Today is July 4, Independence Day in the USA.
Today is also Day 272.
A day we pray for the independence of our brothers and sisters who are trapped in Gaza, trapped behind the gates the terrorists have imprisoned them behind.
We want to celebrate their independence so desperately.
We know miracles happen. They have happened to the Jewish people from time immemorial.
48 years ago on this day, we witnessed such a miracle.
On July 4,1976, 100 Israeli commandos, were able to rescue 100 hostages who were being held at the airport in Entebbe.
The story is a miracle in our times.
This past week was also the 5th Yahrzeit, anniversary, of the passing of a great educator and mentor of thousands.
Rabbi David Trenk ztzl believed in miracles too.
He believed in the miracle that is you!
He would focus on the strengths of each person to the degree that they would start to believe in themselves and overcome the adversity that might be holding them back in any way.
There are hundreds of stories told by his students regarding this trait of positivity and how his outlook changed their outlook on themselves and how others viewed them.
Rabbi Trenk would take his car to a mechanic. There was another regular customer who frequented the same mechanic, a trucker, who was apparently extremely intimidating. Whenever he entered the mechanic’s shop everyone took a step back. Once Rabbi Trenk happened to be there when this burly gentleman came in. Within a moment he jumped up, hugged the man and said “my brother it’s so nice to meet you”.
The man literally melted before everyone’s eyes. He was so touched.
Afterwards one of the other customers asked Rabbi Trenk, why he called him “my brother”, after all, he was anything but.
Rabbi Trenk replied, he is my brother, did you not see the Magen David necklace he was wearing?
The truth is no one did see it.
They saw the persona of a truck driver. They couldn’t see beyond. No one else saw who he really was.
This week’s Torah portion is called Korach.
It speaks of jealousy amongst “brothers” that goes terribly wrong.
In the portion is a verse where Gd says to Aaron
“bring close, your brothers, the Levites, they will assist you and they will serve you”.
Rashi, the Torah commentary, explains what the role of the Levites, would be in the sanctuary and later on in the Temple.

Day 256
Many years ago our family had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of another family here in Atlanta.
One of the children, a teenager, was searching to find meaning in his Judaism, and became a regular visitor.
He brought his parents to meet us, and we became fast friends.
Each of the above had limited Jewish background, and they were intrigued to learn more.
They had another daughter who was attending a prestigious law school out of state. This daughter became alarmed as she heard about the Jewish journey her parents were embarking upon, and was afraid they had lost their compass.
To allay her fears, the mom suggested she join us on her next visit home.
To her credit, she came.
In perfect lawyerly fashion, she peppered us with questions about Judaism.
To me it seemed she was not very interested.
She was not connecting personally to the Jewish wisdom that was being shared.
As the meal progressed, my husband began sharing a Torah thought. It centered around the laws of Loshon Hara, the prohibition to speak slander about others.
I was astounded to see a complete change in the demeanor of our budding lawyer. She was dumbfounded to hear that Judaism forbids gossip, speaking badly about another.
It turned out that this precept was hers as well.
She was known amongst her peers as someone who would not speak, or share, or listen to Loshon Hara.
This decision on her part did not make her very popular with some of her friends, and it was at great personal sacrifice that she continued her practice.
Learning that there are many laws regarding proper speech and the respect the Torah requires us to show one another, was an eye opener for her.
Today, this young woman is a successful attorney, plying her craft while she carefully keeps the laws of Loshon Hara, and many others as well.

Behaalotcha.
When you go up.
This Torah portion is the one where the preparation to enter the Land of Israel is completed and the trek forward begins.
It is the point of transition from theory to practice.
If we would stop the narrative here the story would be pollyannish, a fairytale.
Gd took us out of Egypt with technicolor miracles, proceeds to present us with the Torah, establishes the Tabernacle, the nexus of Divine and human, and then gives us the commandments-the blueprint of how to live life in a spiritual manner while living on earth.
It seems just so perfect.
But life isn’t perfect.
Our lives aren’t perfect.
If we look at our lives they are often quite messy.
Difficult relationships, illness, loss, financial challenges and that is just a small sliver of the aforementioned mess.
If we would try to relate to the Torah, it would not jive.
The Torah perspective seems perfect, how can we relate?
But the portion just not stop with the theoretical.
Because this Portion has more complaints than any other portion.
The Jewish people are dissatisfied with so much, they even long for Egypt and it’s misery for goodness sakes.
The portion details the anger, frustration, complaints which seem so petty - real life on steroids.
It is Gd saying to the people, people you are complicated.
You are a mix of resentment, jealousy, weakness and even boredom.
Gd is very real about humankind.
Gd created us in our complex nature.
Our job as human beings is to live real life with all its challenges while simultaneously working towards reaching to the ideal.
In the words of Rabbi Reuven Tradburks
“Behaalotcha assured us that the ideal is to aspire to, while the real is to manage.”
This week our family suffered a devastating loss.
A very dear family friend passed away.

Day 244
Rachel Polin, mother of Hersh, who is still languishing in captivity, was asked to address a gathering of Chabad Campus outreach workers. Rachel thanked the women for carving out time in their busy schedule to support her and join her in prayer on behalf of Hersh.
She is praying for the rescue and release of Hersh Ben Chana Perel and the women in attendance prayed with her.
She was surrounded by their loving embrace.
It must have given her a modicum of comfort and surely gave her courage to continue in her brave fight on behalf of her son.
As I watched the event and speech I was taken with the kindness these women exhibited, not only taking of their time but showing up in a deeply meaningful manner.
That is Chessed.
Loving kindness.
A hallmark of a Jew.
Recently, a Holocaust survivor by the name of Marion Blumenthal addressed a group of young adults. This woman who grew up having experienced unspeakable horrors had a message for her young audience. They assumed she would exhort them to never forget or stand up to the enemy as no fight.
Instead her message was
“Be kind to one another”
Despite the darkness this woman has experienced, her motto is to be kind.
That is the hallmark of a Jew.
If we aren’t kind we cannot survive.
Next week we will celebrate the holiday of Shavuot.
This is the holiday when we celebrate the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people.
On Shavuot we read the book of Ruth which is the story of a Moabite princess who cast her lot with the Jewish people. One might assume that is the reason we read this book on Shavuot.
Just as the Jewish nation accepted the Torah, so too did Ruth when she converted.
Makes sense.
Our Sages give another explanation.
They call this book a book of Chessed, loving kindness.
The story is told in great detail to flesh out the extreme kindness that was done.
Here is the story in a nutshell.

Day 237
Every day of these 237 we have seen pictures.
Photos of smiling young men and women, in the prime of their lives.
And then we learn they are no longer with us on this planet.
The heart breaks again and again as we contemplate the shattered lives and broken souls who are left behind.
Many days it is too much to bear.
But we are given glimpses into the greatness of those we have lost and we are left breathless by their faith, determination and bravery. It makes us stand taller, squaring our shoulders as we brace ourselves to try a little harder to emulate them.
And what of the families they have left behind?
They are the true warrriors.
This week there was a Brit Milah. The mother of the baby, cradling the newborn in her arms, is flanked by her toddler and her own mother and grandmother. All are surrounding her in a circle of love, strength and support.
Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi was there.
Her reaction was not pity.
Rather she sees the scene and exclaims that we are a nation of lionesses.
She could see the power emanating from these women.
They will persevere and continue on.
I watched an interview of a bereaved mother.
She lost two daughters at the Nova festival. She shared about these two sisters, the light and joy they brought to her and to the world.
And while she is forever going to mourn them, she will also continue to live for them, having their spirit always with her, always feeling their presence, every single moment of her life.
She will not stop living she will honor their lives by living her own.
And their constant presence, she said, will be her inspiration.
For a bereaved parent, child or spouse, the grief is always a part of their new normal.
Rabbi Moshe Hauer teaches us the reality of this situation through the lens of this week’s Torah portion.
This week we will read the last Parsha of the book of VaYikra, the book Leviticus, which is called Bechukotai.
In it Gd promises to remember his covenant with Jacob and also Isaac and Gd will recall Gd’s covenant with the Abraham.
This refers to the promise that Gd makes that even if we have strayed and we are being dreadfully punished, at the end we will be remembered and redeemed.
The sentence is quite convoluted. It seems the remembrance and recalling is only connected to two of the three Patriarchs, Abraham and Jacob? What about Isaac? Why is there no need to remember him?
Rashi, the super commentator, explains that Gd does not need to remember Isaac, as his “ashes” are always piled before Gd.
(This refers to the Binding of Isaac. Gd commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and Isaac was willing to subject himself. The deed never actually took place, but because Isaac was willing, it is as if he was brought a sacrifice and the ashes are symbolic.)
Since those ashes are always present there is no need to remember that which is still and always, there.
Rabbi Hauer shares that this unusual statement can be seen as a reciprocation from Gd.
Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son. In his mind the deed was done. He was therefore considered a bereaved parent.
A bereaved person carries their loss with them always. With the passage of time they learn to live again, they learn to function, but there is always the absence of their loved one tugging at their heart.

Day 230.
We are counting days.
This count is horrifying.
As the days pass by, we know that our brothers and sisters continue to languish in a hell which we cannot fathom. The hostages are trapped in the darkest of places, a situation which will require a miracle of epic proportions to extract them from their captivity.
The number grows higher as the days pass by, and we are saddened, sickened, fighting to hold onto hope against insurmountable odds.
This is the season of counting days.
We also count the days between Passover, the holiday of redemption, the festival which commemorates our extraction from a horrific and very dark place and Shavuot, the time we received the Torah.
The Jewish nation was enslaved in Egypt for an interminable 210 years. Leaving Egypt was an impossibility. No one ever escaped from there.
Yet, after being held hostage for centuries, the entire nation of Israel was redeemed.
They stepped out of the darkness into the light.
49 days later, the Jews stood at the foot of Mount Sinai to accept the Torah.
Despite the fact we were saved from Egypt, the Jewish people were not in a great place.
Their spiritual level had sunk so low they were just one step away from being irredeemable.
Yet only 49 days later they were so spiritually elevated they were ready to receive the Torah.
This 49 days are therefore primed for personal growth.
As the Rebbe from Kotz teaches, every holiday and time has a spiritual energy which is available to us. This time period has an extra dose of accessibility to spiritual greatness and growth.
We count each day, knowing that each day brings us one day closer to the giving of the Torah.
These are days we rise in sanctity.
This Sunday will be day 33 of the count.
In Hebrew we call that day Lag BaOmer, Lag =33.
Lag BaOmer is a special day in the count, a celebratory day.
Historically it is the day the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying.
Shortly after the destruction of the second Temple some 1900 years ago, the Sage, Rabbi Akiva, had 24,000 illustrious students who were the future teachers of the Jewish people. Their presence was critical because the Jewish people had suffered a terrible loss with the destruction of the Temple. These young teachers would have supplied much needed support and inspiration.
But they all died.
All 24,000 of them.

Day 223
Lessons from the war:
Daniel Hemo is one of the five IDF soldiers who was killed in a tragic friendly fire incident in Gaza this week.
Daniel is an example of the extraordinary nature of our soldiers and youth in Israel.
He had signed up with the bone marrow registry in Israel which is called Ezer Mizion.
He matched with a woman in her 60s just before October 7. He has been scheduled to be discharged from the army on October 7 to begin the donation process. However, due to the outbreak of war the process was postponed.
The process was delayed, but the illness was progressing, so Daniel received a special dispensation to take a temporary leave to donate his marrow to save a life.
He immediately returned to his unit to fight another foe, and was tragically killed in the friendly fire incident this week.
Another hero has been taken from us.
Daniel made a Kiddush Hashem in his short time on earth.
We lost this giant at the age of 20.
A Kiddush Hashem means that he sanctified the name of Gd with his actions.
Daniel was focused on saving lives. And did so with his very being.
Another one of the fallen in this heartbreaking friendly fire situation was Roy Beit Yaakov, 22 years old. His father, a soldier who is also serving in Gaza, went on national television after the horrific accident.
He said, all these soldiers (those involved in the deadly accident)are righteous people, tzadikim.
He stated that when we are in the midst of war, terrible accidents can occur. He went on to invite the soldiers to his home, he wants to hug and comfort them.
He says of course he is in pain over losing his precious child, but this time is also a time which is highlighting the strength and courage of the Jewish people which calls “awesome”.
Instead of lashing out in pain and criticism, Roy’s father created a space for love and healing.
He gave emotional life to those who are devastated by the unintended result of their actions.
He created a Kiddush Hashem.
In his behavior he sanctified Gd’s Name, by acting as a Jew should act, shoeing love and empathy instead of spewing hatred and contempt.
This week’s Torah portion is entitled Emor and it teaches us that we are Gd’s ambassadors in the world.
“I must be sanctified” says Gd.
How do we mere mortals sanctify Gd’s name?

Day 216
May 6 was Yom Hashoah, the day we remember the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
On that day, a Holocaust survivor passed away.
Esther Greizer left this world at the age of 95. She had no children as she was a subject of the diabolical experiments of Mengele in Auschwitz which rendered her sterile. After the war she married and moved to Israel. The family she married into embraced her and she had many nieces and nephews.
They say she had a happy life.
When she passed away in Haifa on Yom Hashoa the family was concerned there might not be many people at the funeral.
A post went up on social media and the opposite happened as thousands attended her funeral.
One of her nieces said she was so happy for her beloved Aunt.
On the same day, a group of students were on the March of the Living. It was a group of about 60, and they realized that about 30 of them were descendants of survivors of Auschwitz.
They took the opportunity to make a special blessing.
This is a blessing one can make when revisiting a place where one experienced a miracle. The blessing can also be made when an individual visits a place where their ancestor experienced a miracle.
So in Auschwitz, some 30 young women made the blessing that their ancestors experienced a miracle in this place.
The miracle of survival.
One of the young women expressed her happiness at the opportunity of making the blessing.
In both of those instances the word happiness was used.
I found that an interesting usage of happiness.
Is that really a good definition of happiness?
The Jewish people seem to live in the nexus of joy and sorrow.
Next week we will experience Yom HaZikaron, the day we remember the fallen in Israel which is immediately followed by Yom HaAztmaut, Israel’s Independence Day.
The sorrow immediately leads to happiness.
How can that be?
It turns out that according to the World Happiness Report, Israel ranks 5th in happiness. This statistic is still true in this past half year when there has been so much tragedy.
This ranking includes the young adults who are serving in the army and often paying the highest, most unimaginable price for that service.
So how is it there is so much happiness?

Let me ask you 4 questions!
1. How did we eat so much?
2. ⁠Why am I finding Matza crumbs in every nook and cranny of my house?
3. ⁠Will my washing machine survive the many loads of linen it must disgorge?
4. After so much shopping, cooking, cleaning and preparation-how did it pass so quickly?
You may feel the need to remind me that the season of asking 4 Questions has passed, no pun intended.
But I am loath to see it go, so I am holding on to this modality for just a little longer.
Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi teaches us about these feelings.
After major holidays we seem to feel this sense of sadness.
It’s a hard time as we separate from the family time that was so much fun and so connecting, it was a time of creating such closeness.
And just like that, it’s over, with only the Matza crumbs and linens to tell the tale.
We also experienced a spiritual closeness. As we engaged in the holiday we shared wisdom and inspiration and teachings we learned and had the opportunity to share.
That experience provided hope and uplift.
And now it’s done.
How do we “climb back up on that hope”?
This week’s Torah portion is called Acharei Mot, which means after the death, details the aftermath of the terrible loss Aaron the High Priest experienced with the loss of his two sons.
It is a huge disappointment at the beginning of a time of potential closeness with the dedication of the Tabernacle.
At this time, Aaron is taught that he may not enter the Tabernacle at his own whim.
This seems to be a rejection, a further removal or distancing of any closeness.
Not only has Aaron lost his precious children, he also seems to be suffering rejection by Gd as well.
It seems to add insult to injury. But then the Torah explains in the next verse how Aaron will be able to enter the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle-when he will do the prescribed service, offer prayers and once again create close connection.
It seems that Aaron will first feel that he is lacking, but when he will engage in the service of connection he will receive the key to enter.
One may feel the lack of closeness, but don’t give up, try knocking on the door until it opens.
This coming Shabbat, the one immediately after Passover, there is a custom to bake one’s challah in the shape of a key.
Here is a hack to achieve the same result, take a key, wrap it tightly in silver foil, and bake it into the Challah.
Another hack is to buy frozen dinner rolls and place them in a round pan, a few rolls surrounding one in the center, bury the key in a roll and Voila-Key Challah!
Either way it can surely be the source of questions from the children, remember we are trying to hold onto that Passover feeling!!
Some sprinkle poppy seeds on the Challah to remind us of the manna that began falling in the desert at around this time.
This custom reminds us that our sustenance is unlocked by a Divine source. We need to earn our bread but there is nothing like the vagaries of earning a livelihood to remind us of the need for heavenly assistance.
Rabbanit Yemima adds another dimension.

Passover is around the corner.
The Seder will take place on Monday night.
The MO of the Seder is questions and answers.
It’s really a conversation.
All the interesting customs we practice are only in place to elicit questions.
Here’s a good question -
Do you like Matza?
It’s a conundrum.
Some people wait all year to eat Matza.
It’s a treat and a delight.
Others do not like Matza at all. It’s dry and difficult to eat and digest.
Those who feel that way have to make the best of the situation.
Funny how the same Matza can evoke such a range of feelings.
That happens to mirror the nature of Matza itself.
Matza is called “the bread of our affliction”.
This refers to the fact that the Jewish people ate Matza in Egypt and it came to reflect the terrible suffering they experienced during that dark time.
Matza is also called the “bread of our redemption”.
This description is given to the Matza as it is the bread the Jewish people ate when they left Egypt. The Exodus happened so quickly there was no time to wait for the bread to rise so they took Matza with them and it became the symbol of the Redemption.
So which is it?
It’s both!
How can it be both?
Here’s another question.
Do we use one piece of Matza at the Seder to memorialize these two aspects?
The answer is - Yes.