Skip to main content

Birchat Hatorah- Laasok B'divrei Torah

 

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעולָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְותָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסוק בְּדִבְרֵי תורָה

 

The flaming swords in Gan Eden did not allow Adam HaRishon to access the Etz Hachaim (Gen 3:24) because he was mevatel the Etz HaChaim (The Tree of Life). The Tree of Knowledge was a doubletree, containing within it the Tree of Life. Adam only paid attention to its exterior and because he was unable to focus on the internal aspect (The Etz HaChaim) of the doubletree, he lost access to it completely. Similarly, any time a person keeps a mitzvah or studies Torah and is stuck on their exterior, he is mevatel the Etz HaChaim of that Torah or of that mitzvah; he/she is disconnecting that Torah idea/mitzvah from its spirit/life force. And he/she experiences the feeling of the flaming swords cutting off the eternal connection afforded to them by the Torah/mitzvah, God forbid. לַעֲסוק בְּדִבְרֵי תורָה empowers us to reach into our learning, into our mitzvot so that we are awarded the opportunity to access their spirit so that it nurtures our own. May we take the seeds of our learning and plant them into our mitzvot and into our lives so that we are constantly holding onto the Etz HaChaim unscathed and untouched by the flaming swords.

By: Mordakhai Kholdarov


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Birchat Hamazon

By: Machberes Avodas Hashem The Chafetz Chaim taught: "At the conclusion of the main portion of Grace after Meals we add a series of,' May the All Merciful.' We add numerous such petitions, indicating that a request to God after the performance of a mitzvah is especially acceptable before Him (Michtevei haRav Chafetz Chaim, page 45)." One of the primary issues of the Exile is, "You wrapped Yourself in a cloud that no prayer can pierce (Lamentations 3:44)." It is more difficult to pray during the Three Weeks than other times during the year because we experience this "cloud." With COVID unfortunately around, this year proves to be even more difficult because our time in shul has changed drastically, and we have never experienced the pain of the three weeks while in a situation similar to the present state of the world. We can use this strategy of the Chafetz Chaim, that of praying immediately after the performance of a mitzvah, so that we may feel t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Creation

 All was destroyed during the month of Av. Creation began on Elul, and, so it will again. We recite this prayer for the New Month focusing on Creation. “God created the world in order to do good to an other (Derech Hashem 1:2:1).” Creation was an expression of absolute love, the “other” had done nothing to earn it. This is why Elul, the month of Creation is also the month of intense love between God and Israel. I recite this prayer imaging myself participating in the final Heavenly planning meetings before Creation. I am not praying as one who has already existed and experienced success and failure, but as one who has the opportunity to see the world before Creation, and request in this moment of intense love all that I could possibly need and want. I use this prayer to prepare for all my Elul prayers until the 25th of the month when Creation began. For what shall I ask? What will I need to succeed? How will I define success? What do I hope to achieve? Rabbi Simcha Weinberg
Post a Comment
Read more

Who clothes the naked

"Certainly those determining acts of her life were not ideally beautiful. They were the mixed result of a young and noble impulse struggling amidst the conditions of an imperfect social state, in which great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion. For there is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside it." "But we insignificant people with our daily words and acts are preparing the lives of many Dorotheas." "Her finely-touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to t...
Post a Comment
Read more