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Torah Studies
Developing Character
May 19, - July 14, 2009
Journey into the Soul of the
Weekly Torah Portion
Coram: Tuesdays, 7:30 pm
$26 Course fee with Book
For more info or to register for this course or to register
for this course please call 631-698-4000 or email Rabbig@jewishli.com
East Hampton: Wednesdays, 7:30 pm
Starting October 29, 2008
For more info or to register for this course or to register
for this course please call 631-907-8612 or email goldie@jewishli.com
Click here to register
| Developing Character: Bamidbar 5769 |
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Journey into the Soul of the Weekly Torah Portion
The Book of Numbers: An 8 Part Journey
As the Israelites traverse the desert wilderness
the character of a nation is born —
the formation of our collective psyche and DNA.
Explore the characters who make their mark each week:
Levites, Nazirites, Moshe, Aharon, Korach, and others.
You’ll be surprised how much they can teach you,
and how much a part of you they really are.
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| Bamidbar: The Levites: Rights and Responsibilities |
| Each of the twelve tribes of Israel had its own distinctive character and role in the life of our nation. The Levites were spared the agony of slavery in Egypt, received tithes from their fellow Jews, and were designated as spiritual leaders, teachers, singers, and protectors of the Tabernacle and then the Temple. In today’s class we will focus on the Tribe of |Levi’s task of safeguarding the Temple, and the unique means by which the Levites’ census was taken. In doing so, we will learn how each of us has an “inner Levite” who is similarly encouraged to live a life of meaning and higher calling that combines the transcendent and the mundane by channeling our spirituality through G-d’s commandments and the specific roles in life that each of us is provided with. Like the Levite, every Jew has the responsibility to see his or her role not as comprising special rights and privileges, but as the G-dly responsibility to safeguard what is most important in life, and to contribute as servant leaders to our people and to humanity as whole. |
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| Naso: The Nazirite: Walking Away from the World |
| A key theme in all our classes is that the world that HaShem created is fundamentally good, and that G-d wants us to live in it, not run away from it. But let’s face it: It is almost impossible to escape from the desire for material goods, bodily pleasures, and ego-inflation that the world is selling to us or even offering up for free, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. What then is the correct degree of engagement that a person should have with material goods and pleasures? In today’s class we will study the case of the Nazir, an individual who took a specific vow of asceticism proscribed in this week’s Torah portion. The goal is not to hold the Nazir up as a model for all of us, or even for any of us --but to see how our Sages use the case of the Nazir as a springboard for helping us to determine the right mix of asceticism and healthy pleasure we should seek in a world in which true spirituality, happiness and fulfillment are under constant assault. |
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| Behaalotecha: The Kohain: Illuminating from the Inside |
| There are few pleasures in the life that are greater, or tasks that are more important, than that of being a coach, leader or mentor--of enlightening and motivating others. Inspiring others to go beyond their natural capabilities and reach new heights of excellence is one of the most sought-after qualities in the sports, political and business worlds. The same holds true in spiritual life. We seek spiritual leaders who are not only knowledgeable and compassionate, but who are able to inspire us to reach higher and higher. Today’s class will explore this fundamental quality of leadership through a study of the Kohain’s task of lighting the Menorah within the Temple. We will explore the general spiritual meaning of the Menorah, and the Kohain’s role in producing the physical illumination from it. This will offer us valuable lessons on inspiration, mentoring and leadership. We will see that the highest form of inspiration is one delivered with sincere love. Inspiration rooted in love has a lasting effect, so that the lesson enables the person to inspire himself or herself – to become a fire that continues to rise on its own. |
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| Shelach: Connecting to the Moshe of the Generation |
| Is there anyone who can play basketball better than you can? Is there anyone who is a better cook, or a more accomplished musician? Have you ever met anyone who is wiser than you are? Or more kind, self-disciplined, compassionate or wise? It’s safe to say that every one of us can and will answer yes to each of these questions. Unless we are exceptionally insecure egomaniacs, the fact that there are people in the world who are better than us at different things should not upset us at all. In fact most of us would pay good money to be taught by, or even just to be around those people in the world who are truly Number 1 in the world at most-anything at all. According to Jewish tradition, there is a person in every generation who is Number 1 in the world at something very important: At being close to HaShem. While there are many men and women who are close to G-d, and people from their own limited perspective can debate as to who is the closest, it is as a matter of logic and necessity that from HaShem’s all-knowing perspective there must be one and only one Number 1 person at all times at being close to Him. Jewish tradition refers to this individual as the “Moshe of the Generation.” In this week’s class we study the very first |Moshe of his Generation, Moshe himself. By seeing in the episode of the Jewish spies how Moshe Rabbeinu demonstrated his closeness to G-d and leadership of the Jewish people, we will begin to understand the importance of seeking out and attaching ourselves to the Moshe of our own generation. |
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| Korach: Cynical Demagogue or Heroic Populist? |
| One of the most fascinating and enigmatic figures in the Chumash is Korach, the extraordinarily wealthy and urbane head of the house of Kehati -- an aristocrat who led a successful populist rebellion against Moses and Aaron soon after the Jewish nation was formed, a rebellion that was put down only by G-d’s direct and lethal intervention. While most Midrashim and Aggadahs paint a very negative portrait of Korach, the Torah itself presents many of his arguments and demands persuasively. Moreover, other Midrashim offer insights that provide a more well-rounded and comprehensible picture of Korach as being a real person who was far more complex than the cartoon-character villain that he is often depicted as. In today’s class we will explore the Midrashim and commentaries in depth and discover a great deal about Korach’s character and the true motivations behind his rebellion. Then, focusing on the reaction to his rebellion by G-d, Moshe and Aharon, we will extrapolate fascinating insights into the nature of Divine Providence and our relationship with Hashem in general, and a profound lesson we can carry into our personal lives in dealing with our “inner Korach.” |
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| Chukat-Balak: The Red Heifer: Understanding the Limits of Understanding |
| The heights of human progress and human arrogance alike have one and the same source: Our very human expectation that everything in the world ought to make perfect sense to us. With great irrationality that paradoxically leads to great accomplishment, much of the human species hopes and demands that the human brain--three pounds of tissue and water about the size of two fists placed side by side—be capable of accessing, processing, and understanding every fact and truth in G-d’s immeasurably vast and complex material and spiritual universe. In this week’s class we’ll be exploring the limits of human understanding through a study of the laws of the Red Heifer, whose ashes paradoxically purified the impure while causing the purifier to become impure. We’ll also be looking at the story of Balak, the gentile arch-enemy of the Jewish people who ironically will be an ancestor of the perfectly-Jewish Messiah. We will see how understanding the limits of understanding and appreciating the limits imposed by paradox are necessary gateways to the true and eternal human progress and happiness that are, paradoxically, both unlimited and perfectly understandable. |
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| Pichas: Dividing The Land: A lesson in finding one’s true purpose |
| Every Jewish man and woman has both a general purpose and individual purpose for living. The general purpose is the same for everyone: We are all meant to study Torah and perform mitzvoth, and thereby transform the world for the good by bringing a new level and intensity of G-dly light into the world. But each of us also has a unique individual purpose that we share with no one else. How then do we discover exactly what our unique personal reason for being is? In this week’s class we will examine the process of dividing the Land of Israel among the twelve tribes that is described in this week’s parsha. We will focus on the strange role of the lottery, the seemingly random process by means of which much of the Land was divided. We will show how the similarly random personal “lot” that has been assigned to us from Heaven replicates the lottery in the desert. By knowing how to identify what has been assigned to us, we can then come to understand why it has been so assigned. We will then know how to fulfill the personal purpose that is directly related to the specific portion that HaShem has allotted to us. |
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| Matot-Maasei: The Vows: Selective Renunciation |
| In order to transition to maturity and self-reliance, it is essential for each of to learn how to give up the things in life that are doing us no good. Whether it’s called a resolution, a promise, a vow or an oath, the expected impact is the same: We hope that making a verbal declaration and promise to improve ourselves in a particular way will increase our resolve to change and do what is good and right for ourselves and for others. But are vows good or bad? In today’s class we’ll be learning about the laws of vows that appear in the Torah, as well as the process by which we become capable of annulling them. We will see that for people who remain on a low and immature spiritual rung, vows are a very good and necessary thing to keep us from harm. But someone who is complete and spiritually healthy should not make vows to give up the things in life that the Torah permits. Instead, the spiritually evolved individual should strive to use everything that is permissible for good and G-dly purposes. |
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