Emor
Oral Wisdom
Dear Friend,
It’s springtime. The air is warming, fragrant flowers are blossoming, and the birds are returning to their homes. This clarity of sight, scent and sound paradoxically helps us to turn our senses inward. We are in a uniquely extended 49-day spiritual season between the Exodus on Passover and the receiving of the Torah on Shavuot.
There is no better way that I know of to prepare myself to receive the Torah anew than through the study of Pirkei Avot, our sages’ guide to a well-lived, purposeful Jewish life.
We’re instructed to review a chapter each week between Passover and Shavuot, and then continue through the Days of Awe and Days of Rejoicing in Tishrei, and for good reason: Pirkei Avot not only readies us to receive the Torah, but teaches us what kind of people G‑d wants us to be once the Torah is ours.
There is a wealth of insight from Pirkei Avot available right here on Chabad.org. A personal favorite commentary that I return to each year is from my colleague Rabbi Yanki Tauber, based on the Rebbe’s teachings.
From the classical to the contemporary, there is an abundance of commentaries on Pirkei Avot designed to help us fulfill our core purpose and goal of receiving, actualizing and transmitting the Torah to this and future generations.
Yaakov Ort,
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team
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every Shabbat we enter afresh into a spiraling cycle of harmony, serenity and peace. After having asserted ourselves and having accomplished our goals during the weekdays, we take a respite from our battles.
The menorah symbolizes our spiritual needs, and the table is a metaphor for our material needs. But there is a connection between the two . . .
Embedded in this week’s Parshah are two of the most fundamental commands of Judaism—commands that touch on the very nature of Jewish identity.
Laws specific to the Temple priests, festivals on the Jewish calendar, the menorah and the showbread. Penalties for murder, assault and destruction, followed by an execution.
A deeper look at the counting of the Omer, and the distinctive laws governing the Omer offering and the Shavuot offering. (Based on Likkutei Sichos, vol. 32, p. 134.)
Each day of Iyar represents another step in this spiritual journey toward Sinai.
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s story is unusual, but her family situation reminded me of my grandmother’s.
They act so perfectly pious and ultra-religious. But once you get to know them, you realize that their ideals are downright distortions.
Is there something specific I can do to rectify missed Omer counting days? Or is there some other exercise with a similar effect as counting the Omer?
All my life, whenever something good happens to me or is about to happen to me, something goes wrong.
Flying back to Israel from New York, I sat next to an Israeli who didn’t hold religious Jews in high regard.
“Remember, Reb Ze’ev,” were the Baal Shem Tov’s parting words to him, “one must know how to properly answer a question. Weigh your words carefully before you speak . . .”
Rabbi Zalman I. Posner, the profound and prolific translator and author of popular Chassidic works who served as a larger-than-life rabbi in Nashville, Tenn., for 53 years, passed away on April 23 at the age of 87.
Since the recent political instability in Ukraine and subsequent Russian incursion in Crimea, some reports have purported a spike in anti-Semitism throughout Ukraine. But local rabbis and residents insist that contrary to this perception, Jewish life in the city continues to boom.
Chabad of East Boca Raton made headlines recently and not just because of its recent communal event, which doubled as a fundraising and awareness campaign after an unfortunate incident.
Boca Raton has been growing by leaps and bounds for some time now, and this Rosh Hashanah area residents will worship in the first synagogue in West Boca.
Rabbi Ben Tzion Krasnianski said he got a call out of the blue, notifying him that he had won an award for community leaders and vital contributors to life in Manhattan—in other words, people who stand out from the rest.
To save yourself from having just regular or unsightly matchboxes next to your glowing Shabbat candles, you can make these beautiful vintage-looking matchbox covers.
But why just envy? You can do the same. Tthe Rebbe actually instituted three tracks of study for students at all levels.
People ask, “But how could you see good in the future when so much evil dominates—and it grows day by day?”
But such is the order of things: Darkness was placed in the world only to challenge light. As the light intensifies, the darkness thickens in defiance.
