ב"ה
Giving is the easy part; it's receiving that's so difficult. How many people
do you know who have mastered the art of graciously receiving a gift or a
compliment? Why, many of us find it hard to bring ourselves to ask for
directions!
Leviticus 1:1-5:26 Torah Reading for Week of March 25 - 31, 2001 
Of men and beasts, bullocks and doves, blood and fat, fire and frankincense, sacrifice and pleasure, conscience and culpability, poverty and property.
The Parshah in a
Nutshell
If there is one thing our foray into the realm of subatomic particles has told us, it is this: Even if we believe that crystals can be explained by molecules, molecules by atoms and atoms by their particles and fields, nevertheless we are left with one big hole: Matter does not explain itself. So what is matter? It is a miniscule set of instances that allow a certain degree of defined measurement. That aspect of reality that our mind's perception can resolve. The vast majority of the cosmos inherently eludes definition. Therefore, we don't consider it to be part of our reality. But in fact, it is the essence of our reality. This is what the Kabbalah means when it talks about the spiritual: That which explains the material, but remains beyond it.
In March of 1945, The Skulener Rebbe found
himself, along with other holocaust survivors and displaced persons, in the
Russian-governed town of Czernovitz, Bukovina.Passover was only weeks away. Despite the oppressive economic conditions, the Rebbe was able to obtain wheat for the specially guarded Shmurah Matzah, and to bake a limited number of these matzahs. He sent word to other Chassidic Rebbes in the region, offering each of them three matzahs.
The fact is, if it’s philosophy someone else has already either thought of
the same thing on their own, borrowed some pieces and reverse-engineered it, or
plain ripped the whole thing off and claimed it as their unique
world-view. All the more so if it’s a legend or a myth--somewhere, some people
in the world have some other story with a lot of strong parallels. After all, we
are all talking about the same world from within the same bodies. And we tend to
share things, too.Except for one, very enigmatic story.
I believe in love. I believe that when we feel loved and are able to love, the finest within us emerges and the worst retreats. I believe that words spoken without love, no matter how well-intended, will not penetrate, and that with love, even the clumsiest of words will find their mark. As parents we need not be poets or therapists, teachers or rabbis. We need to love. The love of which I speak is not the instinctual love of parent to child. I speak of a love born of intimacy, the kind of love we develop with our spouses, the kind of love that grows with years and with effort, the love that stems from communication and openness. |
 The Parshah in a Nutshell
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