The Light in the Darkness

Despite the dreadful, heartbreaking nature of Tisha B’Av, an element of happiness is concealed within it.  Tisha B’Av  is called a mo’ed,  meaning festival, and certain prayers associated with sadness that are omitted on happy occasions are, in fact, not said on this day.  What is the source of the joy that lightens our mourning on Tisha B’Av?  Some commentaries explain that it springs from the knowledge that eventually, at ...

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The Land Of Israel – Parshat Matot-Masei

The first commandment God gave to the first Jew was to go to the Land of Israel God spoke to Abraham, and said, “Go for yourself, from your land, from your relatives and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”[1] Abraham, Sarah, their family and their retinue all came to Israel, then known as Canaan. They traveled around the land, engaged in commerce and, of ...

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The Three Weeks

The Seventeenth of Tammuz (in 2016 this falls on July 23) begins a three week period of mourning that culminated with Tisha B’Av, the Ninth of Av.  The Mishnah states: Five things happened to our ancestors on the 17th of Tammuz — The First Tablets were broken, the daily offering ceased, the walls of Jerusalem were breached, the evil Apostomus burnt a Torah scroll, and an idol was set up in ...

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