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Shabbat Parashat Chayei Sara 5774

Chayei Sarah | 22 Cheshvan 5774 | 26/10/2013

Parashat Hashavua: With a Life Like That, Who Needs …

“The life of Sarah was a hundred years and twenty years and seven years – these were the years of Sarah’s life” (Bereishit 23:1). Directly after this presentation, the Torah deals with the negotiations between Avraham and the Chitites over Sarah’s burial rights. We will look for a connection between Sarah’s life and her burial in Me’arat Hamachpela, in the “land of life.”

Ask the Rabbi: Continuing to Pray for Rain During a Trip Abroad

I will be traveling outside of Israel, leaving after Israelis start asking for rain (“v’ten tal u’matar livracha” = vtul) and before those in chutz la’aretz start (7 Cheshvan – Dec. 4 or 5). Do I say vtul while abroad?

Ein Ayah: The Importance of Group Learning

“Hasket” (the word that begins the exhortation to be enthusiastic about learning Torah in Devarim 27:9) can be understood as follows: Break yourselves into groups for your learning, for Torah is acquired only as part of a group. This is as Rabbi Yossi bar Chanina said: The pasuk “a sword on the badim and they shall be shown as fools (v’no’alu)” (Yirmiya 50:36) is to be understood as follows. Scholars who sit as individuals (bad b’vad) as they are involved in Torah deserve a sword, and furthermore they become stupid, as it says here v’no’alu as it says elsewhere (Bamidbar 12:11), where it means to do something stupid. Furthermore, they will sin, as the same word is found in the context of sinning (ibid.).

P'ninat Mishpat: Leprosy as Grounds for Divorce

For the last six years, the defendant (=def) has been hospitalized in a leprosy center, with horrible lesions throughout his body. His wife (=pl) is no longer willing to be married to a man in such a state and demands a get along with payment of her ketuba. Def responds that since the doctors have not precluded the possibility of his responsibly living with his wife, he is not obligated to give a get. He claims that the reason that he has not left the hospital is that he has nowhere to live. Doctors confirm that while he was contagious for years, recently his bacterial tests indicate that he is presently not contagious, even while afflicted by severe symptoms of leprosy.

Refuah Sheleimah

amongst the sick

of Klal Yisrael

for

Rabanit Itah bat Chana

Ehrenreich

Mr. Eliyahu ben Sara Carmel

This edition of
Hemdat Yamim

is dedicated
to the memory of
R' Meir
ben

Yechezkel Shraga Brachfeld

o.b.m

Hemdat Yamim

is endowed by

Les & Ethel Sutker

of Chicago, Illinois
in loving memory of
Max and Mary Sutker
and

Louis and Lillian Klein, z”l

This edition of

Hemdat Yamim

is dedicated to

the memory of

George Weinstein,

Gershon

ben Yehudah Mayer,

a lover of the Jewish Nation

Torah and Land.

This week’s Hemdat Yamim

is dedicated

in loving memory of

Jack Levin –

Chaim Yaakov ben

Shlomo Yitzchak HaLevi –

by his family.

Hemdat Yamim is dedicated

in loving memory of

Tamar Lichtenstadt z”l.

May her memory be a blessing.

Hemdat Yamim
is dedicated
in memory of
Shmuel Rozenhak
o.b.m
who passed away
Iyar 6, 5773

A weekly divrei Torah leaflet: A Glimpse at the Parasha, Ask the Rabbi, From the writings of Harav Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook, zt”l, Pninat Mishpat (Jewish Monetary Law).