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Shabbat Parashat Chayei Sarah| 5767

Chayei Sarah | | 01/01/2006

“You Are a Prince of G-d in our Midst”

Going through Sefer Bereishit, we get to glimpse at our patriarchs and matriarchs through the various episodes that appear. How should we view them? Should we look at them as heads of a family, which only hundreds of years later emerged as a nation, after the exodus from Egypt? Or should we look at them as princes and noblemen during their lifetimes?

P’ninat Mishpat

Case: Political party “X” is governed by a ve’ida (party conference) that is convened periodically. The ve’ida ratifies the party’s chukka (constitution), to which all party members are bound. The party also has a merkaz (a smaller group of representatives) with defined authority and is run on a daily basis by an even smaller group, known as the va’ad hapo’el (the directorate). Under the previous chukka, members of the directorate were automatically made members of the ve’ida. The new chukka states that members of the ve’ida are elected by the party’s members and that the merkaz sets the process of the election and supervises it. The merkaz decided that the directorate should still not require election to the ve’ida, explaining that this helps ensure continuity in the party’s operations. Other party members disagree, stating that the merkaz does not have the authority to appoint representatives to the ve’ida, but only to supervise the elections.

Moreshet Shaul

What makes Rav Kook’s teachings both novel and classic? The answer is hinted in the names of his philosophical works, which all contain the word orot (the lights of). What is the nature of light? Light, [in its major function in our lives] does nothing new but allows us to view that which exists but would have gone unnoticed. This is in line with Rav Kook’s explanation of the apparent contradiction between two statements of Chazal regarding R. Eliezer.

Ask the Rabbi

Question: In our religious summer camp, some items were apparently stolen, and there were grounds to suspect a specific camper. We considered searching the camper’s belongings to try to catch him, return the stolen objects, prevent future thefts, and perhaps educate the offender. We decided not to do the search but could we have?

Chayei Sarah

This edition of Hemdat Yamim is dedicated

to the memory of R’ Meir ben Yechezkel Shrugs Brachfeld o.b.m.

Hemdat Yamim is also dedicated by Les & Ethel Sutker of Chicago, Illinois in loving memory of Max and Mary Sutker and Louis and Lillian Klein,z”l. May their memory be a blessing!

A weekly divrei Torah leaflet: A Glimpse at the Parasha, Ask the Rabbi, From the writings of Harav Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook, zt”l, Pninat Mishpat (Jewish Monetary Law).

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