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.
Chaya Sora 5785
Vayera 5785
Lech Licha 5785
Noach 5785
Simchas Toarh Breishis 5785
Noach 5785
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This week's YouParsha. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyxZsOrQd_Q The Rainbow
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Parsha Noach - Genesis 6:9 - 11:32- features the story of the Flood. The flood occurred in the six hundredth year: The Zohar interprets this verse as a prophecy: "In the six hundredth year of the sixth (millennium, i.e., around the year 1840), the gates of supernal wisdom and the wellsprings of earthly wisdom will open. This will prepare the world to be elevated in the seventh (millennium, i.e., the messianic era)."
"Supernal wisdom" refers to the wisdom of the Torah, while "earthly wisdom" refers to secular knowledge. The era referred to in the Zohar's prophecy saw an explosion of knowledge, both in the realm of the inner secrets of Torah as well as that of revolutionary scientific discoveries. We can readily understand how the revelation of the inner dimension of the Torah prepares the world for the messianic era. We are taught that these revelations are a foretaste of the Divine knowledge with which the world will be filled at that time. How do the revolutionary revelations in the realm of secular knowledge serve to prepare the world for the messianic era?
The newly-revealed technologies provide us with a foretaste of the spiritual climate of the messianic era. At that time, our perception of Divinity will not be limited to intellectual appreciation alone. On the contrary, the physical eye will be able to see the Divine energy that sustains the world. Modern technology affords us a glimpse into such empirical perception of Divinity. For example, the knowledge that a telephone or radio can enable us to hear a voice from the other side of the world gives us an empirical example of the concept that G'd sees and hears all that occurs in the universe. Without this and similar examples, our appreciation of G'd's omniscience would be limited to an abstract, intellectual understanding, which does not always affect us fully. Now, however, with the aid of such examples, we can meditate upon the concept of G'd's omniscience based on our own empirical experience. New technologies can serve not only as an example of Divine concepts, they can be used to convey the new revelations of Torah's inner dimension in a way that helps prepare the world for the messianic era . The secrets of Torah, broadcast over the internet, are a foretaste of the messianic era, when Divine wisdom will spread without any restriction or limitation throughout the entire world and will be perceptible by our physical flesh.
Furthermore, scientific advances do not serve merely as a tool to broadcast the secrets of Torah; rather, they themselves reflect the concepts expounded in Torah's inner dimension. This concept of G'd's oneness, for example is evidenced in science itself: scientists used to believe that every organism comprises many, distinct elements. As science developed, it recognizes that the diversity within the universe is only superficial and that the universe is essentially the unification of form and matter. This explains the intrinsic connection between the development of the sciences and the revelation of Torah's inner dimension as a preparation for the messianic era. The revelation of Torah's inner dimension automatically leads to the development of the secular sciences. It is indeed through the latter that the foretaste of the Divine knowledge that will fill the world in the messianic era is experienced in an empirical way. When we see the world's oneness through the eyes of science, we realize that this oneness is identical to the oneness of Divinity.
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Very often, my talks turn towards the topic of tests. We are tested on a continual basis - right from the moment the alarm goes off in the morning. Waking up in the morning is the first topic discussed in the Shulchan Aruch - code of Jewish Law - "One should begin their day as strong as a lion, light as an eagle swift as a deer and courageous as a leopard to start their day to serve Hashem."
The snooze button is my nemesis. Back in the day of the Little Ben wind up alarm clock, when the alarm sounded - it was time to get out of bed. Enter the electric clock and the nine-minute snooze. Now a person could hit the button and have no worry of oversleeping. The alarm would go off again.
But just how tired is the person, really? In a third of a second, a person has calculated that: It is cold, it is dark, I have not slept enough, the bed is very comfortable - I just cannot wake up right now. The Talmud tells us that this is a trick of the yetzer hara - the evil inclination, whose job it is to make sure we do not do what we are supposed to do. Knowing all this before one goes to sleep only helps in theory. When my alarm goes off in the morning, it sounds like the shower scene from Psycho as my soul is dragged kicking and screaming back into my body. I tell people - to prove it, what would happen if immediately after you hit the snooze button, the phone rang. You would be awake and alert to answer the phone.
The Alter Rebbe in chapter 13 of Tanya, quotes a Talmudic saying, "Were it not for the help of the Almighty, we would never be able to overcome the yetzer hara." Such was evident this morning. It was dark, it was cold, I got to bed late, I am still recovering from Simchas Torah with its lack of sleep and festivities late into the night, I am tired. I hit the snooze. Five minutes went by, I hit the snooze again. Two minutes later, the phone rang. I quickly washed negel vasser and answered my phone. It was the police. They had received a 911 emergency call from my phone. "Impossible," I say. "No one is up." The officer asked me to check around please while he remained on the phone. No emergency. I checked the recents on my phone. No 911 calls made. I thought of that Talmud dictum, "Were it not for the help of the Almighty…" At that point, I said out loud, "Thank you Hashem for waking me up - but did you need to call the police to do it?"
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