An agonizing debate is raging within the Jewish community on whether to yield
our sovereignty over the Temple Mount--the site of the first and second Temples
in Jerusalem and the most sacred place on earth to the Jewish people.At the heart of the debate are two misconceptions.
Genesis 47:28-50:26 Torah reading for week of January 7-13, 2001 
The end of the beginning: As the book of Genesis closes, the seventy souls of
Jacob's family become the twelve tribes of Israel. Cosmic secrets are almost
revealed. The children of Israel sink deeper into exile, but
take with them the promise of pakod yifkod--remembrance within
remembrance.
Once there was a king whose palace had been ransacked by the wild hordes. For
the wood and stone of the palace he had no tears, but for the crown jewels,
passed down for many generations, for this there was no consolation.The king had a daughter very dear to him, and in her wisdom she saw what needed to be done.
Reb Yitzchak never let his poverty trouble him. Always he was cheerful, and full of gratitude to G-d for his
lot. "Rejoice my stomach," he would say, "that you are light and
not a heavy burden to carry around." Also he would say: "G-d doesn't need advice from
anyone, not even the Righteous, about whom to make rich and whom to make
poor."But now he was about to do the unthinkable. He was going to ask his Rebbe to bless him that G-d should send him a comfortable livelihood.
Everyone knows that tzaddikim are holy people with supernormal abilities and
prophetic insight. A tzaddik can perceive the tachlis, the purpose for
which a particular soul came into this world.But the tzaddik does not make decisions for his followers, relieve them of personal responsibility, or solve their problems for them. He challenges them and directs them to fulfill their life's task; and if, on occasion, special emphasis is required to get the message across, the tzaddik will produce a miracle or two just to get things started.
You will discover a world as authentic as your own, yet heretofore completely unknown to you. It is as fresh as Rembrandt’s, as far-reachingas Einstein’s, as unusual as Van Gogh’s, as terrifying and macabre as Edgar Allen Poe’s. It has its own harmony and logic, if only you suspend yourself long enough to hear and understand it. You are not discovering a child’s world; you are discovering the world as experienced by your child. |
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