The Weekly Mission- Torah Portion by Isaiah Rothstein

In the world we live in, it is very hard to distinguish between good and bad, between light and darkness. The Baal Shemtov says that the evil inclination is at its finest when one believes that bad is truly good and that bad is in fact a mitzvah. For an example, if I say to myself “It’s okay to sleep late today; in fact it’s a mitzvah! Not only will I be more rested, but I will learn more Torah!” This is the yetzer hara at its best. Sometimes in the world, it’s hard to differentiate between black and white and everything in between. Sometimes things fall into shades of grey. Confusion and lack of motivation lead us to struggle with everything that we know is real and true because our yetzer hara is trying to overpower us. One Avraham Avinu’s character traits was the power to distinguish between the bad and good. Any bad that surrounded him, he stamped out or turned away from. We learn this important lesson many times in the parsha. One example is with Avraham and Lot’s herdsman. Avraha...

Parshat Noach The Sages teach us that every world calamity is a continuation of the destruction of the Holy Temple (lo aleinu – may we not experience any world calamities). Regarding the Sages’ statement, I think the same is true concerning the sin of Adam and Eve. After they ate from the tree, everything got worse. Adam not only neglected to repair their mistake (I say “their” because man plus woman equals man, i.e. man is not man without woman), but he even went the opposite direction. In this week’s Torah portion, we read the famous story of Noach and the ark. We might even regard this story fondly as the tale of a man who guided his family, along with giraffes, zebras and other animals onto a huge “boat-like” structure. We think of rainbows, floodwaters and everything in between. But this story is serious. And a common problem in modern-day Judaism is that, when it comes to the Torah; its stories, laws and customs, we seem to only know bits and pieces. “And all flesh perished that ...

Parshat Berieshit In High school me and my friends always had the one kid we would blame for everything. Even if we knew we were wrong we would always jokingly say “J.E did it”, he would acknowledge it as funny and show his indifference in the joke. Whether we are 16 in high school, twenty-one in college or sixty with grand children, the blame game has been in existence since the beginning of time. It’s amazing that it’s been around so long; maybe because the rules are simple, you’re never wrong. We read the Torah over and over in order to know HaShems will to the fullest, but also to improve ourselves. We read these portions every week and yet we must realize by human tendency that sometimes it’s more important to focus on the matter at hand and not the whole picture. We focus in on portions, week in and week out to learn with quality and not quantity. The more and more one reads the verses, there are always more lessons to learn and uncover in the Torah, but it is our goal to make t...

Parshat Nitzavim-Vayelech After a very long journey Moshe Rabeinu has fulfilled his mission of taking the Jews to the border of Israel. The children of Israel will partake on an adventure into the land of Israel without their leader to guide them. As one of the many final words of strength given over by Moshe he leaves us with a frighteningly appropriate verse for the time of year we are in… " Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid and do not be broken before them, for HaShem, you G-d—it is He Who goes with you, He will not loosen His hold on you not will he forsake you.(31:6)" As we make our way into the world every single day we must constantly say to ourselves "be strong, be courageous". When we feel like misplaced Jews in a foreign land we must say "be strong, be courageous", when we run errands for our mothers and we want to freak out we must remember "be strong, be courageous". We must pick our head up high and realize that HaSh...

Parshat Shoftim On Monday August 17th, 2009 I decided to do something that most consider crazy and foolish; I jumped out of a plane (with a parachute of course). In my life I have never felt a stronger and more exhilarating feeling than being 10,000 feet in the air. Falling at 120 mph, I thought I might wake up in my bed, dreaming. In Judaism, we are not supposed to place ourselves in dangerous situations in vain, so I decided to meditate on what life lessons I could derive from this experience and how it might coincide with this week’s parsha. I learned many things from skydiving, but one thing flew right into my mind, (no pun intended). When looking down at the Jersey coast line, I thought to myself, “Humans are crazy! We just never feel settled! We are always looking for things that we believe will bring us more happiness and fulfillment.” “You shall be wholehearted with HaShem your G-d (18:13)." At first glance, one might say, “Become one with G-d? Me? G-d is so big!” Some mig...

Parshat Re’eh It is in fact the truth that the cultural norm forces us to live in a completely judgmental society. We may see people of different skin color, different life styles, different financial situations, different clothing and different interests, and to many people who do not resemble their comfortable life style, those people are considered weird and sometimes “crazy”. We all have different Ideas of what we want in life. But sometimes we feel that we want what others may have in life. We sometimes watch people walking in the streets and we envy them. We envy them for their looks for their talent for their friends or for their knowledge. Sometimes we stay in this pursuit for something that is not ours to receive. For an example I want to be like Michael Phelps , but I know that I G-d has not given me the ability to swim the way can. I am not a… how you say, “Water baby”? In this week’s Parsha HaShem commands the Jewish peop...