Parshat Bechukotai

In Parshat Bechukoti, the Torah does say,
The rewards we will get, for walking in Hashem's way,
But why is it that in exile we don't see,
The rewards that Hashem promises immediately?

If we look back in history, the contrary we see,
The most righteous Jews suffered terribly,
Why is it that the Jews suffer persecution in every generation?
Why are the most evil always running after the Jewish nation?

The answer is that during exile Hashem is concealed,
G-dliness is not revealed,
Holiness and spirituality are hidden but very much alive,
Evil is attracted to holiness, because that is the only way it can survive.

The end of the exile is like the labor pains before birth,
But when Moshiach comes, evil will be eradicated from this earth,
All the veils, curtains and obstacles will be dissolved,
With G-dliness, Torah and Mitzvot we will be involved!

The world will be in a perfect state,
To enjoy fruit that we plant, we won't have to wait,
Everything will be absolutely great,
With a parable, all the above, we will illustrate.

There was once a king who was as lost as could be,
In the deep forest, tree after tree was all he could see,
His hunting party was nowhere to be seen,
It was like a terrible dream.

Suddenly, rain began to fall,
There was no one to hear his call,
He didn't have an internet connection or a cell phone,
He was drenched to the bone.

In the distance he finally saw a small light,
In the clearing there was a small hut in sight,
Moshe the Jew, opened the door right away,
He offered his guest a place to stay.

Moshe gave his guest whatever he had,
With goat's milk and straw the king was glad,
The next morning, Moshe took his guest to the city,
The king was as grateful as could be.

The next day, a royal carriage did arrive,
Moshe was taken by surprise,
Moshe came before the king,
He was rewarded with everything.

A few days later, Moshe did meet,
His friend Yankel, walking down the street,
When Yankel heard what Moshe did for the king,
He decided to try the same thing.

To bring goat's milk and straw to the palace, was quite silly,
Yankel was thrown out of the palace immediately,
In the forest, the identity of Moshe's guest was unclear,
Therefore the goat's milk and straw, to the king, was dear.

To the bitter exile, the forest does compare,
In our exile, Hashem is hidden but near,
Every Mitzvah to Hashem is so precious and dear,
We will receive the greatest rewards with Moshiach this year!

Souvenir: present box

Parshat Behar

Parshat Behar, on the mountain, it does mean,
Hashem spoke to Moshe on Mount Sinai, so green,
When you enter the land, on the seventh year, you must let it rest,
For six years, to work your land, you should do your best.

Why isn't the verse reversed,
If the six years of planting come first?
With Hashem we need to touch base,
And ask ourselves why we are working in the first place.

Do we live to eat or do we eat to live?
Do we work to make money or do we make money to give?
Do we give up on raising a family to have a career,
Or do we have a career to support our family so dear?

Before we go work to do our part,
We have to have our perspective straight from the start,
To devote the seventh year to Hashem, is our priority,
Hashem is the one who gives prosperity.

This applies to resting on Shabbat too,
Hashem sustains every Jew,
We won't make an extra dime,
If on Shabbat, in the office we spend time.

There is a lot we can learn,
From a parable about an urn,
A unique urn had six spouts all around,
Filling up cups of coffee, six men were found.

The seventh man did complain,
Because there was no coffee by the time he came,
"If only there was a seventh spout,
There would be coffee for me, he did shout."

The amount of coffee that the urn can contain,
The man didn't realize, remains the same,
If you add an extra spout,
No extra coffee will come out.

We need to have faith and learn,
That Hashem decides how much money we will earn,
In six days or seven, we will earn the same amount,
To give Tzedakah and to put into our bank account.

***************************************

For another lesson on perspectives we don't have to look far,
It is clear in Parshat Bechukotai, which is often read with Behar,
In Parshat Bechukotai, it does say,
That we need to give ten percent of our earnings away.

A person could say, it's not fair,
I don't want to share,
From this story we will see,
That giving Tzedakah should be our priority.

A charity collector once asked a rich man for a donation,
He was turned away with an explanation,
The wealthy man said that he already gave his share,
He showed his charity receipts from the past year.

Looking around the room, the collector did see,
The wealthy man's home full of beauty,
The collector asked if he could share,
A Torah thought for all to hear.

When the Beit Hamikdash stood in all its glory,
Tithing from one's flock was mandatory,
How was this process done?
The animals walked out of the pen one by one.

The owner would count one, two, three,
With red dye the tenth would be marked immediately,
Why was this exercise necessary?
Why did each animal have to be counted individually?

The owner would realize, as the animals walked out the door,
That although he was giving, he was getting much more,
It was as though Hashem was saying, "After giving you nine,
I'm asking for just one to be mine."

All of our wealth, from Hashem does come,
We need to share with everyone,
We need to change our perspective,
And give without being selective.

Souvenir: play money

Parshat Emor

In this week's Torah reading, to count the Omer it does say,
During this time period, the Omer we count every day,
To receive the Torah we are delighted,
We count for seven weeks to show we are excited.

On the second day of the Pesach holiday,
An Omer, which is a measurement of barley, was offered right away,
It was an offering of thanksgiving,
For the harvest season that was beginning.

What is the connection between the Omer offering,
And the seven week counting?
There is another question that we need to explain,
Why do we count the days that past instead of the days that remain?

The counting of the Omer is a journey,
Of transforming freed slaves into royalty,
Let us take a lesson from this story,
And become truly free!

There once lived a family,
That was as poor as can be,
For clothes and food they had no money to pay,
They moved to the garbage dump one day.

They ate leftover food and played with broken toys,
That were thrown out by other girls and boys,
They ran around freely and didn't go to any schools,
They had no chores and no rules.

One day the king rode by,
When he saw the children he began to cry,
He offered the kids an opportunity,
To come with him to the palace and live royally.

The children said, "No, thank you,"
To go to school and have manners they didn't want to do,
They wanted to be free and have fun,
With this life only one boy was done.

Yisrael, was the only boy who was grateful to the king,
He went to the palace and learnt everything,
He couldn't run around and be wild anymore,
But he married the princess and was happier than ever before!

When the Jews were freed from Egyptian slavery,
Their spiritual state was one of barley,
Being free was a dream come true,
Now they thought, no one would tell them what to do.

Every Jew has a G-dly and an animal soul,
At this point the animal soul was in control,
Now that they were finally free,
The animal soul said, "Now, it's all about me."

No schedule or rules, for an animal is O.K.,
For a human being it is no fun after a day,
The animal soul has to be trained to see,
That there is more to life than barley.

In this world there are many physical things that are tempting,
When we run after our desires, it is our animal soul that we are serving,
When we give in to our emotions and wants, we are still in slavery,
All the materialism in the world won't make us happy.

To ourselves we need to be true,
We are Hashem's children with a mission to do,
Our mind has the ability to rule over our emotions in the heart,
To follow the palace rules is where we start!

When Yisrael came to the palace, he had to cleanse himself and shower,
For seven weeks, to refine our character, we have the power,
The world laughs and says that the palace rules are extreme,
But following Hashem's laws is what true freedom does mean.

We count the days that passed,
We concentrate on our accomplishments and make them last,
Instead of thinking about what should be mine,
We make our animal soul shine.

By time the holiday of Shavuot rolls around,
Our selfish animal soul can not be found,
Our animal soul is transformed totally,
We are free to serve Hashem wholeheartedly.

On Shavuot the Jews brought an offering made of wheat,
Two loaves of bread which is made for humans to eat,
The two loaves represent the G-dly and animal soul,
Working together to fulfill one goal.

When our G-dly soul rules over our animal soul we are freed,
To refine ourselves, on Shavuot we succeed,
Shavuot is our wedding anniversary,
We are truly royalty!

Souvenir: Sefirat Haomer chart

Parshat Kedoshim

Long ago lived a sage of great fame,
Hillel the elder, was his name,
Once a man tried to put him to the test,
The entire Torah on one foot, was his request.

While the man stood on one foot that day,
This is what Hillel the sage did say,
"Love your fellow as yourself, is the Torah in its entirety,
All the rest in commentary."

"Love your fellow as yourself," seems like a nice ideal,
Is love something we can be commanded to feel?
On our perspective it does depend,
When we look at the essence, everyone is a friend.

To a candle each one of us does compare,
Candles can be found everywhere,
Candles come in every size, and shape,
There are many different scents like lemon, berry and grape.

Although candles come in every color of the rainbow,
There is one thing we all know,
In essence all candles are the same,
What they have in common is their flame.

On the outside our differences appear,
We have different opinions to share,
Each one of us is special and unique,
Some like blue while others prefer pink.

But on the Inside, we are all the same,
We all have a Neshama, flame,
For every Jew, we can feel love,
Because every Jew is a child of Hashem above.

When the layers we uncover,
We are one family, we discover,
To put the soul first is the key,
The soul is the #1 priority!

To love your fellow as yourself, in this Torah portion we see,
The other 612 Mitzvot are commentary,
Because all the Mitzvot were given,
To reveal the G-dliness that is hidden.

Souvenir: birthday candles

Parshat Acharei

"After the death of Aharon's two sons,"
Nadav and Avihu died because they loved Hashem tons,
To be united with Hashem was their desire,
They died when they brought a strange fire.

What does this have to do with me?
On their level I can be!
Nadav and Avihu paved the way,
So that we can feel passion and desire for Hashem today.

After we reach the level of desire,
We need to know that there is a level that is higher,
Saying "I love you!" or "I'm sorry!" is very nice,
But about the other's needs do we think twice?

It is selfish to just think about how I feel,
Thinking about the other's desires is the big deal,
I enjoy the time that together we spend,
But putting the other first, is what makes a true friend.

"You, I love!" we should say,
"What can I do for you today?
I can see things from your perspective too,
Because what really matters is you!"

Nadav and Avihu said, "I love you very much!"
But with Hashem's desire they weren't in touch,
What counts is what we do,
After we say "I love you!"

To do Mitzvot in this world is the way,
To express our love for Hashem today,
On Yom Kippur "I'm sorry!" we say,
But the challenge is what we do the next day.

How do we keep up the love all year long?
How do we keep our commitment strong?
We realize that we are actually,
A part of Hashem so holy.

To fulfill Hashem's will is our priority,
Because we are not a separate entity,
Hashem's desire and our desire become one.
We won't stop until we are done.

Souvenir: heart stamp

Parshat Metzorah

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Parshat Tazriah

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The Pesach Seder

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