#Eretz Yisroel

[rabbiaharon]

As we stand, within the 10 days of repentance, from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, it is fitting to stress the importance of tefillah (prayer) and its role within Judaism. While there is some dispute among poskim whether or not tefillah is a scriptural command, or whether it is rabbinic, there is an agreement that the obligation to pray every day, as well as the current text of the siddur is rabbinic. However, the actual obligation to communicate with Hashem, to praise him, and to ask for one’s needs is scriptural. Thus, while the rabbinic obligation is fixed and limited, the overall idea of tefillah is unlimited, as a person has an opportunity every minute to connect with the divine. One can delve much deeper into this by learning “Shoresh Mitzvas HaTefillah” (The Root of the Commandment to Pray) in Derech Mitzvosecha (Path of Your Commandments) by the Tzemach Tzedek (the third Rebbe of Chabad). We also believe that there is no need for “intermediaries” which stand between a person and G-d, contrary to what is often believed by adherents to other religions referred to by scholars as “abrahamic”.

The idea that a direct connection is available to the Ribono Shel Olam (Master of the World) is a fundamental belief of judaism. While there are many examples of the idea of “intermediaries” having its own place in our faith, such as one midrashic interpretation of the angels ascending and descending upon the ladder in Yaakov Avinu’s dream, we believe that a person need not rely on this natural procedure, but can simply reconnect their soul to its source and pass a signal directly. The ease of this is, of course, affected by a person’s intentions when coming to pray, as well as their location and the time of day or time of year. There are places and times when tefillos are more likely to be accepted, such as at the gravesites of the righteous, praying with a quorum of 10 jewish men (a minyan), or at the Temple in Jerusalem. Likewise, there are times, such as right after halachic midnight on every night of the year, as well as during the 10 days of repentance - and especially Yom Kippur (and on Yom Kippur, especially at the time of Neilah, by the end of the day, just before sunset), and praying at the same time that the local community is praying. At these times and in these places, it’s easier to cross the wires, so to speak, and connect your neshama directly to the high voltage current coming down from above, at least long enough to send a signal up the line. This isn’t only spoken about in chassidic discourses and kabbalah, but also in nigleh in dozens of locations (The revealed aspects of the Torah) For example, in Masecta Berachos 7b, the talmud describes a situation where one cannot make it to the shul. The gemara states that ideally the individual should gather a minyan to daven at their house, and if they are unable to do so, at least they should daven at the same time as the community does. The gemara then continues on 8a “מאי דכתיב ״ואני תפלתי לך ה׳ עת רצון״. אימתי עת רצון — בשעה שהצבור מתפללין” - “‘May my prayers to you be at an auspicious time.’ What is considered an auspicious time? The time that the community is praying.”

At all times, and especially those, one can pray in their own words, in a translation to whatever language they understand, or they can use a traditional text (nusach), and they will fulfill their scriptural obligation to connect with the Ribono Shel Olam. That said, there is a powerful advantage to praying using a real nusach- based on whatever your family custom or personal custom is (whether sefard, ashkenaz, mizrachi, chassidic, or the like). Even when praying at an auspicious time and place, one’s prayers can be compared to a trip through the forest at night. To follow the paved path - a traditional nusach - will guarantee your safe arrival home (i.e. connecting with your soul’s source), because even with no light (i.e. no understanding of the Hebrew you are reading), one’s feet can tell the difference between a paved road and untamed brush. By making up the words to your own prayers (trying to cut your own path through the forest in the dark), or using words someone else recently decided to come up with (following a slightly cut unpaved worn area), or using abridged versions (trying to follow a broken and fragmented paved road - all in the dark, should you not understand your words) of the nusach, one complicates the procedure, making it more difficult (although of course not impossible) to connect to the level you want to reach.

With all the challenges we face these days, and what we’ve experienced over the last year, we should all be careful with the mitzvah of tefillah, to each at their own level. And may our prayers be at an auspicious time! May they be received before the Ribono Shel Olam like the cries of children for their father, for revealed good in every part of our lives. In the merit of this, Hashem should fulfill for us the posuk (verse) “And I will bring them to my holy mountain, and rejoice with them in my House of Prayer, their offerings received with delight upon my altar, as my house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”

Gmar Chasima Tova.

–

Rabbi Aharon

[transmascpetewentz]

Okay but the thing is, people can convert to Judaism (Obviously it's a long process but conversion is possible), so how can Jewish people be indigenous to Israel, if someone can go through a process to become Jewish, despite having no family ties or history to Israel before, and still be indigenous?

because once someone converts they are a full on member of the tribe indistinguishable from any other (for all intents and purposes outside of marriage to a kohen), and the tribe is indigenous to eretz yisroel. hope this helps

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

.

It would be nice to be able to read the mind of someone who applies for a babysitting job for a visibly Orthodox Jewish family having recently written an article that mentions that the "genocide in P-" is the "defining moral issue of our times." Like are you just not paying attention to who you're requesting to work for (not only are we Jewish but I have publicly visible photos from Eretz Yisroel on my profile if you scroll just a little - but maybe you’re one of those college kids who wants to be on the right side of history but doesn’t even know enough about the land to recognize it?)? Are you assuming that we don't hold certain views that you would find abhorrent even though most of your crowd would assume we do? Are you morally bankrupt and don't care about working for people on the "wrong" side of the "defining moral issue of our times"? Are you planning to deliberately harm my kids? Do you actually posses the nuance to understand that random American Jews are not in charge of the Israeli government’s actions? Who knows! Not me! Sucks because you otherwise seem qualified! Interview question "are you normal about Jews?" probably will not get me the information I want.

[soon-palestine]

[ofpd]

i wonder how much it would change the average american jew's political consciousness + the political leanings of american jewish institutions if the US wasn't politically aligned with the state governing eretz yisroel (but there were still the same numbers of jews living there)

[is-it-shabbos-yet]

This morning while my husband was at shul, my 4yo and 3yo made an elaborate game that they were going to Eretz Yisroel on a plane. They packed their backpacks and arranged our dining room chairs to be the plane. (They even put a smaller seat so they could take their baby sister, too.)

When they "arrived" in Eretz Yisroel, they immediately went to "the Kotel" to daven. My 4yo kept asking me questions about E"Y, like, "Do they have bathrooms there?" "Do they have shoes there?"

Yep kiddo, they sure do. 😂😂😂

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

The 10 Commandments

1 And Moshe called kol Yisroel, and said unto them, Shema, Yisroel, to the chukkim and mishpatim which I speak in your ears today, that ye may learn them, and be shomer to do them.

2 Hashem Eloheinu made a Brit with us in Chorev.

3 Hashem made not this Brit with Avoteinu, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today.

4 Hashem talked with you panim b’panim in the har out of the midst of the eish,

5 (I stood between Hashem and you at that time, to show you the Devar Hashem; for ye were afraid by reason of the eish, and went not up into the har) saying:

6 I am Hashem Eloheicha, Which brought thee out of Eretz Mitzrayim, from the bais avadim.

7 Thou shalt have no elohim acharim before Me.

8 Thou shalt not make thee any pesel, or any temunah of anything that is in Shomayim above, or that is in Ha’Aretz beneath, or that is in the mayim beneath ha’aretz;

9 Lo tishtachaveh (thou shalt not bow down thyself) unto them, nor serve them; for I Hashem Eloheicha am an El Kannah, visiting the iniquity of the avot upon the banim unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me,

10 And showing chesed unto thousands of them that love Me and are shomer over My mitzvot.

11 Thou shalt not take the Shem of Hashem Eloheicha in vain; for Hashem will not hold him guiltless that taketh Shmo in vain.

12 Keep shomer Shabbos to set Shabbos apart as kodesh as Hashem Eloheicha commanded thee.

13 Sheshet yamim thou shalt labor, and do all thy work:

14 But the Yom HaShevi’i is the Shabbos of Hashem Eloheicha: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy ben, nor thy bat, nor thy eved, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine donkey, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy ger that is within thy she’arim; that thy eved and thy amah may rest as well as thou.

15 And remember that thou wast an eved in Eretz Mitzrayim, and that Hashem Eloheicha brought thee out thence through a yad chazakah and by an outstretched zero’a; therefore Hashem Eloheicha commanded thee to be shomer Shabbos on Yom HaShabbat.

16 Honor thy av and thy em, as Hashem Eloheicha hath commanded thee; that thy yamim may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in ha’adamah which Hashem Eloheicha giveth thee.

17 Lo tirtzah (thou shalt not murder).

18 V’lo tinaf (neither shalt thou commit adultery).

19 V’lo tignov (neither shalt thou steal).

20 V’lo ta’aneh v’reacha ed shav (neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor).

21 V’lo tachmod (neither shalt thou covet, desiring) thy neighbor’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor’s bais, his sadeh, or his eved, or his amah, his ox, or his donkey, or any thing that is thy neighbor’s.

22 These devarim Hashem spoke unto all your Kahal in the mountain out of the midst of the eish, of the anan, and of the thick darkness, with a kol gadol; and He added no more. And He wrote them in two luchot of even (stone), and delivered them unto me. — Deuteronomy 5:1-22 | Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB) Orthodox Jewish Bible Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. Cross References: Genesis 15:13; Exodus 18:20; Exodus 19:1; Exodus 19:18; Exodus 20:2-3; Exodus 20:5; Exodus 20:21; Exodus 23:1; Exodus 34:17; Leviticus 19:11; Numbers 14:18; Matthew 5:21; Matthew 5:33; Matthew 15:4; Mark 2:27; Luke 13:14; Luke 18:20; Luke 23:56; Romans 7:7; Hebrews 8:9; Hebrews 12:18

Read full chapter

What are the Ten Commandments? What is the Decalogue?

[torahtot]

my sister was listening to the aveirah song today & i think the fact that it offers both "im such a tzioni, i sing hatikvah" and "i don't even like eretz yisroel" as examples of 'aveirot' would break some goyims' brains

[saltcherry]

.

terminally embarrassing to be a convert and a zionist. what level of indoctrination are you on. we have no ancestry connecting us to eretz yisroel, no family living there, we have no familial history of trauma from expulsions and pogroms and the holocaust, and no community childhood zionist indoctrination besides whatever we get in our home countries.

did hashem make you a Jew to give you power over others? is that what you took with you into the mikve? Is that what it meant to you to acknowledge that you were taking on yourself the knowledge of the centuries of persecutions of the Jews?

[gangstalkerbarbie]

good grief all of you, go talk to orthodox people who don't live online I'm begging. you can go to monsey ask anyone what a sheyd (demon) looks like and they will draw you this

because that's what sheydim look like. that's what they look like, what do you want done about this

as for homestuck, because I do want to help poor lost prev: homestuck is literally a webcomic about intergenerational trauma which is why it goes out of its way to show you space rome invading space eretz yisroel, and then the fucked up consequences thereof for a group of jewish (gamzee is a kohen, karkat is obsessed with their equivalent of the sicarii, aradia and kanaya have ethnically appropriate last names, nepeta has this association with karkat so I guess I'll include her, terezi ok I guess redglare was maybe like a hellenised jew equivalent if we wanna take word of author for it) and roman (eridan, likely sollux, feferi, equius, and I guess vriska) children, who are living in a dune themed society which conserved these identities and has only gotten worse

which in turn is widely read as an american racial allegory due to the constant references to detroit and provocative decisions about these character's dialect

i sound mad because well meaning, even jewish people on the internet want to call me racist or whatever for playing tieflings way too often for me to be able to be normal about this, but I genuinely wish you all a very good day and a find something other than people drawing horns on fictional characters to feel special about

or are u genuinely so antisemitic that you see something with horns and instantly think "wow, that is a representation of an individual of jewish persuasion"? sometimes demons just be jewish man idk how to tell u

people ask me where my horns are because they're dumbasses. i put horns on demons because they have horns. we are not the same.

everybody’s into adding monster characteristics to characters (& saying they want them themselves, or “tag yourself if you want fangs or wings or horns”) but here’s a gentle reminder not to put horns on jewish characters or jewish people

“jews have horns” is an old old old antisemitic trope that we don’t need to bring back. and it hasn’t disappeared, my grandma talks about people asking where her horns were when she went to college… this is recent stuff

[be-good-be-safe-be-kind]

[ fare thee well | | 1100 words | ao3 ]

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 🌙 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

anger is no stranger to jake. they used to be thick as thieves, the pair of them, scraping their knuckles and bruising their knees against anyone who tried to harm them. their relationship hadn't lasted long, but it was never meant to; anger was marc's first, and jake only hoped that sharing it would help everyone.

it worked, briefly, until marc caught on and his fury caught up with them. steven sat by, idle but not entirely uninvolved — someone had to keep a handle on their hygiene and finances while their self-sabotaging behaviors became almost competitive — and waited for the dust to settle. as the voice of reason, he patiently explained that containing things up in exclusive boxes, things that were public knowledge, so to speak, wouldn't do them any favors.

marc reluctantly, petulantly agreed. jake knew better than to voice his opinion.

and now the answering machine blurs before his eyes. his heart nearly stops before his brain forces him to press the button again to replay the message, and he lets out a sigh laden with guilty relief that the name of the dead is of a great-uncle and not his father or brother.

he wants to throw the phone out the window and scream his lungs out. he wants to get into his cab, surround himself with the familiar smells of leather and cigarettes and crawley's tea, and drive until he runs out of gas. he wants to submerge himself in a lake, enter a boxing match he has no shot at winning, drink at a random bar and go home with the first person to make the suggestion. he wants to call jean-paul and hear the operator tell him the number is out of service, feel the loss of his partner all over again. he wants to call marlene, ask her to come home, and feel the justified vitriol in her voice when she turns him down.

jake wants —

and that right there is the problem. want is a foreigner to jake. like anger, they'd been joined at the hip, but somewhere along the road it only served him pain and disappointment, so he packed it up and left it alone in the trunk.

only now it turns out it was simmering, along with the rage, and they're teaming up against him tonight.

jake settles for balling his fists and slamming them through the bathroom mirror until his splintered, bloody reflection lines up with his self-image.

growing up, he'd heard tales of yosef's greatness. of his escape from lithuania, his ability to build a community in a little town only a couple hours away from ellis island. his determination to travel and assist others to transition them between their lives in shtetls to eretz yisroel, successfully obtaining travel documents for dozens of them.

his father had inherited yosef's father's second name, eliyahu, a declaration of faith given to a child when he's too young to know what it means. marc's brother had inherited the first name, reuven, an acknowledgement of god seeing the parents' desires and blessing them with a son.

jake's name wasn't given to him in the traditional way.

he considers, for a brief moment of hysteria, to curse god for allowing the death to happen. despite what a lot of people think about him, jake's not a fool. he's got enough seichel to know that a man who recently celebrated his 91st birthday was unlikely to make it to his 92nd, to know that he was fortunate enough to survive his first, and that he'd been blessed with dozens of relatives who filled his life with light and love.

but none of those things explain why he's angry, not tonight.

motzei shabbat.

he'd said havdalah, enjoyed the way the rainbow candle wax dripped down his hand and the way the smell of the cloves sharply tickled his nostrils. he'd left the phones and computers disconnected until he cleared up the last of the shabbat dishes.

jake methodically checked each device, sorting every message and responding to the ones he was qualified for and leaving notes for the others to answer when they returned. he was ready to retire to the living room and try drifting off to sleep with the familiar sounds of star trek reruns when he decided to double check that he hadn't missed any messages from friday.

and there it was, the message from the shul letting him know that yosef ben reuven eliyahu had died, sent three hours before shkia.

someone had known what happened and left him in the dark for thirty hours.

not someone. marc. for all intents and purposes, the house and most things in it are marc's.

jake can't blame him for being quiet, for keeping the news to himself. he knows his brother well enough by now to know that whether or not marc intended to keep him in the dark, to let him have a good shabbos all to himself, that's what happened. steven's silence is likely more of a choice than an involuntary response — it's been decades since they left and he still can't face his father — and it wasn't like jake had such a connection to the great-uncle.

he vaguely recalls sitting by his side for lessons before marc's bar mitzvah, a mix of disdain and awe in his stomach as he learned about their religion and culture and family history. resilience, it turns out, was hardwired into his system, and they didn't know what to do with it other than lash out and wind up in trouble for skipping classes. it still hurts to know that he's far from the only one whose family splintered, to know that it was almost inevitable that his mind would splinter as well and that no one would want to talk about it.

jake rinses his knuckles under the cold water then plugs the sink and picks up the ever-present bathroom schmata. he wipes down the mirror, letting the shards of glass fall into the basin and around the taps, containing them until he's a bit more settled and confident enough to pick up the pieces without wanting to drive them into his palms.

and there they are again, the pesky want and the not entirely unwelcome anger, neither of them strong enough to allow jake to actually act on them. he's left in a limbo, bein kodesh l'chol, not that he's ever been particularly holy.

jake wraps his hands and leaves his tear-stained cheeks beneath the remaining glass. he settles into a chair, picks up a siddur, and turns to find the tehillim.

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

5yo just told me that he doesn’t want to visit Eretz Yisroel “because they only have a Kotel there and there’s nowhere to live” and he would rather visit my hometown again “because I like the hotel there and the sofa bed”

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

The 10 Commandments

1 And Moshe called kol Yisroel, and said unto them, Shema, Yisroel, to the chukkim and mishpatim which I speak in your ears today, that ye may learn them, and be shomer to do them.

2 Hashem Eloheinu made a Brit with us in Chorev.

3 Hashem made not this Brit with Avoteinu, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today.

4 Hashem talked with you panim b’panim in the har out of the midst of the eish,

5 (I stood between Hashem and you at that time, to show you the Devar Hashem; for ye were afraid by reason of the eish, and went not up into the har) saying:

6 I am Hashem Eloheicha, Which brought thee out of Eretz Mitzrayim, from the bais avadim.

7 Thou shalt have no elohim acharim before Me.

8 Thou shalt not make thee any pesel, or any temunah of anything that is in Shomayim above, or that is in Ha’Aretz beneath, or that is in the mayim beneath ha’aretz;

9 Lo tishtachaveh (thou shalt not bow down thyself) unto them, nor serve them; for I Hashem Eloheicha am an El Kannah, visiting the iniquity of the avot upon the banim unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me,

10 And showing chesed unto thousands of them that love Me and are shomer over My mitzvot.

11 Thou shalt not take the Shem of Hashem Eloheicha in vain; for Hashem will not hold him guiltless that taketh Shmo in vain.

12 Keep shomer Shabbos to set Shabbos apart as kodesh as Hashem Eloheicha commanded thee.

13 Sheshet yamim thou shalt labor, and do all thy work:

14 But the Yom HaShevi’i is the Shabbos of Hashem Eloheicha: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy ben, nor thy bat, nor thy eved, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine donkey, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy ger that is within thy she’arim; that thy eved and thy amah may rest as well as thou.

15 And remember that thou wast an eved in Eretz Mitzrayim, and that Hashem Eloheicha brought thee out thence through a yad chazakah and by an outstretched zero’a; therefore Hashem Eloheicha commanded thee to be shomer Shabbos on Yom HaShabbat.

16 Honor thy av and thy em, as Hashem Eloheicha hath commanded thee; that thy yamim may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in ha’adamah which Hashem Eloheicha giveth thee.

17 Lo tirtzah (thou shalt not murder).

18 V’lo tinaf (neither shalt thou commit adultery).

19 V’lo tignov (neither shalt thou steal).

20 V’lo ta’aneh v’reacha ed shav (neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor).

21 V’lo tachmod (neither shalt thou covet, desiring) thy neighbor’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor’s bais, his sadeh, or his eved, or his amah, his ox, or his donkey, or any thing that is thy neighbor’s. — Deuteronomy 5:1-21 | Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB) Orthodox Jewish Bible Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International and the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Cross References: Genesis 15:13; Exodus 18:20; Exodus 19:18; Exodus 20:2-3 and 4; Exodus 20:17; Exodus 34:7; Leviticus 19:11; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 29:1; Psalm 81:9; Matthew 5:21; Matthew 5:27; Matthew 5:33; Matthew 15:4; Matthew 19:18; Mark 2:27; Luke 13:14; Luke 23:56; Romans 7:7; Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 8:9

[i-can-kazoo]

Also, Eretz Yisroel ≠ the state of Israel. Anyone who purposely conflates the two has already shown their hand.

Lmao they deleted it

[tatzlumphoto]

On Jerusalem Street, Tzefat by tatzlum.photo Via Flickr: The Ancient City of Safed, Israel. January, 2018

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

How do you make sense of the war or explain it to children if they were to ask?

Really depends on the age and how much information they already have when they ask. 4yo is barely aware of the war. I think at one point earlier on we told him something like, "some bad people hurt Jews in Eretz Yisroel," and in school they have done things like davening or giving tzedaka in the merit of Eretz Yisroel, but it really hasn't been necessary to go further than that at this age and with the limited news he has been exposed to. I know the children of one of my friends came home from school talking about bombs, so obviously in that case there was another layer to address...but they're also older. I don't know what the discussion they had was.