B"H
So Today's your turn to pick up your son from his nursery. You finish
up work, grab your keys, and head to the school. Without traffic, you
reach the nursery 5 min.'s early and enter your son's class, taking a
seat quietly by the entrance. A few children play with toys by your
feet, and babble some words to you. Busy with your blackberry phone,
you hardly pay notice. Suddenly, your attention is caught grabbed!
Your precious son (brought over by the nursery teacher), is babbling
incoherently about some exciting thing occurring now in his life. You
smile with great joy, overflowing with the love for your child...
A Jew may wonder: "What does the great G-d care about
my actions. G-d is so far beyond physicality, beyond caring about what I do.
Why would a good deed I perform, prayers I pray,
or candles I light, truly matter to the Almighty G-d?!"
From our perspective, at 1st glance, maybe it doesn't. But from G-d's
Perspective, little do we know the immense joy and pleasure we bring
Him. To his Father, what His child does, is truly precious.
If you'd like to read further, here are 2 short, Beautiful teachings
from this week's Torah Portion- "Shemot"
The Torah says: "And Moshe was shepherding the sheep." Next we
read how Moshe saw the burning thorn bush, where G-d tells him that the
time has come for the Jewish People to be redeemed from Egypt. What
does Moshe's life as a shepherd have anything to do with the
subsequent revelation of G-d and directive to become leader and
savior of the Jewish People??
In the Midrash we find something that gives us insight into what the
Torah is saying here. One day, as Moshe was shepherding his sheep, 1
darted away from the flock. Moshe chased it and chased it, until he
found it drinking from a stream. "If only I knew you were tired,"
thought Moshe. He then hoisted it on his shoulders and carried it back
to the flock.
G-d Said: "If Moshe cares for this 1 sheep with such care, I will
entrust him to care for My Flock"-the Jewish People.
Thus we read next how G-d Revealed Himself
and Commanded Moshe to redeem the Jews...
But what is the lesson for us now?
In order to merit a "revelation from G-d", a true closeness to Him,
one must give oneself over, and truly worry about, G-d's Sheep- a
fellow Jew.
--------------------
We find a very interesting fact about our great leader Moshe:
How can it be that he grew up in Egypt, and was raised in a purely Egyptian
home and culture of Pharaoh's daughter's home?
(he was found by her in a basket on the river and adopted).
How can it be that Holy Moshe grew to such greatness there?
This fact teaches us something very profound:
SPECIFICALLY in Egypt, which opposed all that Moshe stood for;
THERE the Savior of Israel had to be born and grow up, in order to become so great!
This point answers another famous Question: "If G-d Wants that we
should learn Torah and perform the Commandments,
why did He Put us in an Exile, full of troubles and concealment of G-d?!"
The answer is, that SPECIFICALLY here, where we find ourselves
in the "Land of Egypt"; yet where we overcome our struggles
and make for G-d a Dwelling Place down here;
here we can truly be considered to have "grown."
-Adapted from the talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Shabbat Shalom!
-Daniel
So Today's your turn to pick up your son from his nursery. You finish
up work, grab your keys, and head to the school. Without traffic, you
reach the nursery 5 min.'s early and enter your son's class, taking a
seat quietly by the entrance. A few children play with toys by your
feet, and babble some words to you. Busy with your blackberry phone,
you hardly pay notice. Suddenly, your attention is caught grabbed!
Your precious son (brought over by the nursery teacher), is babbling
incoherently about some exciting thing occurring now in his life. You
smile with great joy, overflowing with the love for your child...
A Jew may wonder: "What does the great G-d care about
my actions. G-d is so far beyond physicality, beyond caring about what I do.
Why would a good deed I perform, prayers I pray,
or candles I light, truly matter to the Almighty G-d?!"
From our perspective, at 1st glance, maybe it doesn't. But from G-d's
Perspective, little do we know the immense joy and pleasure we bring
Him. To his Father, what His child does, is truly precious.
If you'd like to read further, here are 2 short, Beautiful teachings
from this week's Torah Portion- "Shemot"
The Torah says: "And Moshe was shepherding the sheep." Next we
read how Moshe saw the burning thorn bush, where G-d tells him that the
time has come for the Jewish People to be redeemed from Egypt. What
does Moshe's life as a shepherd have anything to do with the
subsequent revelation of G-d and directive to become leader and
savior of the Jewish People??
In the Midrash we find something that gives us insight into what the
Torah is saying here. One day, as Moshe was shepherding his sheep, 1
darted away from the flock. Moshe chased it and chased it, until he
found it drinking from a stream. "If only I knew you were tired,"
thought Moshe. He then hoisted it on his shoulders and carried it back
to the flock.
G-d Said: "If Moshe cares for this 1 sheep with such care, I will
entrust him to care for My Flock"-the Jewish People.
Thus we read next how G-d Revealed Himself
and Commanded Moshe to redeem the Jews...
But what is the lesson for us now?
In order to merit a "revelation from G-d", a true closeness to Him,
one must give oneself over, and truly worry about, G-d's Sheep- a
fellow Jew.
--------------------
We find a very interesting fact about our great leader Moshe:
How can it be that he grew up in Egypt, and was raised in a purely Egyptian
home and culture of Pharaoh's daughter's home?
(he was found by her in a basket on the river and adopted).
How can it be that Holy Moshe grew to such greatness there?
This fact teaches us something very profound:
SPECIFICALLY in Egypt, which opposed all that Moshe stood for;
THERE the Savior of Israel had to be born and grow up, in order to become so great!
This point answers another famous Question: "If G-d Wants that we
should learn Torah and perform the Commandments,
why did He Put us in an Exile, full of troubles and concealment of G-d?!"
The answer is, that SPECIFICALLY here, where we find ourselves
in the "Land of Egypt"; yet where we overcome our struggles
and make for G-d a Dwelling Place down here;
here we can truly be considered to have "grown."
-Adapted from the talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Shabbat Shalom!
-Daniel
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