PARSHAS BOLOK:

(23: 4) When Hashem appeard to bilaam the possuk uses the word 'vayikar'. Rashi says that vayikar is a loshon of temporary, disgrace, embarrasment and 'tumas keri'. In other words there is a connection between tumas keri and a temporary, unfixed realtionship with Hashem. It also connotes a certain reluctance from Hashem to establish the meeting. Tumas keri is something which separates us from Hashem and we cant have a consistent, developing and real kesher with Him until we rid ourselves of tumas keri and its surroundings (ie lust)

CHIZUK:

Rav Aharon Rotte, the Toldos Aharon Rebbe z'tl writes in taharas hakoidesh. Five words in a row from 'oz yoshir' start with an aleph - 'omar oiyeiv erdoiph asig achaliek'. Dafka in the words representing the enemy on his way to pounce against us, each words starts with an aleph which represents the 'alupho shel olam' chief of the world ie Hashem. The lesson being, even when the crazy temptation is threatening us, Hashem is hiding right there - HE is the one who is testing us right now and we have to learn to see through the fog to the opportunity He is giving us to make a connection with Him and grow.

May we all have the strength to see through the fog!

3 Weeks chizuk:

'vesechezeno eineinu beshuvcho letsiyon berachamim' - 'May our eyes witness Your return to zion in compassion'. At this time of year, this tefilloh, said in shmoneh esrei 3 times daily, takes on a new fervour. We are cognisent of the fact that Hashem's glory is hidden, there is no bais hamikdosh, we are still in golus etc... and we yearn for Hashem's return. In the tefilloh, we ask to SEE Hashem's return. How will the eyes who see shmutz be able to see the golry of Hashem? If we want to view the return of the kedusha, we've gotta stop viewing the tumoh! We have to make our eyes worthy to see Hashem's glory restored.

CHIZUK FROM THE CHURBAN:

Rav Chaim Shmulevitz brings a ritvoh in Yuma (54b). The gemorah says, that when the non-jews entered the kodesh hakodoshim to destroy the bais hamikdosh, they found the keruvim embracing eachother and made fun of the jews. The ritvoh asks that it says in bava basra (91a) that the keruvim faced eachother when the jews did Hashem's will, to show there was a closeness between Hashem and us, but when we didn't they faced apart. How come during the churban, when we clearly weren't doing Hashem's will they were facing together?

Rav Chaim says that this is because rebuke can only be done through love. We see this with sedom as well, that when Hashem came to destroy them, the Shechina was around and Lot's family were warned not to look at it. When Hashem is making things hard for us and testing us, thats when His love for us is strongest, thats when He is closest. In other words, we have to train ourselves to see Hashem behind all the temptation coz its really Him who's doing it all in the 1st place, to give us a chance to reach greater heights.

CHIZUK FROM AV:

my mesader kiddushin said that av stands for 'ani bais'. I put myself 2nd. Av is a month which is mesugal for being selfless. The 2nd bais hamikdosh was destroyed because of sinas chinam and the tikun for the that is to be rodeph ahava for each and every jew (and stam creation of Hashem). This is what av is all about. Turning the taking selfishly on its head and starting to give selflessly.

CHIZUK FROM KINNOS:

I noticed a hint at our struggle in kinnos yesterday and i cried. I wanted to share it. In 'eli zion', where we talk about wailing for all the things that have befallen us, we say 'alei peshah asher ivso s'lul derech ashurehoh v'al tsivos keholeho shezufeho shechoreho' 'wail...for the sin which corrupted her and diverted her footsteps from the straight path, and for the legions of her congregations whose (faces) are now wrinkled and blackened'...  :'(

PARSHAS VOESCHANAN:

(5:17) 'velo sinof' - 'you shall not commit adultery'.

A couple of weeks ago (at least in England) the news was making a big deal about a woman in iran who was going to get stoned for commiting adultery. About how inhumane it is and they put loads of pressure on Iran to back down and they apparently did.

I mentioned to my wife how scary that was because its the exact same punishment as in our religion. The way they put in the western press makes it sound so barbaric and its hard to get my head around. Then my wife said, look at it the other way round, Hashem obviously chose such a terrible form of death for this sin cause its such a terrible sin, the western world and unfortunately us alongside them, have lost sight of this, the world has dumbed it down.

If we can picture the torturous death and relate it back to us, that we are basically worthy of that when we give in to our lust, maybe we'll realise how wrong we've gone and how we have to totally change our attitude towards our marriages and our wives being the most important things to us in our life.

Meforshim say (on the mishna Hevei zahir b'mitzva kalla k'chamira) that from analyzing what the Torah proscribes for a sinner we can deduce the severity of the sin.

The sin of adultery is as gruesome as death by stoning!  :o ??? >

PARSHAS EIKEV:

(8:2) 'lema'an anoischo lenasoischo loda'as es asher bilvovcho lishmor mitsvoisov im loi'  '...in order to afflict you so as to test you, to know what is in your heart, whether you would observe His commandments or not'.

Hashem's tests in the midbar where in order to test klal yisroel, to bring out what was trully in their heart. Unfortunately, nowadays, in so many areas of avodas Hashem, so many of us are lacking in sincerity, out heart is not in the right place even if we are doing the right thing, it could be chesed or davening etc...

Hashem's nisyonos for us are to test what's really in our heart, is it true and genuine or is it only lip service. Instead of needing afflictions to bring out our deepest, genuine desires for good, if we would only fill our hearts with good and train ourselves to genuinely try to ceonnect to Hashem and do His will all the time - even on a desert island - it would already be obvious where our hearts lay and we wouldn;t need wake up calls all the time.

Perhaps every time we see a trigger, hashem is asking us 'are you with Me, or are you with her?' If we would live with Him all the time, perhaps we wouldnt'need to be asked this question...

PARSHAS EIKEV:

(8:17&18) 'veomarto bilvovcho, kochi veotsem yodi osoh li es hachayil hazeh. Vezocharto es hashem Elokecho, ki hoo hanosein lecho koach la'asos choyil' 'and you will say in your heart, my strength and the might of my hand made me all this wealth. And you will remember hashem your G-d, because He is the one who gives you strength to make wealth'.

Perhaps a reason why many of us can be sober for a short while, 1/2 weeks or a month and then always fall, is this point. We get conceited, we think, we were the ones that made all these clean days, we can do it on our own and we get complacent. We have to remind ourselves, many times each day, that Hashem is the one who really does the work, He's the one who gives us our strength and we cant do it without Him!

Very well put!

It is not for naught that the Torah is called An Eternal Truth!

thanks! which one were you refering to?

They are both very nice! - as usual!

my comment, though, was referring to the latter one on Parshas Eikev, Where you explain how a person thinks that his clean streak is to his own credit - with disastrous results!

PARSHAS RE'EI:

Chizuk from blood!

(12:23) 'rak chazak levilti achoil hadam' 'just strengthen yourselves so as not to eat the blood'. Rashi quotes rav shimon ben azai who learns from here the importance of strengthening ones keeping of mitsvos, if blood which is disgusting needs strengthening in order to keep, how much more so things which one desires!

(12:25) 'loi tochalenu, lema'an yitav lecho ulevonecho acharecho' 'dont eat it in order that it should be good for you and your son after you'. On the flip side, from here rashi learns how amazing the reward must be for mitsvos if blood which people despise, if you're poresh from it, you benefit you and your descendants, how much more so gezel and arayos that a persons desires!

There are two things to learn from this. Firstly, that we constantly need to be mischazek in our kiyum hamitsvos and in our character development, we must never allow oursleves to get complacent and be happy with where we are. You know what they say - life is  like a downwards moving escalator, if you dont keep walking up your sinking down!

Secondly, if we get rewarded so generously for not eating blood, how much greater is our reward going to be for guarding our eyes and staying away from shmutz! we cant even begin to imagine what lies in store for us if we put in the hishtadlus!

PARSHAS SHOFTIM:

(18:13) 'tomim tehiyeh im Hashem Elockecho' 'you shall be wholehearted (artscroll translation) with Hashem your G-d'. we have just listed the future inquiring idolatery which the cana'anim used to use. Rashi points out that Hashem is contrasting what we should be doing to what the cana'anim would do. Dont worry about the future, just have faith in G-d. Tam can also mean simple (as in the tam in the hagodoh), we are being instructd here, to just simply have faith in Hashem without making all cheshbonos about the future, as rashi says, 'everything that comes your way, accept with simplicity'.

in other words, take one day at a time dont worry about what the future will bring concentrate on today. worrying about the future is what the cana'anim would do and it was an 'abomination' in the eyes of Hashem.