Are Your Tzitzis Out?

Are Your Tzitzis Out?

And your yarmulke is…a baseball cap?

Bein Hazmanim is a time for Bnei Torah

To showcase the real world

How real Yiddishkeit functions

Moshe Rabenu never made it to Israel

Yosef HaTzaddik made it back and was buried there

Moshe Rabenu went incognito

Aquiesced to being called איש מצרי

Yosef flaunted his religion

Despite the hostile environment

Earned the title נער עברי

Jewish Fool

Embarrassed of who you are?

If you’re afraid for your well-being

Jew don’t belong there

Messe Cried Last Night

Messe Cried Last Night

Like we did in the desert

Inviting Tisha Bav

Churban is home

For קנא״ה תאו״ה וכבו״ד

And רו״ת ignites her world

Of cryogenics

Spawning דוד מלכא משיחא

Rabbi Shimon’s utopian circle

And the Arizal’s dimension

Are impenetrable

To the crying impaired

The heartless can’t cry

And a messy heart

Shouldn’t bother

The Arizal Left Our World

The Arizal Left Our World

Disappointed

Like the Beis Hamikdash

His prize talmid ignored the rules

And machlokes torpedoed his chabura

Like the Beis Hamikdash

Moments before leaving he said

Had even one of his group

Been a complete tzaddik

He wouldn’t have to die prematurely

Whoever wants the Beis Hamikdash

Must internalize the epitaph of the Arizal

Before immersing in avodas Hashem

ואהבת לרעך כמוך

Most of us don’t know

Or don’t care

How these words obligate us

See Mesilas Yesharim Ch. 11

Until Moshiach Is Born

Until Moshiach Is Born

At Mincha time of Tisha Bav

Our נחמה Is Chanuka

נר חנוכה מצוה להניחה בתוך עשרה

Anywhere within ten?

Mekubalim say at seven

Halacha says above three

Why the ambiguity?

Twenty one days of בין המצרים

Bemoaning the churban

Bring us to thank Hashem for it

At the bottom of the ninth

לנח״ם בתוך עשרה

Shabbos Chazon Shalom

A Lesson For The Road

A Lesson For The Road

From the Baal Shem Tov

And Rabenu

Every Jew endures מ״ב travels during his lifetime

First Class like Yaakov

Or Business like Esav

אלה מסעי בני ישראל

Resulting from

אלה אלהיך ישראל

Esav travels to his golden end

בר מינן

Yaakov to his land

מחזיק ברכה

Shabbos Chazak Shalom

Immortalized Or Murderer

Immortalized Or Murderer

Depends on your kavana

Earning Olam Haba

Or just Olam Hazeh

Depends on your kavana

Mitzvos without kavana

Are like goof without neshama

Goofy never graduates Disney World

Real Jews outgrow the Mouseketeers

That’s Hashem’s kavana

Shabbos Shalom Shalom

Korach Was A Smart Men

Korach Was A Smart Men

Smart enough to question Moshe Rabenu

And Hashem too

The ultimate attribute is intelligence

In the eyes of apostasy

Korach was a פקח = בעל מום

יראה – deficient

ראשית חכמה יראת השם

Intelligence without a commensurate amount of יראה

Is like an accelerator without brakes

All you geniuses out there

Fasten your seat belts

Shabbos Shalom

A Day Of Yehuda

A Day Of Yehuda

Son of Yaakov Avinu

What makes one a king?

The quality of Hod

טוב להודות לה׳

תודה isn’t limited to “thank you”

It’s regality

צדקה ממני

Loshon hora is the worst communication

הודאה is the best

Speech exists for this reason

The fifth brocho of shemoneh esreh

Begins and ends with a heh

And contains ten hehs

Yaakov had one heh endowed son

Today is his day

Say תודה ten times in his honor

Be king for a day

More Important Than What You’ve Done

More Important Than What You’ve Done

What you really want to do

More precious than how close you’ve come

How close you really want to

More productive than what you’ve created

The creation you really suscribe to

More transcendent than what you’ve grasped

The incomprehensible dreams that elude you

More than Hashem fills the world

He surrounds it

And waits for you

Three Parts Of Reality

Three Parts Of Reality

עולם שנה נפש

Each one has a heart

Shavuos is the heart of the year

The heart dare not sleep

Rabbi Shimon didn’t sleep

And guarantees a year of life

Depending on tonight’s blood pressure

Say the right tikun – syastolic

Don’t sleep at all – dystolic

Chag Sameach