INSIGHT 5780 - #17: THE NATURE OF TORAH

For  Beshalach
 
Available on the Nishma Facebook Page
Not yet available on the Nishma website

We can perhaps assume that Moshe Rabbeinu enacted the schedule of Torah readings even though it did not solve the immediate problem of having gone three days without a form of Torah inspiration as He was thinking about a solution l'dorot, for the generations. In the moment, the call was, perhaps, for people to be aware of the problem and develop their own forms of gaining Torah inspiration.

Rabbi Ben Hecht

INSIGHT 5779 - #17: GIVE ME LIBERTY OR…

For Beshalach
 
Not yet available on the Nishma website

It is of interest to note that Patrick Henry saw his words a reflecting a deep commitment to the human being being created in the image of God. Liberty was not to be a license for a person to do whatever a person desired. It was the freedom for one to do all that was necessary to reach the Divine goal for the person. It was clearly a Torah value which he enunciated. The freedom attained through the Exodus from Egypt was not intended to allow people to be as hedonistic as they may wish. It was actually a transfer from being slaves of Pharaoh to becoming ovdei Hashem [servants of God]. Part of this task was for one to grow and develop, more and more, into this type of person. It is a lack of this understanding of what liberty truly is from which we suffer from in today's world.

RBH 

Insight 5778-25: THE MIRACLE AT YUM SUF

For Pesach and Beshalach
 
Not yet available on the Nishma website


My final message in the Insight would seem to actually supported by the fact that the opening verses in the Shira refer to God's Might against the Egyptians. This, I find, most significant in that the nation itself experienced their own miraculous salvation, passing through the Sea in a most tranquil way. This is really supported in the midrashic literature in that the land was dry and level and there were fruit trees growing from the water so that the people could enjoy a delicious fruit as they traveled. Yet, describing their own experience was not how they began the Shira for the greater reality of God's Existence is that He fills all aspects of Creation. As He saved the Jewish nation in such tranquility, He dealt with the Egyptians as they deserved, with the wrath of His Might -- and even, as the midrash explains, each Egyptian as individually deserving. That recognition of reality really brought forth shira.

RBH

Insight 5778-18: FURTHER ON A NATIONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

For Beshalach
 
Not yet available on the Nishma website

Insight 5777-24: WHAT, REALLY, ARE WE SUPPOSED TO REMEMBER?

For Parshat Zachor, Ki Teistzei and Beshalach
Not yet available on the Nishma website

Insight 5777-20: THREE DAYS WITHOUT TORAH

For Beshalach
Not yet available on the Nishma website


 It should be noted that the Rav then extends his idea to further explain the similar value in all readings of Tanach. We, thus, also gain similar strength in all readings of a haftara and the megillot.  - RBH

Insight 5776-18: The Challenge of Theism

For Beshalach

Not yet available on the Nishma website

Study Question

1)

Insight 5775-18: Reason to Sing

For Beshalach
Not yet available on the Nishma website.


Study Question

1)

Insight 5774-18: Action and Prayer

For Beshalach
Not yet available on the Nishma website.

Study Question

1)

Insight 5773-19: Why Were You Bothering Us?

For Beshalach
Not yet available on the Nishma website.

Study Question

1) The theory expressed in this Insight would seem to challenge the Chassidic view of the rebbe. This is something you may wish to investigate.

Insight 5772-27: Freedom's Stage at the Sea

For Pesach, Beshalach

Not yet available on the Nishma website.

Insight 5772-17: Natural and Supernatural

For Beshalach

Not yet available on the Nishma website.

Insight 5771-16: Prayer

For Beshalach

Not yet available on the Nishma website.