Thursday, February 26, 2015

PARSHAS TEZAVEH/ZACHOR/PURIM 5775



“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Tetzaveh/Parshas Zachor
8 Adar 5775/ February 27, 2015

A few weeks ago a friend called me. He was preparing a speech and he wanted to know if I knew any good stories about someone who after enduring a challenging situation made a positive change in his life. In other words, they used a difficult situation as a catalyst for growth and positive accomplishment.
As I thought about it I realized that most chesed organizations are started by individuals who have been in just a situation. After enduring a painful, traumatic, or unnerving ordeal they decided to ‘give back’ to the community by initiating an organization to help others.
As one example, our local incredible Bikur Cholim organization in Rockland County with its many branches was founded by R’ Shimon Lauber after he survived a life-threatening illness.  
But I related to my friend a different story:
There was a righteous woman who was married to a great tzaddik. In fact, her husband was the gadol hador. He was also a high ranking government official and was widely respected for his sagacity and righteousness. Orphaned from both her parents before she was a day old, her eventual marriage to him was a dream come true.
Then one day her life changed drastically. She was ordered to leave her husband to marry a vile and narcissistic idolatrous man. The fact that he was rich and powerful meant nothing to her. But her original husband impressed upon her that this was her mission and G-d had put her there for a reason which would be revealed in due time. And so Esther remained Queen, forfeiting her marriage to Mordechai in order to live in Achashveirosh’s palace, away from her people.
The truth is that in a certain sense Esther’s life in the palace of Achashveirosh is symbolic of the life of the Jewish people in exile. When the Bais Hamikdash stood we were keenly aware of our ‘marriage’ to Hashem. We lived in close proximity of sanctity, the Kohanim performed the avodah, and the Sanhedrin guided our every move.
In exile however, we are isolated and surrounded by a culture that does not ascribe to Torah values. We are surrounded by foreign practices and ideologies, and it is a constant struggle to stay true to the ways of our ancestors. In this exile particularly, we have been blessed with prosperity and comfort, but that has only served to increase the challenge.  
In the beloved song “Shoshanas Yaakov”, we declare “Blessed is Esther (for what she did) on my behalf”. Esther demonstrated to us that one can remain faithful even in immoral idolatrous surroundings. Even in the face of isolation and desperation she maintained her faith and conviction.
Like Esther our one overriding concern must always be whether “I have found favor in your eyes, O king.” All else is trivial and secondary. If we have found favor in G-d’s eyes than we have fulfilled our mission.
Life does not always proceed as planned. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that life generally does not proceed as planned. The test is to consider what it is that Hashem wants of us at any given moment and in any given situation, and to do our best to live up to that mission. Perhaps there was no one who rose to that challenge as Esther did.
Purim. A holiday of extreme joy - borne of faith and devotion. 

Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos,
            R’ Dani and Chani Staum       


720 Union Road • New Hempstead, NY 10977 • (845) 362-2425

Thursday, February 19, 2015

PARSHAS TERUMAH 5775


“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Terumah
Rosh Chodesh – 1 Adar 5775/ February 20, 2015

I have often wondered what life is like in the north where temperatures hover around zero degrees for weeks at a time with strong winds with snow and ice burying the frozen tundra beneath.
Recently all of us on the east coast found out what it was like without having to leave our neighborhoods.
The deep freeze that has engulfed us these last few days has left us pining for spring. We have experienced the words we state each morning “Before his cold, who can stand?” and now we await the fulfillment of the next pasuk: “He sends His word and He melts them; He returns His wind the waters flow, and the snow birds in Miami return”. (The last phrase is not from Dovid Hamelech; it’s my own addition.)
During this slew of Arctic air, a thick patch of ice has formulated right in front of our front door. It is the result of melting snow from the roof from the sunlight that drips down and freezes when it hits the frigid ground.
Even after I have made it down out steep driveway and down our snow covered path I have to stop and proceed slowly over that ice patch before I get to the front door.
It serves as a good reminder of G-d’s warning to Kayin in parshas Bereishis that the evil inclination “crouches at the door”.
When I was a high school student, I remember the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Berel Wein, exhorting us to be mindful of how we come home at the end of a day at the office. He would relate that during one particular time of his life when he held a very challenging position he would often leave the office feeling frustrated and annoyed. When he arrived home he would drive around the block and spend a few added minutes reminding himself that his wife and children should not be the target of his frustrations.
Those first moments set the tone. The black ice lies insidiously right in front of the door and we must be wary of it!
In education, it’s often said that the tone of the day is set in the first moments. Students can gauge from the teacher’s immediate reaction if their presence is welcomed or not. The seasoned teacher ensures that he/she greets each child at the beginning of class with a happy countenance and a friendly comment, even though with some students it has to be acted.
A child too can sense their parent’s feelings when they come home from school or when they wake up in the morning. “The greatest gift that a mother can give her child is to have her face light up whenever the child enters the room” (Toni Morrison).
Another facet of this analogy is that any potential growth in life always contains its share of pitfalls and challenges that hinder that growth from taking place. One has to be dedicated enough, and want it badly enough, to figure out how they will traverse the ice in their path.
The good news is that warmth melts ice. But the warmth must be directed at the ice as it lurks menacingly right in front of the door. Once you get passed it the pleasantness of home awaits.    

Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos,
            R’ Dani and Chani Staum     


720 Union Road • New Hempstead, NY 10977 • (845) 362-2425

Thursday, February 12, 2015

PARSHAS MISHPATIM/ PARSHAS SHEKALIM 5775


“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Mishpatim/Shekalim
Mevorchim Chodesh Adar
24 Shevat 5775/ February 13, 2015

How often do we read or hear a quote from an interview from which we draw a strong opinion, only to find out later that the quote was taken out of context? Then when we hear or read the full quote we realize that our conclusions were completely mistaken.
A quote taken out of context can make all the difference in one’s opinion about world events and politics. How much is world perception falsely influenced by the media’s repeated “editing” of quotes by Israeli/Jewish leaders? Beyond that, it also effects our spiritual perceptions as well.
I would like to share three examples where often only the first part of a text is quoted, which completely alters the intended meaning:
1. Before the fall of the Iron Curtain when there were heroic efforts by world Jewry to exert pressure on Russia to free their trapped Jews the slogan used was: “Let my people go!” It was based on Moshe Rabbeinu’s repeated demand to Pharaoh that he free the hapless Jewish slaves from the miserable Egyptian servitude. But the truth is that the slogan left out what was perhaps the most important component of Moshe’s demand “Send out my nation, so that they will serve Me.”
Immediately after leaving Egypt the young nation began preparing for its acceptance of the Torah at Sinai. Indeed every year on the second night of Pesach we immediately begin counting the Omer in anticipation of our reacceptance of the Torah.
Exodus without acceptance of Torah was, and is, futile for a Jew. 
2. In regards to education, the pasuk from Mishlei (22:6) is often quoted: “Chanoch linar al pi darko – educate a child according to his way”. But the latter half of the verse is often neglected: “gam ki yazkin lo yasur mimenu – even when he becomes old he will not deviate from it.”
Education is not just about compliance, but about instilling values into our children’s souls, so that it becomes part of them for life.
It is all too easy for a parent/teacher to become caught up in the heat of the moment, and to focus on the short-term issue, and lose sight of the long-term education that needs to occur. In fact, parents need to constantly take stock of each of their children’s growth, and contemplate whether they - as parents – are doing enough to build and foster the innate uniqueness of their child.
3. Much of secular Jewry has adopted the term “tikkun olam – rectification of the world’ as their banner. The problem is that they have neglected the two subsequent words: “b’malchus Shakkai”. We pray for the rectification of the world within the kingship of G-d (represented by the Name “Shakkai” which connotes limitations).
We cannot decide how we feel the world ought to be rectified. The Torah has already provided us with the guidance of how to do so. If one casts off the Torah’s yoke and decides that ecology and nature loving is more important than Torah and mitzvah observance, his well-meaning efforts to rectify the world are in fact accomplishing the opposite.
It’s been said that a little knowledge is very dangerous. We need to know the whole truth if we want to uncover nothing but the truth.   

Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos,
            R’ Dani and Chani Staum     


720 Union Road • New Hempstead, NY 10977 • (845) 362-2425

Thursday, February 5, 2015

PARSHAS YISRO 5775


“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Yisro
17 Shevat 5775/ February 6, 2015

The wisest of men declared that there is a time and place for everything under the heavens. Therefore, there’s a certain thrill we enjoy when we feel like we “beat the system” by enjoying something out of its time/season.
Some people are willing to pay to enjoy a fruit that was shipped from an area with a different climate, because locally that fruit is ‘out of season’. It’s also a big part of why half the New York frum community invades Miami at some point during January. It’s a great experience to step off a plane into blinding eighty-degree sunlight, after being bundled up in a coat, scarf, and gloves in frigid twenty-degrees two hours earlier.
This week our family spent a few days in the Poconos. Although we enjoyed ice skating and snow tubing, it was especially fun to go swimming in an indoor heated pool as a snow storm walloped the area, blanketing the ground with ten inches of snow. After not having gone swimming since late August, it was enjoyable to do so as we watched the snow falling from the large windows.   
Rav Moshe Wolfson shlita, Mashgiach of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in Brooklyn NY, notes that whenever the Shabbos Torah reading contains the Torah reading of a holiday, or mentions the holiday, a certain level of the unique spiritual blessing endemic to the holiday mentioned is attainable to one who spiritually connects to that reading.
During each holiday we pray “V’haseaynu Hashem Elokaynu es birchas moadecha - Load us up, Hashem, our G-d, with the blessings of Your holiday.” Each holiday contains unique spiritual blessing and specific components of Divine Service that can be attained. When a weekly Shabbos Torah reading includes a discussion about a holiday, a “taste” of that holiday’s blessing is spiritually palpable in the holiness of that Shabbos.
During the week of Parshas Vayera one can “plug into” the light of Rosh Hashana, as the reading of both days of Rosh Hashana comes from Parshas Vayera. During the weeks of Shemos, Vaera, and Bo one can tap into the spiritual light of Pesach, with an added bonus that the house does not have to be cleaned of Chometz first. The week of Beshalach contains the reading of the seventh day of Pesach and the crescendo of the great holiday of faith, as well as the Torah reading of Purim morning. Parshas Yisro contains the reading of Shavuos, connecting its adherent to that seminal event without the cheese cake and the all-nighter.
The weeks of Mishpatim, Emor, Pinchos, Re’eh all contain a sampling of all the major holidays, and therefore contain a spiritual conglomerate of them all. This is especially propitious the Shabbos when Parshas Pinchos is read, which generally immediately precedes the Three Weeks of mourning for the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash and the loss of the festival pilgrimages.
Even as the snow and cold continue, we can tap into the spiritual warmth of the holidays throughout the year. And now that Purim is just beyond the horizon, we can begin to anticipate physical warmth and rejuvenation as well.

Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos,
            R’ Dani and Chani Staum     


720 Union Road • New Hempstead, NY 10977 • (845) 362-2425