NEW UPDATED DONORS LIST

Community News Headlines

Dear Community Members,
As you know the Central Board has now purchased Shaare Rachamim for the Community. We invite every Community Member to review the enclosed list of available dedication opportunities and share in this mitzvah by making a donation or upgrading their donation. There are still some items left and it is advisable to make your selection as soon as possible so as to avoid disappointment. We would also like to remind you that there are still some dedications available in Ohr Esther (YMJC 130).

▪ Click Here For The Updated Donors List

Parashat Bechukotai!

Martin's Corner

Dear Friends;

 

I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parashat summary followed by a Dvar Torah;

 

” Parsha in a Nutshell ”

 

G-d promises that if the people of Israel will keep His commandments, they will enjoy material prosperity and dwell secure in their homeland. But He also delivers a harsh “rebuke” warning of the exile, persecution and other evils that will befall them if they abandon their covenant with Him. Nevertheless, “Even when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away; nor will I ever destroy them and to break My covenant with them; for I am the L-rd their G-d.”

The Parshah concludes with the rules on how to calculate the value of different types of pledges made to G-d.

 

 

” Dvar Torah ”

 

This week’s parsha starts off with such a promising note. Hashem tells the Benei Israel,  ” If you walk in my path and observe my commandments, then I will provide your rains in the right time, you’ll eat and you’ll be satisfied, you’ll live in your land peacefully, I will make you fruitful and increase you, I will walk among you, I will be a G-d unto you and you will be a people unto me…”.

But after such soothing words which gives us great encouragement to do G-d’s commandments, the Torah suddenly changes it’s calm tone of voice into harsh words of criticism. It gives a lengthy harsh rebukes and talks about the troubles and punishments that will come upon the Jewish People if they are disobedient. Thirty consecutive verses of nightmarish misery and suffering, all destined to fall upon the Jewish people when they don’t follow Hashem’s commandments and they commit a sin. Many of the words used are so appalling that they are difficult to read. Indeed, the Chazan is expected to read these verses quickly and in a quieter voice than usual in the Shul, in order to not get the people in a bad mood on Shabbat.

However, after reading these chilling words, an interesting question comes to the minds of our sages. Why is Hashem so angry at the people if they are disobedient and commit sins?? Hashem knows that human beings are just flesh and blood and inevitably they would fail sooner or later and they will sin!! From the beginning of creation, nearly all of our great leaders including Adam HaRishon, Moshe, Aaron and King David committed sins. Every year for Yom Kippur Hashem commands EVERYONE to fast! It’s not an optional fast just for the sinners! It’s as if Hashem expects EVERYONE to sin!! So why all these harsh rebukes and punishments if we sin?! We are talking about the same compassionate G-d who is slow to anger and abundant in kindness and truth. Not long ago the entire nation were involved in the sin of the Golden Calf, and Hashem found it in his heart to forgive them! So, what happened now?! What does Hashem expect from us? What is really bothering Him so much? Why does Hashem intensify the punishments if we continue to sin? After all, He knows that we are never going to stop sinning!

Rabbi Berel Wein gives the following explanation. He says the answer is given in the midst of the rebukes itself. The rebukes or punishments intensifies seven times in the passage and the Torah tells us the reason for it. At the end of each series, Hashem says: “If you behave casually with me and refuse to heed me…”, which means “if you think that the sufferings were merely coincidental, then I’m going to intensify the punishments!!” Hashem is not so much bothered by our sins, but He gets mad if He sends us a warning, or a punishment so to speak, and we don’t see it! Hashem wants us to acknowledge his actions! The Torah warns us repeatedly that we will continue to suffer as long as we attribute our suffering to “chance” rather than to our sins. Any kind of misfortune or suffering that may be fallen upon us, should be a wake up call for us! We should be able to see it as a will of G-d. We should look into ourselves and try to find what sins are we committing and try to correct them and repent. But G-d forbid, if we see a misfortune as an accident or bad luck, then we have infuriated Hashem’s anger. We should know that anything that happens to us, whether good or bad, is a will of Hashem and we should acknowledge it. Hashem does not expect us not to sin, but if we do sin, Hashem expect us to acknowledge it and try to repent. If we forget, he might send us a warning and he expect us to see it.

Yes my friends, Judaism does not believe in accidents or “luck”. Everything that happens to us is Hashem’s will. If a person wins $1M in lottery, it’s not because he picked the lucky numbers, but rather, it’s because Hashem wanted him to win the million dollars! If G-d forbid, we get into a car accident, the whole point is not to see if it’s the other guy’s fault or not, but rather, what matters is for us to realize that it was Hashem’s will that we happened to be in the accident. We should never rationalize our destiny as “this is my luck” — instead, we should see it as the will of G-d. If G-d forbid, we are faced with suffering, we should look into ourselves to see if we are doing anything wrong, and try to correct ourselves if we can. Conversely, if we are blessed with good things in life such as prosperity, good health, good wife, healthy children and so on, we shouldn’t think that we’ve been “lucky” or attribute them to our intelligence. Instead, we should see all these blessings as Hashem’s generosity that he has bestowed upon us and we should acknowledge and be grateful to Him on a daily basis.

Remember that Hashem loves us and he doesn’t want to hurt us. If he punishes us sometimes, it’s because he cares for us and he wants to discipline his loving children. All he expect from us is to love him back and not to shut him out of our lives. What he wants, he has already said it passionately at the beginning of the parsha……  “ I will walk among you, I will be a G-d unto you and you will be a people unto me…”.

Shabbat Shalom & Regards;

Martin

MYC Presents: Judging Others Favorably – A Lecture by Rabbi Guy Dvir – May 14

Community News Headlines

Where: Ohr Esther Main Sanctuary – 130 Steamboat Road, GN. When: Wednesday night May 14th 8:30 pm. This lecture is dedicated to the Refua Shelema of all Cholei Am Israel. During this evening Rabbi Guy Dvir will be presenting his new book “A Better You” a guide for self improvement. For more information please contact Karen Koren, Karenkoren26@gmail.com or Lauren Nematnejad (516) 286-7737.

Click Here to View the Flyer

Sunday Morning Parasha Class with Rabbi Adam

Rabbi Adam S

R. Adam's Sunday Morning Parasha Class

R. Adam’s Sunday Morning Parasha Class

Our Sunday Morning Parasha Class is on for this week (May 11). We will be studying Parashat Bechukotai!

A special thanks to this week’s sponsor for breakfast, Mr. Ilan Nassimi, for the iluy neshama of Mr. Changiz Hakimi, Adonia ben David.

Breakfast will be served at 9:45 am, the class is 10 am – 11 am, at 54 Steamboat Road.

This class is also for the refuah shelema of Miryam bat Dina, Ruchama Sara Miryam bat Tamar, Avraham ben Chava, Mordekhai ben Rivka, Ruth bat Ahuva, Rafael ben Michal, Chana bat Rachel, & Shmuel ben Rachel.

Parahat Behar!

Community News Headlines

Dear Friends;

I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parasha summary, followed by a Dvar Torah;

 

” Parsha in a Nutshell ”

 

On the Mount Sinai, G-d tells Moshe the laws of the sabbatical year: every seventh year, all work on the land should cease, and its produce becomes free for the taking for all, man and beast.

Seven sabbatical cycles are followed by a fiftieth year — the jubilee year, on which work on the land ceases, all servants are set free, and all ancestral estates in the Holy Land that have been sold revert to their original owners. Additional laws governing the sale of lands and the prohibitions against fraud and lending money for interest are also given.

 

 

” Dvar Torah ”

 

In this week’s Parashat Behar, the main topic of discussion is about the laws of “Shemitah”- the Sabbatical year for the land of Israel. All agricultural work in the Land of Israel must come to stop during every seventh year cycle. The laws of Shemitah requires the land to be at complete rest for the entire seventh year. It means that on the seventh year there should not be any planting of seeds, plowing, pruning or harvesting. Additionally, any fruits which grow of their own accord are deemed ownerless and may be picked by anyone.

Wow, this is a very difficult mitzvah to observe, especially in the old days, when the majority of the people were either farmers or shepherds. Not only you were unable to plant in order to feed your own family, but cutting off your livelihood completely for an entire year, requires an incredible amount of faith.

However, Hashem gives his assurance for those who keep the laws of Shemitah. The Torah says: ” The land will give its fruit [in the preceding years] and you will be satisfied; you will dwell securely upon it”. After such a powerful promise, the Torah then brings up a question raised by the people, namely, “What will we eat in the seventh year — behold! we will not sow and we will not gather our crops!”. And then Hashem reassures the people by saying: ” I will ordain My blessing for you in the sixth year and [the land] will yield a crop sufficient for three-year period “. This means that the sixth year will give sufficient crops until the end of the eight year!

But the Chachamim are bothered by the question raised by the people. After the Torah tells them that ” The land will give its fruit and you will be satisfied”, why should there be a doubt in people’s mind to ask ” What will we eat in the seventh year?” Why does Hashem need to promise again that the sixth year will produce three times a regular year?? Wasn’t the first assurance good enough??

Rabbi Yissachar Frand gives the following beautiful explanation. First of all, the reason that Hashem gave us the Mitzvah of “Shemitah” is not because the land needs to rest. Land does not need to rest! This is apparent from observing the lands outside Israel. Do you think that the vineyards in California or France produce less quality grapes than the ones in Israel? Although the non-Jews work their fields year after year after year, without a brake, they still produce good quality crops and fruits! Rabbi Frand says that the whole purpose of Shemitah is for the farmers to take a break from their routine lives and come to realize that it’s not because of their hard labor that the land produces so much crops, but rather, it’s because of G-d’s will. Hashem can still feed them even if they don’t work! The seventh year is the time for the farmers to take their minds out of the physical world and engage themselves in spirituality. It’s the time to remind themselves that their livelihood comes from the Heaven above, and not from the strength of our arms, nor from the intelligence of our brain.

Accordingly, Rabbi Frand concludes that the mitzvah of Shemitah is a test! It’s a test of faith! Those who are true believers are satisfied with Hashem’s first assurance; that ” the land will produce its fruit and you will be satisfied “. They fully trust in Hashem that he will provide, and they are satisfied with whatever Hashem provides for them! But those who lack in faith, they want to see a physical miracle. That’s why Hashem gives a second assurance for those people, that ” in the sixth year you will yield three times the regular crops! Since these people lack in faith, Hashem doesn’t want them to enter the seventh year being worried! He shows them the miracle beforehand! Hashem can tolerate people who lack in faith, since even these people are blessed to get crops for the seventh year. But G-d forbid, for those non-believers who don’t keep the Shemitah laws at all, the Torah says that they will eventually be thrown out of their lands!

Although, the laws of Shemitah does not apply to many of us today, since we either don’t live in the land of Israel or we are not farmers, but our sages use the same reasoning to explain the concept of Shabbat to us. Accordingly, they also say that the reason that Hashem has given us Shabbat is not because we need a day of rest, but rather, once a week we need to stop working and come to realize that whatever we’ve achieved in the previous week is not because of our hard work and our intelligence, but it’s because of Hashem’s generosity and blessings, and He’s the one who provides our livelihood! It’s a day we should spend with the Almighty, go to Shul, pray and be thankful to him!

Yes my friends, all of our sustenance comes from the Heaven above. No matter how smart we are or how mighty is our physical strength, our livelihood is fully dependent on G-d’s will! And to realize that, we need to take sometime off our routine lives and spend it with the Almighty. Remember that making a living is a test of faith. Those of us who are true believers, we will eat and we will be satisfied with whatever Hashem would provide for us. But those of us who lack in faith, need to constantly run and worry about our future! In the weeks between Pesach and Shavuot we read the book of “Pirkei Avot”. In it, it says “Who is rich? Rich is the one who is happy with his share”. So one of the greatest blessings is to be satisfied with what you have.

So my friends, remember that Hashem will provide and all we need to do is to have faith in him. He’ll stand up to his task, if we’ll stand up to ours!!

Shabbat Shalom & Regards;

Martin

Higher Education
Graduation 2014 –
High School Graduates
Questionnaire

Community News Headlines, Higher Education

2014 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES – QUESTIONNAIRE

We are pleased to make it possible for High School, College and Post Graduates to submit your graduation information using the following web forms.

Deadline for submission will be on Sunday, June 15, 2014.

Reminder: Graduation will be on Sunday, June 22, 2014 at 10:30am SHARP
Approx 2 hours in total. All are welcome to attend.

 

[Form id=”23″]

Higher Education
Graduation 2014 –
College Graduates
Questionnaire

Community News Headlines, Higher Education

2014 COLLEGE GRADUATES – QUESTIONNAIRE

We are pleased to make it possible for High School, College and Post Graduates to submit your graduation information using the following web forms.

Deadline for submission will be on Sunday, June 15, 2014.

Reminder: Graduation will be on Sunday, June 22, 2014 at 10:30am SHARP
Approx 2 hours in total. All are welcome to attend.

 

[Form id=”24″]

Higher Education
Graduation 2014 –
Post-Graduates
Questionnaire

Community News Headlines, Higher Education

2014 POST-GRADUATES – QUESTIONNAIRE

(Including Master’s, PhD, Law School, Medical School,
and any other degree beyond an undergraduate degree)

We are pleased to make it possible for High School, College and Post Graduates to submit your graduation information using the following web forms.

Deadline for submission will be on Sunday, June 15, 2014.

Reminder: Graduation will be on Sunday, June 22, 2014 at 10:30am SHARP
Approx 2 hours in total. All are welcome to attend.

 

[Form id=”25″]

Sunday Morning Parasha Class with Rabbi Adam

Rabbi Adam S

R. Adam's Sunday Morning Parasha Class

R. Adam’s Sunday Morning Parasha Class

Our Sunday Morning Parasha Class is on for this week (May 4). We will be studying Parashat Behar!

A special thanks to this week’s sponsor for breakfast, Mr. Yossi Abrahimi, for the refuah shelema of the entire community.

Breakfast will be served at 9:45 am, the class is 10 am – 11 am, at 54 Steamboat Road.

This class is also for the refuah shelema of Miryam bat Dina, Ruchama Sara Miryam bat Tamar, Avraham ben Chava, Mordekhai ben Rivka, Ruth bat Ahuva, Rafael ben Michal, Chana bat Rachel, & Shmuel ben Rachel.

SHUK SHALOM – THIS SUN, MAY 4th

Community News Headlines

Israel & Zionism Committee in conjunction with Mashadi Sisterhood would like to present:SHUK SHALOM:Experience Israeli and Jewish Culture! This Sunday May 4th 2014 at Shaare Shalom, 54 Steamboat Road – 10 AM – 5 PM. Come by for a day filled with shopping, food AND entertainment for both adults and children! For more information please contact: Cathy Banilivi at (516) 448-3513, Mahtab Zar (516) 448-8330, Dalia Hakimian (516) 236-7414. Click Here to view the Flyer

shuk