Back in 1996, Rabbi Finman was asked to speak to the niece of one of his students. After spending many hours answering her questions, the woman gave Rabbi Finman her e-mail address. Rabbi Finman wrote the woman a note and included in it a short insight into that week's Parsha and a short Chasidic story.
Realizing that this was something no one was yet doing,, Rabbi Finman sent the missive to his mailing list of about 30 people. Requests from recipients friends came pouring in. The next week Rabbi Finman sent the e-Parsha to 100 people. Within a year more than 2000 people were receiving it. Today, more than 14,000 receive the e-Parsha weekly and the requests keep coming in.
Noach 5786
Haazinu Yom Kippur 5786
Vayelech 5786
Nitzavim 5785
Ki Savo 5785
Noach 5786
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This week's YouParsha http://youtu.be/-TinNEbsgb0 Insights into the ark and why Noach didn't sleep for a year.
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This week we read the Torah Parsha of Noach, Genesis 6:9 - 11:32. As Noach left the ark, he was instructed in the laws of making a society. These statutes, known as the Noahide laws were to ensure that mankind would not revert to their previous mind set of wreaking havoc and destruction and generally making a big mess of things, thus insuring no reoccurrence of the massive devastation of another flood.
The seven commandments imperative to all mankind are: Believing in one G’d, not to worship idols, not to commit murder, adultery, or theft, not to be cruel to animals and to establish legislative bodies, courts and police forces charged with overseeing the fulfillment of the previous six.
Everyone, regardless of race, religion, or national origin has the obligation to be fruitful and multiply. The need for promulgating the species is obvious. Those cults and sects that practice total celibacy have met with little continued success, as their pool of members must constantly be replenished from outside sources. Called the miracle of birth, having children is the most natural of occurrences. Anything that counteracts populating the world is anathema to society. That is why the prohibition of adultery includes incest, bestiality and homosexuality.
Nowhere in the Bible does it speak of interracial unions. White/Asian, black/white, Asian/Native American, Asian/black are all permitted unions. Human beings, although of diverse ethnic backgrounds, are considered a single species, with one exception, Jews. The world has classified itself into two groups, Jews and Gentiles. (An aside: Non Mormons are referred to as Gentiles in Utah. The first gentile governor of Utah was Jewish.(?)) The term gentile, meaning indigenous, was not coined by Jews, but by Gentiles. The Gentiles themselves, considered themselves different from Jews. Jews are not better than non-Jews, nor vice versa, just different.
The Almighty charged Noach and his descendants with making the world a better, more G'dly place. The primary force of this mission was Abraham and his progeny. Hashem gave each nation the specific strengths and powers it would require to fulfill this mission, with the expressed expectation that that nation would fulfill its mission and only its mission. A non-Jew that fulfills the above seven laws is considered righteous, guaranteed to be resurrected with the coming of Moshiach and have a place in the world to come. (Judaism is the only religion that has place for non-members.) A Jew that fulfills only 612 of the 613 commandments, has not fulfilled the expected mission.
We can therefore, see, that mixed marriages, Jew and non, cannot be considered spiritually balanced. It would not be fair of the non-Jew to perform more than seven commandments, nor would it be satisfactory for the Jew to perform only seven. A couple cannot be balanced if their loads are unequal.
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Michoel and Atara Hasofer, Australian academicians, went into a private audience with the Rebbe in 1980. After discussing many things, the Rebbe said, "There are souls to be saved in Malaysia," and instructed Mrs. Hasofer to travel there to study meditation. Afterward he explained that she would be able to show the many young Jews who were practicing a non-kosher form of meditation the error of their ways and teach them a kosher form.
The couple set off for Malaysia, where Atara was introduced to the "master of meditation", a 97 year old Buddhist monk. The elderly man revealed that he was actually a Jew, the son of assimilated German Jewish parents. As a young man, he had embarked on a search for the meaning of life and had ended up the leader of a Buddhist sect. The monk taught Atara the fundamentals of meditation. Michoel Hasofer taught him Tanya, the basic Chabad Chassidic text.
A short time after leaving Malaysia, the Hasofers received a letter from a woman living in London. She wrote that she had flown to Malaysia to meet the "master" and expressed her desire to become his disciple. "Your place is not with me," he replied. "You must go to the source, to the place where they study the Tanya." He gave the woman the address of the Hasofers. That woman is now the mother of a prominent family living in Jerusalem.
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