Vayakhel-Pekudei: Rallying with Purpose
Dear Friend,
Passover will be here soon, and now is the time to prepare. The laws and customs of Passover are many, and a review is in order even for the most seasoned participants.
We read in the very first paragraph on Passover in the Code of Jewish Law, “It is customary to purchase wheat to distribute among the needy for their Passover needs.” In this light, there are funds in every community to help people with their Passover expenses, known as maot chittim, “wheat money.”
Passover is known as the Season of Our Freedom, and giving maot chittim exemplifies the Jewish view of freedom. Freedom is not about getting what we want. The truest sign of freedom is being blesed with the ability to help others, materially and spiritually. The Rebbe would add: In keeping with the command “love your fellow as yourself,” we should see to it that our fellows’ Passover needs are met to the same degree as our own.
Even in the most affluent communities, many are struggling to make ends meet. At synagogues and Chabad centers around the world, there are maot chittim funds. There is no greater sign of your freedom than to find a fund near you, and do what you can to ensure that your neighbors celebrate in style.
Yaakov Ort,
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team
History’s pages are littered with examples of prodigies who blossomed and then faded.
The lunar calendar must have a special quality beyond its specific function, a pervasive characteristic, to merit its beginning Jewry’s service of G‑d.
The Israelites donate abundant materials for the construction of the Tabernacle. The holy vessels, tapestries and walls are completed, and the priestly clothes are sewn. Moses initiates Aaron’s family into the priesthood and erects the Tabernacle, on which the Divine Presence rests.
After police, doctors and legal battles, I am alone. I coveted peace of mind, but I am lonely. Fragile, perhaps.
I want my daughter’s bat mitzvah to be a beautiful event. But more than that, I want and need her to know that this is not the end of anything; it is just the beginning.
“I never had the chance to mourn my loss,” says Susie Rosenfeld, her dark eyes widening with the pain of the memory under her brown bangs. “I was too busy dealing with the demands of the two babies that we adopted shortly after the surgery.”
Lighting candles to honor the Sabbath is a duty incumbent upon both men and women. How and why, then, did this ritual become “a woman’s mitzvah”? What is the special connection between women and Shabbat candles?
We intuitively think of matter as something very static, just sitting there. It’s strange to think of matter as a tune being played by a string. What if our entire reality is just that?
Being able to focus on one goal is admirable; the ability to invest in two seemingly diametrically opposed goals at the same time is amazing.
Every Jew is a complete world in himself. On the other hand, he must know that he is a part of one people.
The holidays are called moadim in Hebrew, from the word moed, which also means “appointment.”
I work full time, so I can’t cook anything very special for Shabbat . . .
Creamy, delicious but healthy Passover ice cream that you can whip up in minutes. Mmm . . .
When it came to Purim this year, the disabled at the Grabski Rehabilitation Center in Migdal HaEmek, Israel, had a special celebration thanks to visits from the town’s mayor and the mayor of Miami Beach, Fla.
Chabad-Lubavitch officials in Montreal attribute record participation in dozens of events at its centers this year to direct outreach, otherwise known as the “personal touch.”
Happiness and levity go hand in hand when one meditates about the beauty of nature and all we have to be grateful for.
Looking at your world from Above, all is good.
Looking at your world from within, things don’t always look so nice.
Until you connect your world below to the world above. Then the goodness flows downward without distortion.
How do you make that connection? By clinging tightly above.
By putting all your trust in G‑d.
...
