realized I was not “good enough.” A few came to mind.  As an insecure tenth grader, my first year in high school, I nervously approached the door to the music room where the madrigal audition callbacks were posted.  My name was not on the list.  After three years as the star of the choir in Jr. High, the winner of the best vocalist in the LA City School district, this outcome was not acceptable.  Singers were my chevra.  My homies. My only reference group.  As I endured a lonely tenth grade year I silently vowed that this would never happen again, that I would never rest on my laurels and my musical abilities would always be in peak form. 

 

During my freshman year at CU Boulder I played keyboards in a Heavy Metal band called Castlerock.  We played college parties and prided ourselves in our long hair and intense volume.  One night, our guitarist Muno Wahab informed me that the song we had just perfected, Tommy Bolin’s “Post Toastee,” in all it’s nine minute glory, was written just before Tommy died at 25 of a drug overdose.  I had just been exposed to his two albums and was hoping to see him play live.  Add Tommy to The List:  that dead rock star list that already boasted Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Jim Croce, Janis and Mama, Buddy and Bonham.  Bolin had only begun his solo career.   He played with Deep Purple, Billy Cobham and Jeff Beck, a crazy talented, innovative guitarist and songwriter.  He was a Boulder, CO local.  And now he was gone, all that talent and passion now six feet under.

 

That night I think I appreciated the vulnerability of my creative output for the first time.  I had already written hundreds of songs, knowing that someday I’d have a chance to record them for the world to hear.  As an overworked double major and cash starved college kid, it wasn’t in the cards for a while, especially given that back then there was no such thing as Apple’s Garage Band.  You either had the money for a 24 track pro studio or you kept your music to yourself.  But what if I died in the meantime?  All those musical ideas gone with the wind!  Thus was born the drive to record at all costs, even if it meant plunging all my money into building my own studio and learning the craft.

 

By the time I finished college I accumulated a respectable pile of recording gear.  My best acquisitions were made helping starving musician friends get quick cash when all they had to sell was their instruments.  I built a studio in my dad’s downtown LA fabric warehouse and purchased a Mac.  That’s the original 512k Mac and the first version of MOTU Performer, the same hardware and software companies that keep my music playin’ till this day.  I got good enough recording my own music and started producing others, creating a business that allows me to make people’s musical dreams come true and to sneak in an album of my own every year.  Yes, I love touring and performing, touching my audiences with spiritual, uplifting music.  But I must confess that my global galavanting is primarily a vehicle for me to find a home for these songs that I exorcise from my dream state every few days.

 

We are so busy climbing our personal mountains that we forget how they got built in the first place.  My Letter in the Torah song comes to mind: “Who am I anyway, where am I going to, how did I get here and what do I need to know?” Our biblical heroes shared a common profession.  They were all shepherds!  I can just imagine sending around a resume with “shepherd” in the work experience section. But shepherds have time to think.

Abraham used the time to intuit the existence of an ethical, loving God.  Moses learned to care for a flock and wasn’t too busy to investigate a certain burning bush.

Taking time to think can be frightening.  Is this the best job choice, relationship, use of my time? What if the answer is no?  What if some negative experience in your past thrust you into action and only now you stop to realize that your present reality was dictated by some bully who called you a name in grade school?  Making changes is hard work.  But not making changes is either pathetic or tortuous. What were you born to do? Where would you be if that “seismic event” hadn’t happened to set you on your current trajectory?  Who convinced you that you must have an MBA or law degree?  Why do you live where you do?  How will you meet your predestined one if you are dating someone just to have company?

 

“What you are is God’s gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift to God.” -Kelly Jeppesen

 

I was recently in a Starbucks taking a moment to breathe.  I had finished multiple errands and I gave myself permission to think. As I sipped my mocha I engaged in a Breslov ritual of dwelling on all the things I was grateful for.  My life, my health, my family, my home, my music, this delicious cup of coffee.  I started up a conversation with a guy next to me who turns out to be the same age from the same neighborhood.  He’s a healthcare executive who just got laid off.  It’s a lousy time to get laid off. He shared that he used his newly found free time to build homes in Alabama for Habitat For Humanity and had a great experience.  His newly realized goal is to use his business skills to create a similar company in the non-profit sector where he can make a difference. 

 

Thanks to dead rock stars I now have more albums out than The Beatles.  Thanks to NOT getting into madrigals my freshman year in high school I learned to take my craft more seriously.  I also became more humble and able to roll with the changes.  God gives us tests to make us stronger, and only offers us challenges that we can handle.  Sometimes God sends events that force us to awaken to new opportunities.  The Jewish calendar gives us periods like the Three Weeksof decreased joy (but still joy nonetheless), followed by Elul, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, so that we introspect, appreciate our gifts and perceive what we’re missing.  Consider taking this season to tap into those formative moments in your life that shaped the person you are today.  If the shoe fits, wear it.  And if not…

Sam Glaser (samglaser.com) is a popular composer, performer and writer in Los Angeles. He tours to over 50 cities annually in concert and has been named one of the top ten Jewish musicians in the US by Moment Magazine.

Jewish parents that care about bringing up a generation of Jewishly connected kids usually choose to send their offspring to day school.  In fact, for many parents it’s not even optional.  It is the ultimate weapon to fight ignorance and assimilation and create a powerful, informed Jewish identity.  The schools ease you in: preschool is cheap, kindergarten a few grand more, and then you are on the ride of a lifetime. Tuition is like an additional mortgage payment every month, and that’s before the school trips, books, scrip, volunteer hours, banquets and registrations fees.  The best form of birth control in the Jewish world? Why, it’s day school! 

 

The Chicago community has the right idea.  They have created a “Superfund” to supplement the budgets of struggling area day schools of all denominations, making the Jewish day school concept a no-brainer for parents.  High net worth individuals and charitable corporations have jumped on the benefactor bandwagon, not wanting to be left out of the nachas.  These Superfund kids become the Jewishly involved parents that send their children to day schools…entire generations of windy city Jews have been transformed by this remarkable undertaking.

 

Short of moving to Skokie, what’s an LA family supposed to do?  The public school alternatives are not so bad if you don’t mind a growing percentage of the student body stoned, tatooed and pierced, or at worse, armed gangbangers.  Significant financial aid is reserved for the destitute, leaving those above the poverty line with a $13-30,000 per kid millstone around one’s neck.  Home schoolers abound, but the kids spend their learning hours in front of a computer, without healthy peer-to-peer interactions.

 

Our local situation is so dire that many parents opt out of the senior year.  Their kids take a GED (General Education Test) to qualify for early graduation and the parents save 90% by sending the child to a local community college.  Parents with healthy incomes laugh at the idea of savings accounts, retirement plans and family vacations.  Those crucial years needed to compound investments into a viable nest egg disappear as tuition is automatically deducted from one’s bank account. Day school tuition is largely responsible for the uptick in North American aliyah to Israel…perhaps this debacle is God’s way of imposing aliyah on all but the most financially independent.

 

We live in a community blessed with fabulous wealth.  The majority of homes west of Downtown LA are worth more than a million dollars. We have the Broads, Sterlings and Resnicks building art galleries and concert halls.  Mega malls and new home communities built by Jewish developers line our freeways, Jewish hedge fund managers, doctors and lawyers dominate the professional scene.  Who will be the one to light the fire of a nationwide Superfund?  Who will go down in history as the savior of Diaspora Judaism?

 

Right now we are pondering which of our kids to take out of day school.  Sophie’s Choice 2010.  It’s a tough economy in general, the Jewish world is reeling, and the music business  is bankrupt.  Thank God the synagogues and JCCs around the country still value what I do. It’s just that they can’t pay for it and many of the gigs we get are significantly discounted.  I’m fine with that. I just want to work and continue to bring light and spirit to the fifty or so cities I visit each year. But then there’s the bottom line. When our overall income is down, when the banks won’t offer credit and we get 25% tuition increases because the schools are in trouble, something has got to give.

 

I know we’re not alone.  Jewish newspapers across the country frequently speak of parent’s struggles to give their kids Jewish lives.  That day school education is out of reach of the middle class. We also see the reports of day school education as the best insurance of future support for Israel, raising moral and ethical kids, and nurturing a generation of Jewish leaders.  A less discussed attribute is the “trickle up” effect.  Parents denied a good Jewish education get the benefit of those words of Torah on the kids lips each Shabbat, they pick up Hebrew when assisting kids with homework and get drawn into text study to keep up with their older children.  I’d like to argue that the best reason for day school education is that being Jewish is a full time, super cool celebration. It’s not an “add on” onto our busy lives like soccer practice and favorite TV shows.  It IS “our lives and the length of our days.” Ki heym chayeynu! Relegating Jewish education to an afternoon or two a week emphasizes the “add on” aspect. It is certainly better than nothing and those programs deserve ample support but I speak from experience that many kids are turned off rather than turned on.

When I ask my kids how school was, the usual replay is “great!”  My daughter is regularly awarded best davener and truly guides her class with heartfelt kavanah.  My middle son has a tight knit chevra of considerate friends who patrol the ‘hood with kippot stapled to their hyperactive heads.  My oldest has long surpassed me in his ability to take apart a text; he’s reading Homer’s Odessy AND tractate kiddushin.  This is nachas that is priceless.   

 

I write this essay with reluctance.  I publish these monthly newsletters to uplift and inspire my readers.  Expressing vulnerability and fear is not my strong point.  The fact is that my wife and I are so distressed about this that WE need inspiration. 

I am an eternal optimist.  I truly believe that God will rally for us, that God loves the fact that our three kids love their Judaism and it’s as natural for them as the air they breathe.  Call me crazy but I really do believe that those miracle gigs will materialize and everything’s going to be fine.  But what about those parents with fixed salaries?  What about my many friends out of work?  What about the thousands of kids in my Pico-Robertson shtetl that are being pulled out because their parents can’t sign this year’s tuition contract?

 

I leave you with a selection of quotes about the efficacy of a day school education. For those parents on the fence about whether day school is worth it, IT IS!!  For those forced to do the public or home school thing, join me in my quest to raise awareness of our plight by circulating this essay to your local paper and expressing your frustrations to your community leaders. If you’re a benefactor motivated to donate, operators are standing by at the Bureau for Jewish Education!  Innovate, take on that extra job and pray for God’s help.  As Whitney Houston says, “I believe the children are our future…teach them well and let them lead the way!”

 

“Education is the salvation of the American Jewry, even though it’s a slower salvation than all the other salvations we’re used to.” -Rabbi David Wolpe,

Sinai Temple, Los Angeles

 

“The day school is the best place for a young Jewish person to gain Jewish cultural literacy. There are lots of places where you can gain a Jewish identity, but in terms of cultural literacy – reading, writing, developing a comfort with Jewish texts – Jewish day schools are the best places.” – Carol Ingall, Forward

 

“Day school education is still the most effective way to create serious, committed Jews. There is a categorical difference between a child who has been educated through twelfth grade in a Jewish day school and one who has not. Every Jewish educator and honest layperson sees this immediately. The leaders of the future American Jewish community will emerge from those who have been blessed with this schooling.” -Eugene Korn, adjunct professor of Jewish thought at Seton Hall University

 

“With more Jewish kids being left behind, that’s the greatest scandal I know of in Jewish life. The question is, what are we prepared to do about it?” -Jonathan S. Tobin, executive editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger

 

“80% of adults with 6 or more years of day school training are married within the faith to another Jewish adult” -Kohelet Foundation

 

“These extra hours of Jewish studies means that students in Jewish day schools receive extra mental stimulation, including using one’s brain in a variety of additional ways such as analyzing texts, discussing ethics, studying a second or third language, and developing organizational skills.” ­-Joel Hoffman

 

“Being Jewish Very Important? A ‘yes’ response: Day School (7-12 years) 64%, no Jewish education 36%.”  -UJC Report Series on the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-2001

 

“70% of participants at Hillel events at Northwestern University were graduates of Jewish day schools“-PEJE Website

 

“Communal funding of education is an obligation based on Jewish law. Furthermore, it is moral responsibility of the greatest urgency. In Talmudic times, the great sage, Yehoshua Ben Gamla instituted a system of communal funding for Jewish day schools, and every Jewish community since that time has sustained a communal education system. It is only today, in the most prosperous Jewish community of all time, that Jewish families lack the communal support to education their children.” -Chicago Superfund Website

Sam Glaser (samglaser.com) is a popular composer, performer and writer in Los Angeles. He tours to over 50 cities annually in concert and has been named one of the top ten Jewish musicians in the US by Moment Magazine.

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Two monks, as part of their vows, have promised never again to touch a woman. One day, while walking, they come to the edge of a river, where an astonishingly beautiful woman stands. Unable to cross unaided, she asks the monks for help. The first monk refuses, explaining that to help her would require that he break a solemn oath. The second monk reflects a moment and then picks the woman up and carries her across the stream. Once safely across, he sets her down. The two monks continue on their way.

As the hours pass, the first monk grows increasingly agitated. Finally, unable to remain silent, he turns to the other monk and says, “I can’t go on without speaking to you of something.”

“What is it?”

“You and I both took an oath never to touch a woman as long as we lived.”

“It is true. We did.”

“But back there at the river, you carried the woman across.”

“Yes,” the second monk replies.

“So you broke your sacred vow.”

“Well, it is true, I did carry the woman across the river, but then I put her down,” the monk says. “You have been carrying her ever since.”

In used to give a Parsha class (Portion of the Week) in a second floor classroom in my synagogue in Los Angeles. One evening as I approached the stairs I saw a beautiful woman sitting in a wheelchair. She was speaking to one of the men about to go upstairs:

“I’m here for the class. Can you carry me up the stairs?”

“If you wait a moment, I’ll try to find someone to help me carry you up.”

“You don’t need help. I’m very light. I am paralyzed, but my injuries are such that I can’t be carried up in the wheelchair.”

“I’m not very strong.”

“I’m not very heavy. Are you hesitant because you are scared of dropping me, or because I am a woman?”

“Both,” he said.

“Thank you,” she said, “people usually don’t see me as a woman because of the chair. Please carry me up. I hate the feeling of being stuck.”

She then said something to him that gave all of us an entirely new strategy for confronting our Evil Inclination: “Use the fear of dropping me to overcome the fear of carrying a woman.”

It worked.

He did not carry the woman any more than up the stairs.

I have carried her lesson for more than twenty years.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

Dvir Aminolav was the first Israeli soldier killed in the 2008 Gaza War. His mother Dalya missed Dvir, terribly. One night before she went to bed, she said in a loud voice: “G-d, give me a sign, give me a hug from Dvir so that I will know that his death had some meaning.”

That week her daughter asked her to accompany her to a musical performance at The International Crafts Festival in Jerusalem. Dalya, feeling quite depressed, did not want to go to the concert, but she didn’t want to disappoint her daughter either, and agreed to go halfheartedly. The concert was a bit delayed. A  two-year-old boy began wandering through the stands. He walked up to Dalya’s seat and touched her on the shoulder. A preschool teacher, Dalya turned around, saw the boy and smiled warmly.

“What’s your name?” Dalya asked.

“Eshel,” the boy replied.

“That’s a nice name. Do you want to be my friend, Eshel?” The boy nodded in reply and sat down next to Dalya.

Eshel’s parents were sitting two rows above. Concerned their little boy was bothering Dalya, they asked him to come back up. But Dalya insisted that everything was fine.

“I have a brother named Dvir,” two-year-old Eshel chimed in, as only little children can. Dalya was shocked to hear the unusual name of her beloved son, and walked up the two rows to where Eshel’s parents were sitting. She saw a baby in his carriage, and apologizing, she asked, “If you don’t mind me asking, how old is your baby and when was he born?”

The baby’s mother replied, “He was born right after the war in Gaza.”

Dalya swallowed hard. “Please tell me, why did you choose to name him Dvir?”

Baby Dvir’s mother began to explain. “When I was at the end of my pregnancy, the doctors suspected the fetus may have a very serious birth defect. Since it was the end of the pregnancy, there was little the doctors could do and I just had to wait and see how things would turn out.

When I went home that night, the news reported that the first casualty in the war was a soldier named Dvir. I was so saddened by this news that I decided to make a deal with G-d. ‘If you give me a healthy son,’ I said in my prayer, ‘I promise to name him Dvir, in memory of the soldier that was killed.’”

Dalya, the mother of Dvir, stood with her mouth open. She tried to speak but she couldn’t. After a long silence, she said quietly, “I am Dvir’s mother.”

The young parents didn’t believe her. She repeated, “Yes, it’s true. I am Dvir’s mother. My name is Dalya Aminalov, from Pisgat Zeev.”

With a sudden inspiration, Baby Dvir’s mother handed Dalya the baby and said, “Dvir wants to give you a hug.”

Dalya held the little baby boy in her arms and looked into his angelic face. The emotion she felt at that moment was overwhelming. She had asked for a hug from Dvir – and she could truly feel his warm and loving embrace from the World of Truth.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

“Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.” William Blake

I’ve been mulling Blake’s words all week. I admit that although I have a sense of what he means, I am not certain. The Seven Weeks of Nechama address deep, deep sorrow, leading into the Days of Awe, which culminate in The Time of Our Joy. Would Blake consider a sorrow so deep that it demands seven weeks of consolation, to be excessive? Would he consider almost an entire month of Simcha, to be excessive joy?

“O afflicted, storm-tossed, unconsoled one,” (Isaiah 54:11) begins this week’s Hatarah, speaking to the distraught Jews of Jerusalem. They were inconsolable. Would Blake consider their situation as excessive sorrow? Is there any hint that they were laughing?

The prophecy continues with magnificent promises of countless blessings: “And I will make your pinnacles of rubies, and your gates of carbuncles, and all your border of precious stones.”

“And all your children shall be taught about God; and great shall be the peace of your children.”

“No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper.” “For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle.”

Is Isaiah promising excessive joy, the kind Blake predicts will lead to weeping?

The Jewish calendar is filled with intense periods of joy and sorrow. (See ‘The Dance of Life‘) There are, of course, many who observe the all the commandments of the different holidays without experiencing the joy and/or sorrow. For those of us who not only observe, but experience the Mitzvot, the joy and sorrow are palpable. They are real. They become part of our development. The joy of one holiday heals the sorrow of the other. The sorrow of Tisha B’Av tempers the joy of Shavuot.

It is not a cycle, but a steady process of growth. One Tisha B’Av is different from the one before. One Elul is of a higher joy than a year earlier.

A cycle of joy and sorrow is not real. It is not excessive joy or sorrow; it is the absence of real joy and painful sorrow.

However, a process, our process of growth, shaped by intense joy and potent sorrow, is real. Because it

is a process, it will never be excessive. There is always the next step.

This is the real message of the Haftarah: It promises a life of constant growth, filled with both joy and sorrow, but never excessive. The inconsolable Children of Israel were not suffering excessive sorrow; Isaiah reminds them that their situation was only one step of a process that leads to eternal growth. He offered them the ultimate consolation; he promised them there will always be the next step.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

Thomas Friedman favors sharing a Kumbaya moment with people who would never sit in such a circle of friendship:

“There are several reasons why I don’t object to a mosque being built near the World Trade Center site, but the key reason is my affection for Broadway show tunes.

Let me explain. A couple weeks ago, President Obama and his wife held “A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House,” a concert in the East Room by some of Broadway’s biggest names, singing some of Broadway’s most famous hits. Because my wife is on the board of the public TV station that organized the evening, WETA, I got to attend, but all I could think of was: I wish the whole country were here.

It wasn’t just the great performances of Audra McDonald, Nathan Lane, Idina Menzel, Elaine Stritch, Karen Olivo, Tonya Pinkins, Brian d’Arcy James, Marvin Hamlisch and Chad Kimball, or the spirited gyrations of the students from the Joy of Motion Dance Center and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts performing “You Can’t Stop the Beat” — it was the whole big, rich stew. African-American singers and Hispanic-American dancers belting out the words of Jewish and Irish immigrant composers, accompanied by white musicians whose great-great-grandparents came over on the Mayflower for all I know — all performing for America’s first black president whose middle name is Hussein.

Feeling the pulsating energy of this performance was such a vivid reminder of America’s most important competitive advantage: the sheer creative energy that comes when you mix all our diverse people and cultures together.”

Broadway and the Mosque by Thomas L. Friedman – NY Times, August 3, 2010

Friedman, and all the supporters of building a giant Mosque next to Ground Zero, hold out their hands in Kumbaya invitation to people who would cut off those hands in a second were they outstretched in Iran or Saudi Arabia. They ignore the fact that the name, Cordoba honors one that was built over a church, a symbol of Islamic ascendancy. No matter, Kumbaya!

Find one of Friedman’s broadway shows in Mecca? Never! No matter, Kumbaya!

Religious tolerance demands that we tolerate even those who will never tolerate our beliefs. Kumbaya!

Freedom of expression demands we help those who wage Jihad against that very freedom of expression. Kumbaya!

“It shall be that when God, your Lord, brings you to the land to which you come, to possess it, then you shall deliver the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, far from Gilgal, near the Plains of Moreh? (Deuteronomy 11:29-30)

If ever there was a moment ripe for Kumbaya it was as the entire nation gathered to accept mutual responsibility, but there was no Kumbaya circle of love. Half the nation stood on one mountain and the other half stood far away on the facing mountain. They did not form a circle. They stood apart even as they joined in a covenant.

Unity does not demand that we all hold hands in a circle of love, but that we can find unity even when we face each other down, disagreeing over fundamentals. They joined in a covenant as they all focused on one point, the Kohanim and Leviim in between the two mountains, with the Ark. They were unified as long as they shared the same focal point. They didn’t need to hold hands, but to lock eyes on the values they shared.

The people who stood apart were able to form a lasting covenant of mutual responsibility. The people who sit in Kumbaya circles without sharing any values, usually end up sitting alone, if not dead, the victims of their Kumbaya.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

“It shall be that when God, your Lord, brings you to the land to which you come, to possess it, then you shall deliver the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, far from Gilgal, near the Plains of Moreh? (Deuteronomy 11:29-30)

Where is the Plain of Moreh? “Abram passed into the land as far as the site of Shechem, until the Plain of Moreh.” (Genesis 12:6) Just as the Plain of Moreh of Abram is Shechem, so too, here, the Plains of Moreh are Shechem. (Sotah 33)

Why not simply say “Shechem?” There was a man named Moreh and the place is named for him. (Nachmanides, Genesis 12:6) Why would the Torah possibly choose to identify the place where one of the most important ceremonies in Jewish history would take place by the name of an individual, rather than its well-known name of Shechem?

The first promise of the Land to Abram was given in the Plain of Moreh: “God appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’” (Genesis 12:7) The story of the Children of Israel and their connection to the land began in a small place with God and only one man. The same idea of “One Man With One Heart” that we find at the Splitting of the Sea, Sinai, and Crossing the Jordan. It is the same idea of only one man that begins the Ten Statements that open addressing the singular individual. Our history of success is always associated with the One Man. Our failures, especially those in Shechem, the place of division (See ‘Healing Old Wounds‘) always began when we forget the One Man.

Our respect for Just The One is a badge of honor: The world ignores the fate of just one Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas more than four years ago and held hostage without any access to the Red Cross or any of the other “humanitarian” organizations. After all, the world must worry about the broad political picture of resolving conflict in the Middle East.

We, Jews all over the world, proudly wear our badge of honor, that we fight for Just The One. We wear badges that declare our belief that there is no “broad political picture” that can ignore Just The One.

It is Just The One that separates us from our enemies: While they are willing to sacrifice their children and the lives of so many of their own, ignoring Just The One, we stand up to the world and declare our commitment to Just the One. This is our battle with the world. This has been our message to all our enemies over the ages.

Just The One is also meant as an internal declaration and commitment. If we ignore Just The One in our communities, the suffering boy, the problem child, the rebellious teenager, the confused, the lost Jew, the poor man and the lonely woman, our declarations of Just The One ring hollow. People will continue to belittle our concerns for Jonathan Pollard and Gilad Shalit as simple political ploys.

The world waits to see if our cry for Just The One is as powerful internally as it is externally.

The covenant of the Blessings and Curses begins with Just The One. A place named for one person. A covenant that began with an individual. A covenant that is still ours and still calling. We can speak to a lonely person with the awareness of Just The One in the merit of Gilad. We can spend time helping the mother of a troubled child with the awareness of Just The One in the merit of Jonathan Pollard. We can commit ourselves to express the Covenant of Just The One in all our human interactions, with each and every person and demonstrate that our badge of Just The One resonates in all we do. It is real and alive.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

“It shall be that when God, your Lord, brings you to the land to which you come, to possess it, then you shall deliver the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, far from Gilgal, near the Plains of Moreh? (Deuteronomy 11:29-30)

Where is the Plain of Moreh? “Abram passed into the land as far as the site of Shechem, until the Plain of Moreh.” (Genesis 12:6) Just as the Plain of Moreh of Abram is Shechem, so too, here, the Plains of Moreh are Shechem. (Sotah 33)

Shechem is a place of internecine conflict. Jacob’s sons angered their father when they waged a great battle in Shechem to avenge Dinah’s rape. The brothers sold Joseph in Shechem. The Kingdom of Israel split between Judah and the Ten Tribes in Shechem. It is Shechem that was chosen as the place where the Children of Israel would accept mutual responsibility when they observed the ceremony of the Blessings and Curses, another powerful form of division; the difference between good and evil.

A place that seethes with division is chosen as the place where we accept a higher level of unity; ‘Arvut,’ mutual responsibility. The Torah is teaching us that unity does not mean that we are all the same or that we all agree. The blessings and curses were presented in Shechem to teach us that we must strive for the unity of Arvut specifically in the places where we disagree.

The brothers battled Joseph in Shechem. They fought for what they believed. They fought over issues that mattered. They caused tragedy by fighting rather than accept Arvut and living a shared sense of blessings and curses.

The Ten Tribes fought for what was important to them. They battled against what they considered evil. They fought rather than accept Arvut and their shared blessings and curses.

What would have happened if Rechavam, the son and heir to Solomon, responded to the demands of the Ten Tribes, not as he did, and not even as they demanded by agreeing to loosen the reigns, but by reenacting the Blessings and Curses of Shechem? What would have happened if the new king began by reminding the entire nation of their Arvut and what they shared?

What would have happened if the brothers, before selling Joseph, acted out the Blessings and Curses of Gerizim and Ebal? How different would the story have been if they began with the Arvut of Shechem rather than its division?

How different would the story have been if Jacob and his sons first had a Blessing and Curses gathering before debating waging war against Shechem?

What would happen if we would begin our public debates over issues fundamental to our community by focusing on the Arvut rather than its battles? We begin with open criticism, name calling, questioning motivations, and curses, rather than Arvut.

“How,” you ask, “can we focus on Arvut with people who believe so much that contradicts our core beliefs?”

“Why,” I ask, “did God specifically choose Shechem, the place of division, for us to accept the Covenant of Arvut?”

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.