How Do I Know When to Trust a Rabbi?

03/19/17 • 133 min

This class was presented at Ohr Chaim, Monsey, NY, on Sunday Parshas Vayakhel Pekudei, 21 Adar, 5777, March 19, 2017. It is a strange story. Moses seemingly distorted what G-d told him, telling the craftsman of the Sanctuary to first build the furniture and only afterward the outer structure. It was Betzalel who reminded him of the simple truth that you first build a house before you furnish it. Upon deeper reflection, this incident captures the story of our lives. Many great thinkers, writers, and artist, produced extraordinary works. Their content was great, their message potent, and their talent exceptional. What they lacked was the exterior structure for their souls lavish output. Sadly, in our world art needs a proper frame. Lacking the frame, the art may remain in its corner and melt into oblivion. The great argument between Moses and Betzalel was which came firstthe energy or the container, the vision or the structure? Moses was a visionary; Betzalel was a man of action. In conclusion, we discover, they were both right: In the world of thought and strategy, art precedes the frame; in the world of action and implementation, the frame precedes the art. In the world of light, vision takes precedence. In the world of shadows, your dreams must follow your actions, not the other way around. The class continues to explore another perspective by Reb Tzadok of Lublin. Judaism consists of two componentswhat G-d gives us and what we give G-d. The Written Torah and the Oral Torah. One is Divine; the other is filtered through human creativity. But are they really different? Depends from whose perspective.

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The Secret Beis Hamikdash

Likkutei Sichos Terumah/The Three Weeks: This text-based class onLikkutei Sichot, vol. 21, Parshas Terumah, explains in anovel way the reason for the Rambam giving us a history lesson about the Holy Ark in his halachik work: "When King Solomon built the Holy Temple, knowing that it was destined to be destroyed, he built a place in which to hide the Ark, [at the end of] hidden, deep, winding passageways. It was there that King Josiah placed the Ark twenty-two years before the Temples destruction. The Holy Temple in Jerusalem was built by King Solomon in the year 2928 from creation (833 BCE), and was destroyed410 years later, on the ninth day of the month of Av, by the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar. Seventy years later it was rebuilt; the second Temple stood for 420 years, until its destruction by the Romans, also on the ninth ofAv, in 3829 (69 CE). From the Rambam's words about the Ark we discover that the core of the Beis Hamikdash (the Holy Temple) was never destroyed. What is more,it means that the first, second and third Temples are not three different structures, but the continuum of a single edifice. The class also tackles the question of why we allow ourselves to make such destructive mistakes. It turns out, we are the ones who do this to ourselves, for a very healing reason.

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Can You Feel Compassion for Existence?

Chassidus: Torah Ohr Lo Teheye Meshakala #5: This class was presented on Monday Parshas Terumah, 29Shevat, 5780, February 24, 2020, at the Ohr Chaim Shul, Monsey, NY