A Joke – A Rabbi Walks Into a Heated Card Game –

This was in a chabad.org article for this week’s parsha. Starting the Book of Leviticus.

I have copied it from chabad:

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Whenever we study about the sin-offering—the sacrifice that was brought to atone for the inadvertent committing of a sin—I am reminded of the adorable story of a rabbi who is walking home from synagogue one Friday night, and through an open window he sees three of his prominent congregants playing cards. He knocks on the door, with no answer. Finding the door unlocked, he enters the house where he discovers a heated card game underway, bets and counter-bets being fervently exchanged, money flying back and forth. Despite his entrance, they barely notice him.

“Gentlemen,” he began in a loud but loving voice, “what’s happening here? Surely, you’ve forgotten that it is Shabbat?”

“Quite frankly, rabbi,” one of them responds, “we remembered.” The others nod in agreement.

“Well then,” the rabbi continues, “surely you’ve forgotten that playing cards is not in the spirit of Shabbat, and it is forbidden to handle money on Shabbat?”

“Quite frankly, rabbi, we remembered that as well,” said the self-appointed spokesman.

Perplexed, the rabbi asks, “Well then, is there anything accidental about this situation?”

“Yes rabbi,” he responds, “We’ve forgotten to draw the drapes!”

Amazing Life After Death Experience

I’ve been listening to Alon and he is a great speaker. His back-story is even more amazing. I know I’ve been asked in the past to post Life after Death Stories…. This is the one I want to share with you.

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Why Would This Generation Experience the Messianic Redemption?

In this week’s Torah portion, Behar, we learn about the laws governing the sale of lands, and the prohibitions against fraud and usury. Most of the portion, however, is dedicated to the laws of the Sabbatical Year. The Torah states: “Six years you shall sow your field. and harvest your crops, but the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of strict rest for the land, you must not sow your field.” (Lev. 25:3)

“If you wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year?’ I shall command My blessing upon you in the sixth year to yield crops for three years.” (Ibid. 25:20-22)

This passage, which speaks of the mitzva (commandment) of Shemita (the Sabbatical year for the Land of Israel), may also be interpreted in the context of the world at large and the redemption.

The six years of working the land are analogous to the first six millennia of the world’s existence, when everything is prepared for the seventh millennium by means of Torah and mitzvot.

Our present generation is near the end of the sixth millennium. This raises an obvious question: Why should our generation, which is qualitatively so much lower than all our predecessors, merit to experience the Messianic redemption? What makes us more worthy than the spiritual giants of the past that we shall usher in the “seventh year,” the “day that is entirely Shabbat and repose for life everlasting”? In other words, we have a metaphorical paraphrase of the question, “What will we eat in the seventh year.?”

The Divine response is: “I shall command My blessing upon you in the sixth year.” The stature and deeds of the earlier generations were indeed much greater than those of now. On the other hand, the present state of moral corruption throughout the world requires an unprecedented amount of fortitude and self-sacrifice to carry out even our minimal obligations. This lends our continued observance of Torah and mitzvot a quality and blessing superseding that of our predecessors. Thus we are more than worthy to experience the redemption.

We shall merit the “crops for three years,” i.e., of the three stages in the Messianic era: the initial redemption, the later stage of the resurrection of the dead, and the ultimate “seventh millennium.”

Copied from Chabad of North Monmouth County- http://www.chabadnmc.com

B’Shabbat – The Seventh Day – He Abstained

בוֹ שָׁבַת

 B’ Shabbat

He abstained

~~~~~~~ 

Now the heavens

And

 the earth were completed

and

all their host.

*

And God completed on the seventh day His work that He did,

and

He abstained on the seventh day from all His work that He did.

*

And

God blessed the seventh day and He hallowed it,

for thereon He abstained from all His work that God created to do.

*

These are the generations of the heavens

and

the earth when they were created,

on the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven.

Copied From:  http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/8166/jewish/Chapter-2.htm

Genesis Chapter 2 (Verses 1 to 4)

NOTES

“Shabbat” to rest or to abstain from doing what you would do on a normal day. This is why we rest on the 7^th day, and say Good Shabbos (Good Shabbat) to each other.

The word TaNaC means T=Torah, N = Navi or Navim (Prophet-s) and C=Writings (Scriptures)

All Bolding, Underscore, Italic done by me for emphasis purposes.