The story of Lot, Avrohom’s nephew is a confusing and complex narrative. He was a disciple of Avrohom and continued in his master’s path of helping others. Even in Sodom renowned for its cruelty to wayfarers, Lot still insisted that he must invite guests to his home. When the angels showed up and planned to rescue Lot and his family, he pressured them to stay with him
Maimonides explains that Avrohom stood against the entire civilized world and preached about that there is only one Guiding Force in the world, Hashem. He wrote books proving his beliefs and even broke his father’s idols to demonstrate that they are powerless. Eventually Nimrod cast him into a fiery furnace and the heat was cooled off by the angels and he came out unscathed.
lthough Man was created in a very near to perfection state, mankind descended to the abyss of denial with involvement in idolatry and rejection of Hashem. Perhaps the ultimate denunciation was the infamous Tower of Babel.
We finished another cycle of reading the Torah and now we begin anew from the first parsha, Bereishis. That word actually means the beginning but is that what it is? After all, we did the same thing last year and all the years before. Are we always just beginning? Is there no end!
On Yom Kippur, the holiest day on our calendar, we reached the epitome of sanctity as we recited the Neilah service crying out to Hashem for His mercy and compassion. We concluded with Shema, the national call for acceptance of Hashem’s sovereignty and we answered with a resounding yes but it requires an explanation.
Chofetz Chaim cites an early source that the seven days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are very significant. They correspond to the seven days of the week and we have an incredible opportunity to rectify all the Mondays and Tuesdays of the year when we observe those days with total dedication to Hashem.
We will soon stand in judgment pleading with Hashem for yet another year of good health, a comfortable income, nachas from our children and each other. Truly, if one even superficially considers the possible negative outcome of this time it should send us into a frenzy. However, we unfortunately don’t have that cognizance of this special time and therefore we don’t shiver in our boots at this time of the year.
Hashem’s ‘desire’ to provide us with mitzvos is amazing. During the harvest when one is very occupied with reaping his crop and ingathering it into piles ready to shipped off to the silo for processing, to forget a heap of grain would certainly be a generic incident. Therefore, upon noticing the forgotten harvest he would go back and retrieve it. However, the Torah commands us otherwise.
Hashem guarantees us that a prophet will come forth from amongst the nation. The Torah states this saying that he will appear from your brethren, your very own brothers. It would seem that it would have been more appropriate to have said that he would be chosen from the people. Why is the terminology employed refer to our brothers?
The verse states that Hashem sets in front of us a blessing or curse. Initially the Torah seems to address the individual expressing ‘You’ in the singular form saying that one should realize the opportunity of blessing or curse. Yet the verse concludes that Hashem places in front of ‘You’ in a plural context