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As we are quickly approaching Tisha B’av, one of the saddest days in Jewish history, I sit and reflect on current events and within the past couple years it is not difficult to be distressed. As we know on Tisha B’av we are mourning the destruction of both the holy temples and pray for our speedy redemption from exile. It is said that every generation that Moshiach hasn’t come it is as if the temple is being destroyed again. This is a very interesting statement and we can ask why this is the case. We understand that it is a great tragedy but is it that bad that it is as if we in our generation are destroying the temple? To try to explain this idea., we need to go back into history before the second temple was destroyed. The Gemara describes the story of Kamsa and Bar Kamsa and they explain that this was the cause of the destruction of the second temple. It is explained that there was a man named Kamsa who had a party and by accident an invitation was sent to Bar Kamsa, who was a man that Kamsa despised. When Bar Kamsa came to the party and even offered to pay towards his meal he was refused and Kamsa had him thrown out of his house. In his fury at the situation and that the rabbis who were there did not get involved to pacify the situation, he decided to get back at the rabbis by speaking slander against them to the Caesar. He told the emperor Caesar that the jews have rebelled against him and if he would give a Korban to the temple, he should see if they would accept it. In the meantime Bar Kamsa made a blemish on the animal and since a blemished animal could not be offered up as a korban, Caesar’s Korban was refused. As a result of this incident the temple was eventually destroyed.

Now, another question comes to mind, why is this specific incident mentioned as the reason for the destruction of the temple? As we know, the reason for the destruction of the second temple was because of sinat chinam(baseless hatred). During this time the jewish people had baseless hatred for their fellow jew and the story which rightly describes this time is the story of Kamsa and Bar Kamsa. The fact that it and no other story of baseless hatred was recorded in the Gemara shows just how destructive baseless hatred can be and even though all this time there was baseless hatred going on, it wasn’t until this incident that it became so severe and it caused the temple to be destroyed.

Though this story occurred over two thousand years ago, the fact that our generation has not yet been freed from this long exile, shows us that baseless hatred still occurs in our time and until we fix it we will continue to remain in exile. We only need to think a few years back to the expulsion from Gush Katif. I am still in shock how it even took place and how jews all over the world remained silent as their brothers and sisters were forced out of their homes. I was in Israel before the expulsion occurred that summer and I remember that when I came back from Israel, though there were some who made an effort to support the people in Gush Katif there was not an overwhelming majority who were against it. I am not here to judge or attack anyone, but I just think that it is a shame that there was not enough support to help a fellow jew. It also surprised me how such few soldier’s stood in protest against the expulsion. I understand that they needed to follow the orders of the government, but I still think that if there was more protest within Israel and out of Israel, that many families today would not be jobless and struggling to find housing. It is also upsetting that now, years later our fellow jew’s are once again threatened to be thrown out of their homes. It is no coincidence that this similar issue is being discussed during this time and I think a reason could be that we are being tested , will we this time stand up for our brothers and sisters or will we continue to make the same mistakes. I pray that we should not experience another Tisha B’av and instead we should merit to see the redemption very soon. Amen!

I always find it interesting to find parallels between the parsha and our daily lives, because I think in order for us to try to understand the greatness of our Torah we need to appreciate it in terms that we can relate to. An example, is this week’s parsha, Parshat Pinchas when Pinchas performs an extraordinary deed. It was so great that we know as a result of it he eventually became Eliyahu Hanavi. Now lets try to understand why what he did was so great and how can we relate to it in our own lives. The Torah says that in continuation from last weeks parsha, Parshat Balak Bilam was called by Balak, king of Moav, to curse the jewish people. As we know every time that Bilam tried to curse the jews he ended up blessing them. Finally, Bilam came up with a different idea that he knew would cause problems for the jews. He advised Balak to send out the women to entice the men and get them to serve their idols, which would cause Hashem to be angry with them and punish them. Unfortunately, he was right and as a result 24,000 jews died in a plague. Things got even worse when Zimri, the head of the tribe of Shimon, publicly sinned in front of Moshe and the Zekainim(the elders). At this point Pinchas who was a very righteous individual could not bear to witness the desecration of Hashem’s name and he went ahead and killed both Zimri and the Midianite princess he was with. Some might say how could he take the situation in his own hands and commit murder and why didn’t he leave the decision of what to do up to Moshe, the leader of the Jewish people. As Rashi explains, at the time Moshe forgot what the punishment was of being with a non jew and that’s why Pinchas stepped in and killed them. We also know that once Pinchas killed Zimri and his lover the plague stopped which tells us that Pinchas was correct in his action. At the beginning of the Parsha he is even praised by Hashem for aleviating His anger from the jewish people and Pinchas was even brought up to the status of a cohen and later Eliyahu Hanavi.

So now that we know that Pinchas’ actions was correct, what can we learn from this and how can we relate it to our lives? We can see from Pinchas’ actions that his sole concern was preserving Hashem’s honor that he was not afraid to kill Zimri, a respected leader of the tribe of Shimon. Though he knew that some might go against him and possibly want to kill him for what he did, nevertheless he put Hashem’s honor before his own and did what he knew was the correct thing to do. Though, in our own lives we don’t have such extreme conditions as what Pinchas’ went through, we all encounter situations where we need to go through the same thought process as what he went through. Either we put Hashem’s honor and desire first or we put our own honor and desire first. When we are in these situations though sometimes it is tempting to put our honor and desire first, we need to look at Pinchas’ strength and desire to do the correct thing despite what others said about him or thought of him and gain the strength to make the correct decision.

After hearing and reading about Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech I was thinking about how should Jews living outside of Israel need react to it and should it affect us? I think we need to first thank G-d that Netanyahu was strong in declaring that Jerusalem will always remain the Jewish capital and that he realizes that as he stated “The settlers are not enemies of peace. They are our brothers and sisters.”

I think it is interesting that the week that he gave his speech coincides with this week’s parsha, Parshat Shelach, which discusses the episode of the spies that were sent to spy out the land of Israel. Though as we know the spies were righteous men, they missed the point of what the land of Israel should mean to us as Jews. When they brought back their report of the land, even though they began by saying that it was “a land flowing with milk and honey” they still gave a negative report about the land. As we know they were severely punished for what the said. One can ask what did they do wrong? Weren’t they sent to spy out the land and give both the negative and positive about the land? Their mistake was that they didn’t fully appreciate how special and important this land was and that G-d promised to take them into the land and protect them so they shouldn’t worry and lose hope. Instead the dwelled on the negative aspects of the land which as Rashi explains were really false impressions of what was really occurring.

So, is it a coincidence that Netanyahu’s speech happens to be the same week as this week’s parsha? Definitely not, because how often do we hear the same rhetoric today? “Don’t go to Israel because…”, The problem with Israel is….” I think that this parsha comes as a reminder to all of us Jews, especially those out of Israel, to remind us that even though we are in exile all over the world, we must not forget our true home that was promised to Avraham Avinu. We should not make the same mistake as the spies who scorned the land and tried to prevent others from seeing its holiness and beauty. In addition, I think that Netanyahu’s speech is an added reminder for us not to forget where we belong and that even though we are not living in Israel we need to still support our brothers and sisters that live there. Whether it may be those who were thrown out of their homes from Gush Katif, those that are constantly threatened by rocket attacks on a daily basis and the “settlers” who’s ferverent love for the land is everlasting. We must also be grateful to the Israeli soldiers that constantly put their lives on the line to maintain security in Israel. We need to be thankful to all of them for their constant sacrifice for the survival of the Jewish People in and out of the Israel. We need to realize that without their courage and persistence, Jews all over the world would be negatively affected and would be in jeopardy. As Jews living outside of Israel we need to constantly pray for our brothers and sisters in Israel and take an interest in the state of Israel, because it has an affect on us too. In addition, all of us in Chutz La’Aretz need to be united in our support for Israel and not turn a blind eye to their suffering. Until we are all able to reunite altogether in our land with the coming of Moshiach, we need to remember an important point that Netanyahu made in his speech, “Judea and Samaria are not a foreign country for us. This is the land of our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The sovereignty of the Jewish people in our Land does not come from the suffering we have been through. Some say if it weren’t for the Holocaust there would be no State if Israel. But I say that if Israel had been established in time there would have been no Holocaust,” and “Our right to establish our country here stems from one fact: IsraeI is the homeland of the Jewish people and it is here that our identity was forged.”

A common idea about Peasch that we have become familar with is, that every year when we are sitting at the seder on Pesach we need to feel as if we have also just come out of Egypt. I heard an interesting idea explaining how we can practically feel as if we have just come out of Egypt even in our generation. There is a deeper meaning to coming out of Egypt in addition to its literal interpretation. The word Mitzraim(Egypt) comes from the word Metzar(confinment/imprisionment) and coming out from Mitzraim means coming out from imprisionment. Another reference to something that confines us in a spiritual sense is being confronted by the Yetzer Hara(Evil Inclination), which constantly tries to take away our freedom and cause us to go into spiritual confinement because of our sins we commit. When we overcome the Yetzer Hara we are breaking free from our spiritual imprisionment and we become free again.

Despite this one may wonder what does breaking free from the Yetzer Hara’s influence have to do specifically with Pesach, because everyday we are in constant battle with it so why is this time of year any different ? The answer is, that on Pesach we are given the added energy that will help us be able to continue conquering the Yetzer Hara and continue freely performing mitzvot and keeping Torah throughout the rest of the year. May we all merit to fully feel that we have come out of Mitzraim on a personal and national level and that this Pesach be a time of Geulah (Redemption) for all of Am Yisrael!

  Last Shabbat I went on a shabbaton called Jewlicious and I came back from it with a feeling of optimism and excitement. The shabbaton was geared towards Jews from all different denominations of Judaism and I was curious how this shabbaton would cater to everyone. As the Shabbaton progressed I became more and more amazed at how well everyone got along and respectful everyone was of each other, despite their religious differences and world views. Even during the various learning sessions and activities there was a sense of acceptance of one another for the simple reason that we are all Jews . The highlight of the shabbaton where this achdut(unity) was felt, was during Havdalah, which lasted for 45 minutes and was accompanied by hundreds of voices singing Havdalah together. As I looked around I was inspired by this amazing experience I was experiencing with my fellow Jews and how proud I was to be part of such a wonderful nation. It was also powerful and moving as we sang “Am Yisrael Chai” because there was a mixture of people, those who were experiencing their first Shabbat and were those who have been keeping it all their lives. Despite this, there were no negative feelings felt by anyone from the group.

 The reason I left the Shabbaton with such a feeling of excitement, is because of the feeling of unity that surrounded me, unlike during the story of  Purim. The commentaries explain that the reason Haman confidently told Achashverosh that they would be able to destroy the Jews was because of their lack of unity. We see from Haman’s observation that we as a nation become vulnerable to attack by our enemies when we lack unity and caring for our fellow Jews. As we know, the way that the Jews were able to repeal the terrible decree against them was by gathering together in unity. It was only then that their fasting and prayers were answered by Hashem. I think that even though this shabbaton was only a fraction of the Jewish population, seeing this kind of unity is encouraging and exciting especially during these critical times in history when there is fear of the unknown. In addition to prayer and doing mitzvot we can’t forget our powerful special weapon that will ultimately bring the Geulah: Our achdut and love for our fellow Jews!