Articles with the tag: shabbat shuva
Teshuvah Means, “i’m Coming Home”
On its simplest level, sin means breaking His law. But scratch beneath the surface and the Hebrew terms and you will discover the dynamic of sin…and ultimately the power of Teshuvah. The generic term for sin is aveirah, from the root avar, to cross over, or pass beyond. Aveirah means a trespass, stepping beyond the limits of propriety to the “other side.”
If ‘stepping out of bounds’ would bring to a close the game we call LIFE, then the history of man would have begun and ended with Adam. A merciful Creator took this into account, so even before Genesis, the Holy One fashioned the possibility of Teshuvah, for without its grace, man could not but despair, crushed by the…
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Shabbos Shuvah~shabbeternal Moments
He was born in 1858. At his circumcision, he was officially inducted into the family of Rozin and the people of Israel with the name, Yoseph. Recognized early on as a prodigy, he soon earned the title, the Rogatchover Gaon, the Genius of Rogatchov.
A scholar of penetrating intelligence, he combined encyclopedic knowledge with a form of study which he perfected, called Chakirah, which analyzed Talmudic texts for their underlying rationale and conceptual basis.
A prolific writer, he answered thousands of Halachic queries that touched upon such diverse issues like philosophy and science. In one of his novella, he differentiates between the concepts of time used by the Torah to measure Shabbos versus Yom Kippur. Referring to a Mechilta (a…
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Shabbos Shuvah~a True Teshuvah Story
Sara Rigler was a veteran of anti-War demonstrations in the sixties. Those days were however long gone. That evening was just a Saturday night music fest. True, it was set up one block away from the P.L.O. headquarters in East Jerusalem. Also true, that the organizers wanted to assert the idea that Jewish sovereignty extended to the entire city. Still, there were no placards and no speeches. Instead, the atmosphere was one of family festivity.
Soon enough the music started. Men joined hands and began to dance. Suddenly, out of nowhere, police charged into the crowd, swinging Billy clubs. Troops jumped onto the stage, grabbing instruments and pulling down loudspeakers. An old man positioned directly under a speaker was in…
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