Waves Of Struggle And Blessing

Magazine

There is no doubt that a promise from God will be fulfilled. His blessings come to fruition at the right time, no earlier and no later. Often in the Torah we read of a promise that Hashem makes either to an individual or a nation; usually, a significant amount of time elapses before His blessing is materialized. This lack of immediacy implies that there must be a catalyst that triggers the manifestation of a blessing besides God’s promise that it will happen—the timing must be dependent on another factor.

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AMIT Sutker Modi’in to the Rescue

News

Since the beginning of the school year, students have been developing a website called GREAT (Give, Receive, Eat) aimed at linking businesses that sell food, including function halls, restaurants, and hotels, with food rescue organizations in order to channel surplus food to the needy instead of throwing it away.

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AMIT and the Definition Of simcha

Magazine

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE DESCRIBES “the pursuit of happiness” as an “inalienable right”. Our Torah, however, describes the experience of happiness as an obligation:“V’samachta b’chagecha…v’hayita ach sameach” — “And you shall rejoice on your holiday, and you should only be happy.” Devarim 16:14,15. The formulation of this mitzvah is unusual, since Jewish law typically legislates concrete deeds and behaviors: what we eat, how we speak, how we do business. All these are definable actions, and in order to fulfill our obligations, we simply do, or refrain from doing, the act that is described: I only eat food that is kosher, I don’t gossip, I pay all of my taxes. With the requirement to be happy, however, Halacha is legislating an emotion, which by definition is subjective and unpredictable. Ask a dozen people what makes them happy and chances are you will get a dozen different answers. How are we supposed to fulfill this obligation to rejoice when it is such a personal experience? Does the philosophy of Judaism define for us what it means to be happy? How we can concretize the fulfillment of this mitzvah?

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Ancient Jewish Education

Magazine

Jewish teaching and learning have been essential components of Jewish tradition since the earliest times. The command to “teach your children” first appeared in D’varim (Deuteronomy) as part of what later became the Shema – the most central of Jewish prayers. Rabbinic literature is filled with references to schools and schooling and to teaching and learning taking place at all levels, and for all ages from the youngest children through adulthood. According to the midrash on Bereshit, the first thing that Beit Yakov did on leaving Canaan was to establish schools. It is no accident that Jews are often known as “The People of the Book.” Jewish life is lived according to texts, commentary, and interpretation of those texts. The varied methods of teaching them include instructive, experiential, argument, and discussion. And that methodology continues to this day.

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