Rabbi Yossi's Blog

I’m told that the best test of a sermon is depth – not length. (I wonder how I score on that count…) No one can argue, though, that G-d definitely doesn’t go on for too long. Just last week we read the Ten Commandments – not a long sermon by any account, it’s just 620 letters long! But it was presented with such an impressive delivery that it has been resonating loudly throughout history.

The delivery included such amazing and overwhelming spiritual revelations that it caused the millions of Jewish people watching to faint! After such an intense spiritual experience, you would expect the continuation of the Torah’s narrative to focus on maintaining this deep connection. Yet this week’s Torah portion focuses on quite mundane laws; civil laws associated with redress of damages, loans and rules governing Jewish courts.

It almost seems as though the Torah is attempting to distract us from this amazing spiritual experience, by diverting our attention back to the mundane world!

The truth is, that in this juxtaposition is evident the intention and purpose of the entire Torah and Mitzvot: to live a physical life in accordance with a higher purpose. G-d created this world, and in fact the entire universe, with the purpose that we, small human beings that we may be, would live our lives in accordance with His will; not that we should seclude ourselves on a mountain top and meditate in an attempt to draw closer to the Infinite.

True holiness is not measured by how removed we can be from the physical reality, rather by how well we master our world and elevate our lives.

Image credit: Jan-willem 

Your annual performance review at work is coming up and you have to prepare a report for your supervisor, outlining your accomplishments of the past year. Or maybe you’re trying to get hired for a new, long-coveted job. Will you list your most impressive accomplishments or will you only mention the areas that your performance was less than perfect? Will you list your primary talents, skills and experience or will you suffice with the mediocre?

Of course you will try to portray yourself in the best way possible, in order to be perceived as the best candidate for a raise or to be hired for the job!

Would it make sense for an accomplished scientist who is trying to establish his credentials and gain acceptance by his peers, to introduce himself as someone who enjoys to play golf on the weekends? Of course not!

Why then does G-d introduce Himself to us as the One who took us out of Egypt?

You’ve surely heard of it before - the Ten Commandments. Well, they’re in this week’s Torah portion and it’s always interesting how G-d uses the experience of the Exodus as a means of introduction. You see, G-d has a pretty significant accomplishment with which to establish His credentials - after all, He created the very world that we inhabit! Wouldn’t that have been a more credible way for Him to introduce Himself?

But there is a very important reason G-d chose this specific reference (and it has nothing to do with Darwinism). The purpose of this event at Mount Sinai, this awesome experience when G-d formally introduced Himself as it were to the Jewish people, was in order for us to enter into a relationship with Him. And what was most relevant to our ancestors? They had just been redeemed from a generations long slavery, they had only a few weeks before been set free by G-d Himself. This was most relevant to them.

G-d was reaching out - and continues to so today - in order to enter into a relationship. He is looking for closeness from us and the language of this relationship is Mitzvot. Each Mitzvah that we do connects us and strengthens our personal relationship.

Let go! Allow yourself to fall in love with G-d all over again - do a Mitzvah today! (Click here for some great Mitzvah ideas that require an investment of one minute or less). 

Image Credit: ba1969 

Goldie and I moved here with our two young children six and a half years ago, and by now you may even take it for granted that there is a full service Jewish center in Folsom/El Dorado Hills. But if you stop to think about it, you may realize how unlikely it really is. In fact, the most common reaction that I get when I first meet local Jewish families is, “Here!? You live here in Folsom?” And although it is an unlikely place for a Chassidic rabbi to settle, it is not an uncommon story. All over the world, in some of the least likely places, there are representatives of Chabad waiting to serve the local Jewish community.

Visiting Alaska, Hawaii, Wyoming or Montana? Going on vacation to Cancun or Playa Del Carmen? Find yourself in New Zealand, Cambodia or Singapore for some odd reason? You guessed it! Chabad is there. Today it is almost taken for granted, but it all began 64 years ago when the son-in-law of the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe took on the leadership of the Chabad movement.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known simply as “The Rebbe,” revolutionized the Jewish world by setting in motion a global network whose sole mission is to reach out to every individual Jew and encourage them to reengage with their treasured heritage.

The Rebbe trained his followers to view people not by their superficial selves but by their core, their soul, that pure, untainted energy full of potential. That’s why this Shabbat is such a special date; it marks the day that this global revolution was put in motion. It’s the day that the tide of Jewish history changed forever, for the positive.

The Rebbe was known for many miraculous stories, but I think even more important is the Rebbe’s miraculous message: that every single person can perform miracles. When we do more than we did yesterday, when we do an extra mitzvah that we didn’t think possible to accomplish, that’s miraculous.

Let’s learn from the Rebbe’s example and live miraculously!

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Here are some great links to learn more about the Rebbe and his teachings. Read what the Rebbe did before prayers and how his three word answer saved a village. Why the Rebbe sent a scientist to Soviet Russia and what the Rebbe was doing at 3:00am. Or click here to learn about the Rebbe’s profound teachings.