Weekly Sidra; list of best material from web

Toldot

http://www.kiryatmoshe.co.il/uploads/Toldot%20I%205775.pdf

Rav Sabato in English Toldot

vyishlach

Before Avraham there was no kavod shemayim and so the world could not last in such a state, so it is בהברםץ

why were they real angels, and why for avot and not for moshe and yehoshua?  Because avot were involved in creation of the world, and this is also the work of malachim.  Moshe is involved in setting up functioning of world that has been created.


Terumah

Amazing discussion of why the miskan is central part of narrative of Torah by Rabbi Sacks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLb5nuUAGjQ

Great overview of construction of mishkan in fun format

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUK2eCzSxLg

Very profound discussion of Chruvim in cartoon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRuad0YteWc&t=2s

Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur

This is a great shiur 

Rabbi Daniel Glattstein explains a chiddush from from Rav Yonasan Eibeshitz.  Briefly he says when God was about to create man the angels were saying "Bad Idea, Bad Idea".  Rabbi Glattsetein makes a very interesting point.  Look at how destructive man is.  Isn't that really the basis of the argument against humanity and we look at our world and human history and we see vividly the truth of this statement.  Humanity is currently destroying everying on this planet and himself in the process.

However, the teachings of the Torah and the purpose of the Jewish people aim to somehow lead to the transformation of humanity and our destiny.




The Coronation of the King
Rav Shabtai Sabato

This is a short article that explains the meaning of the shofar from a fantastic Rav.
This is a great introduction also to a wonderful video shiur on teshuva below.

shiur

Rav Shmuel Greenberg: Maharal on Teshuva

GREAT EXPLANATION OF THE WHOLE IDEA OF COUNTING IN TORAH

From: http://dinonline.org/wp-content/uploads/newsletter/en_61.pdf

The word

mispar

, or the root

SeFeR

, includes a number

of variant meanings. On

the one hand, it means to

number—to quantify a given

set of items, as Moshe was

instructed with regard to the

Children of Israel. On the

other, it means a book, or a

story. A third meaning is a

border town, an

ir sefar.

 

What is the common

denominator that binds these

meanings together?

It appears that the link

between these distinct

meanings is the concept

of grouping and joining

together. A book is the

grouping together of

individual pages, and a story

the coming together of

isolated events. Border towns

define the borders of a given

country, and 'group together'

the constituent towns within

the given borders. And the

 

process of counting bonds

members of the group together

in a single, defining count.

This leads us to understand

that the idea of

counting

goes beyond the concept of

numbering

. When we count—

or when we count correctly—

the individual members of the

counted group are united in the

act of the count itself. Each one

is an integral part of the group.

Each member of the nation of

Israel is necessary, vital for the

nation's very definition.

As we come towards Shavuos,

we continue to count the days,

defining the period between

Pesach and Shavuos as a time

of preparation and elevation in

advance of receiving the Torah.

At the same time, the week's

Parashah reminds us that we are

to count not only the days, but

even ourselves. Each one of us,

as an individual Jew, is essential

to the entire group, a status

that demands due respect and

consideration. The presence of

each one is required to ready us

for receiving the Torah.

With this in mind, may we

indeed merit to approach Sinai

"as one man with one heart,"

ready for receiving the Torah.

KEY TO TRUE SIMCHA הרב שבתאי סבתו-סוד השמחה

Video Below (Hebrew)
Here is Summary of profound and wise talk.

This talk was given in honor of Oded Hamdi, a yeshiva student that was killed in a fire while saving his friends.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/150333



Various levels of simcha


Most basic is happy from good things, good news, etc.  Question is what happens to simcha after the news, after the party?  What about the worries we have?  Will this good thing continue?

Kohelet:  Simcha with mitzva or simcha without mitzva.  One continues and one doesn't.  Simcha with mitzva, it doesn't matter what happens.  Nothing can take this good away from you.  This is a mitzva without self.  We do lishma.  Without mitzva is always for self, and so filled with worry.
When doing lishma or for others it is act of chesed. Doesn't matter what happens to me.

Ohr zaru l tzadik yishrai simcha taanit

Tzaddik has conflict
yosher doesn't

simcha is deep from place of soul
concept of helek of eloka lmala

yosher knows the nekuda pnimit of himself, that is why no conflict, that is source of joy

sameach bchelko, what is his not what is of others
eved has no sense of self, everything for adon, always thinking about other, no sense of self, no simcha
sod of pesach, not mentions simcha, it is movement to freedom, condition for simcha
bikorim, what we receive we can rejoice in giving, he now has a helek
moed katan simcha gar betoko
but what is helko?  everything from hashem.  only his ratzon, his freedom...hashem doesn't interfere
when he reveals his true will, then a man is happy
nevua comes only with simcha
navi is shliach
people need to realize what they are shliach for, why they are here, this is the true simcha

tzaddik to yashar to true connection to self and purpose and therefore b'simcha

 

Ki-Tisa

http://etzion.org.il/vbm/english/archive/salt-shemot/21-17kitisa.htm

            The Torah in Parashat Ki-Tisa tells the famous story of chet ha-eigel – the sin of the golden calf – which began when the people approached Aharon and asked that he make for them an idol, “because this man, Moshe…we do not know what happened to him” (32:1).

 

            The Midrash Ha-gadol makes a comment on this verse which can perhaps shed light on Benei Yisrael’s precise concern that precipitated the sin of the calf: “They said: Perhaps the Almighty kept him [Moshe] near Him for consultation, or perhaps the destructive angels conspired against him and killed him.”  According to the Midrash Ha-gadol, Benei Yisrael envisioned two opposite scenarios: either God decided that Moshe belonged permanently in the heavens, or his venture to the heavens ended in calamity, as the heavenly hosts felt threatened by his intrusion and eliminated him.

 

            Worded differently, Benei Yisrael claimed that it was impossible for Moshe to spend forty days in the heavens and then return to earth to lead them.  He was either human or divine; he could not be both.  If he was human, then he could not possibly survive among the angels; and if he was divine, then he could not possibly return to lead a nation of ordinary men and women. 

 

            The Midrash Ha-gadol’s comments are likely based upon a careful reading of the people’s remark: “ki zeh Moshe ha-ish…” – “for this man, Moshe…”  Their concern was that “the man” Moshe was gone.  Even if Moshe remained alive, by that point, they feared, he was no longer a “man”; after spending so much time in the heavens, he could not possibly still be accessible to them or able to relate to them.  And thus they concluded that he was either dead or angelic.  Either way, they needed someone or something to take his place.

 

            The people’s mistake was denying the synthesis and integration between heaven and earth, the spiritual and the physical.  The Midrash (Devarim Rabba) famously describes Moshe, the “ish ha-Elokim” (Devarim 33:1), as “a man from the middle down, and God from the middle up.”  Moshe embodied the fusion between the physical and spiritual, demonstrating how a mortal, physical being can rise to great spiritual heights.  Benei Yisrael, it seems, were not prepared to recognize this potential, and thus concluded that Moshe was either a man who was killed trying to reach the heavens, or an angel who could never return to earth.  And they therefore created a deity which they could worship through unrestrained festivity and indulgence (“va-yakumu le-tzacheik” – 32:6).  They wanted a religious system that did not require “ascending to the heavens,” which allowed them to follow their instincts and impulses without the need for Godliness, for discipline and restraint.  Denying the possibility of fusing the physical and the spiritual, they sought a way to religiously sanction wanton indulgence.

 

            This perspective on cheit ha-eigel is beautifully expressed in the famous Midrashic description of the script of the commandments “flying” off the stone tablets when Moshe beheld the worship of the calf (see sources cited by Torah Sheleima to 32:19).  The Midrash tells that once the divinely-engraved letters left the stones, they became too heavy for Moshe to hold, and they fell to the ground.  The luchot represent what Torah life is – a physical existence (“stone”) bearing a spiritual imprint (“letters”).  If we deny the possibility of this existence, and we send the “letters” back to the heavens, then the “luchot” collapse.  Torah life is sustained by this fundamental recognition that we can rise to become an “ish Elokim,” physical creatures endowed with a heavenly quality.

 

            Benei Yisrael were, quite obviously, mistaken.  Moshe was neither killed nor forced to remain in the heavens.  Human beings are, indeed, capable of “ascending to the heavens” and then returning, of fusing our physical realities with loftier, spiritual meaning.

Tisha b'Av

The Mourning of Tisha B'Av: The Real Reason Why the Churban Happened
http://torahdownloads.com/shiur-1003166.html

Rabbi Jeffrey Bienenfeld

Superb shiur. Gives a basic overview of the issue and then goes on in the second half to really provide a profound answer to perhaps the most important question that faces us all.