Partners In Prayer - Siddur

  The 29th of Shevat is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Chananya Yom Tov Lipa (ben Yekusiel Yehuda) Teitelbaum (1836-1904), author of Kedushas Yom Tov. “They shall make an Ark of acacia wood.… You shall cover it with pure gold,   from with in and from without shall you cover it (Exodus 5:10–11).”  The Midrash Tanchumah teaches that there were actually three boxes that form the Ark: a box of gold on the outside, a wooden box in the center, and another golden box on the inside.   This is the power of Torah; it is able to take even a prayer, or any intention when fulfilling a mitzvah, that is impure, represented by the box made of wood, and transform it into a prayer or mitzvah as valuable as gold :  Just as the first and the last boxes are of gold, despite the center being of wood, so too, a prayer or a mitzvah that begins with purity, and has some sense of purity at its conclusion, will enclose the “wooden box,” the impure thought, prayer, or mitzvah. (Kedushat Yom Tov) By...

The Half-Shekel was the atonement for the sin of the Golden Calf. However, all those who sinned were killed, which means that the Shekalim applied to those who survived.   The Half-Shekel is a symbol of the sense of responsibility that one must have for one’s fellow Jew. The Jewish People is composed of the righteous ones as well as the masses. Both are necessary. Abraham set the example as one who cared about those who were lost and spent his life trying to bring them back to the better path. Noach, on the other hand, was secluded in the Arch as a consequence for having failed to return the people of his generation to righteousness. Since he refused to be the shepherd for human souls, he ended up being the shepherd of animals. This seems to indicate the reason we read Shekalim at the onset of the month of Adar. The verse in Esther says: “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed” Therefore, Esther ordered: “Go and gather all the Jews!” This was to rectify the existing dish...

The 21st of Shevat is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Yechiel Yehoshua (ben Yerachmiel Tzvi) Rabinowitz, the Bialer Rebbe (1901-1982). Born in Biala, Poland, he was a grandson of the Divrei Binah of Biala and a direct descendent   of the Yid Hakadosh. The Divrei Binah passed away when Yechiel Yehoshua was only 4, and tragically, Rav Yerachmiel Tzvi passed away shortly thereafter at the age of 26. In 1919, Rav Yechiel married Beila Chana Pesha, and in 1924, he was formally installed as Rebbe of Biala, and set up court in Sedlice with a population of 200,000 Jews. He was exiled to Siberia with his family in 1940. In 1947, he moved to Eretz Yisrael, living in Tel Aviv for 8 years before setting up his beis midrash and kollel in Zichron Moshe in Yerushalayim, where he remained for the next 27 years. He authored the sefer Chelkas Yehoshua.   “[You] Who causes grass to sprout for cattle, and vegetation for the labor of man, to bring forth bread from the earth (Psalms 104:14).” A person’s servi...