Lag BaOmer - April 30, 2002
Editor's note:
This week we bring you two first-hand reports from Israel, from two perspectives: In Esther's Smile, Jay Litvin experiences grief, anger, vengeance, faith, commitment and determination in a heavily armed afternoon on a rugged hillside in the beautiful Samarian countryside...
...and in Jenin War Diary, Sergeant Major Rami Meir gives us a participant's account of the effort to capture Esther's murderer and the murderers of hundreds of other Jews in recent months, and tells the truth of what really happened in the Jenin refugee camp...
Also in this week's issue: Tzvi Freeman is asked: If G‑d knows best, what's the point of praying? ... Yanki Tauber tells a story involving a king, a peasant, and a nightingale... Father of 14 Yaakov Lieder offers some parenting advice... Lag BaOmer, which celebrates the emergence of Jewish Mysticism from the womb of secrecy and exclusivity, is celebrated with bonfires, bows and arrows, and studies of the lives and teachings of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai...
We also take a look at the week's double Torah reading of Behar-Bechukotai (Leviticus 25:1-27:34), browse through the commentary on its chapters from sages and mystics from Moses to today, and explore the writings of the Chassidic Masters on the Shemittah and Jubilee cycles, the cosmic meaning of "usury", the dynamics of reward and punishment, the evolution of evil and the evaluation of value.
The king commanded his coachman to halt at the peasant's door. "How are you enjoying my gift?" he inquired of his beloved subject
The Sabbatical and Jubilee years, doing business with G‑d, reward and rebuke, and a system for evaluating value.
The Sabbatical and Jubilee years, doing business with G‑d, reward and rebuke, and a system for evaluating value.
A Chabad-Lubavitch Chassid who served in active combat in the recent fighting in Jenin shares some of his experiences
The sorrow was guarded by soldiers dressed for battle, determined that no more grief would strike this village and this family -- at least until the funeral was over
Think of prayer as G-d talking to Himself -- through you
Lag BaOmer is a festive day on the Jewish calendar, celebrating the anniversary of the passing of the great sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and the end of a plague that raged amongst the disciples of the great sage Rabbi Akiva.
The most important things a parent could give his or her children are time, attention, care and boundaries
It’s G-d’s world. Everything He gives is good, the sweetest good.
But it is often a good far too great for us to understand. We imagine it is not good, because that’s the only way to make sense of it with our small minds.
Yet the truth is, He gives us all the good we can handle. If we could take more, He would g...
