A Quick Torah Thought

 My grandfather, Rabbi Orenstein, was a scholar and leader. He received his semicha (rabbinic ordination) from Rabbi Hutner of blessed memory, and was the rabbi and leader of a beit knesset in Massapequa, NY, for close to two decades. My grandmother, his wife, unfortunately developed renal failure, and her dialysis and the medical difficulties that arose, in many respects led to the end of my grandfather's public tenure as a rabbi. They moved to Florida to a retirement home and for close to a decade, nobody knew that my grandfather was a rabbi. When they learned of his erudition and stature, as a talmid chacham and community leader, they asked him to partake in the monthly scholar program, whereby they would ask resident scholars to speak on different topics. He spoke on a range of topics at the Young Israel of Pembroke Pines, but one of the topics most dear to his heart was Hashem's vision for a more perfected world, which he saw through the lens of the dialectic exempli...

 I also thought it a blatant injustice that the one who pioneered and first conceived of the notion of sacrificing, should be relegated to such a dismal fate. There's a famous - and unresolved - debate in the Talmud if our daily prayers are meant to parallel the temple service or the prayers originated by our forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. Yet, well before these forefathers, it would seem that the first party who made a foray into the world of divine service was Kain. The biblical narrative makes no mention of Adam and Eve turning to God, beseeching Him, requesting anything on their own initiative. And yet, Kain, who literally gave all of humanity this most important institution of worship, receives little acclaim, but rather, ignominy and disdain.  If anything, it was Hevel who copied Kain. Who wasn't an originator, or someone who paved a new way. Yet, Hevel comes out on top. His blood cries out, but certainly he's deemed more righteous. Kain is the callous o...

So many of us have found our lives truncated in some respect; be it socializing, the financial challenges Corona brings, the inability to see loved ones overseas, in so many ways Corona has hampered our ability to live the way we once did.  I recall very vividly taking a nature hike at Machon Meir with Rabbi Dov Bigon, may he live and be well. He pointed out a plant that looked like a mere root. Lifeless, devoid of leaves and flowers, it literally looked if it had been desiccated, and sucked dry. I remember Rabbi Bigon saying that the plant was emblematic of the human experience. Come drought, the plant shrivels up, and looks anemic, and withered. But come times of plenty, the plant blossoms, sending forth beautiful flowers, verdant and majestic. In so many ways what we're experiencing now is epitomized by that desert plant. We look now, when times are rough, when family cannot be seen - at least face-to-face, to focus on the loved ones we can see - and the few friends whose compan...

  In many ways, Sukkot represents the culmination of the teshuva process, but in a more primal way. In a certain respect, after a person comes to terms with the fact that he is loved just for the way he is, for his very and every effort, like the people of Ninveh, he is summoned to leave behind the newfound comfort, the stable ground attained, and step outside. Perhaps like Avraham stepping beyond himself to see the stars above, to realize that his destiny is infinite if he expands his comfort zone, so too – nestled in our protective lanugo – we are immediately wrested from the comfort and forced outside into a milieu not of our choosing, and not necessarily to our liking. In effect, that is the message we learn in Sukkot. That life can rattle us, bring upon us great joys and great pain, but that we're still enveloped in a protective, albeit seemingly frail shelter. The famed question about what the sukkah is reminiscent of is answered in one of two ways, one, the huts our ancest...