Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 17 Tamuz, 5783

Today marks the beginning of a solemn period in Judaism. The “three weeks” to commemorate the destruction of the temples.

A lot of challenging things have happened during this period of time. You can read more here:

https://www.chabad.org/…/144573/jewish/The-Three-Weeks.htm

The idea here is we should set aside joy and really own our sadness and grief. For the next three weeks, we need to be in the hard stuff.

Today In particular; five things have happened on this particular day:

1. Moses broke the tablets when he saw the Jewish people worshipping the Golden Calf.
2. During the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the Jews were forced to cease offering the daily sacrifices due to the lack of sheep.
3. Apostomos burned the holy Torah.
4. An idol was placed in the Holy Temple.
5. The walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans, in 69 CE, after a lengthy siege. (Three weeks later, after the Jews put up a valiant struggle, the Romans destroyed the second Holy Temple on the 9th of Av.)

It is a fast day; many Jews today will not eat until sundown.

This is the beginning of the period of culmination of the shadow – the part of us not reflecting light. It’s a lot easier to reflect light when we focus solely on our whole being.

We will descend more into darkness until we arrive on the 9th of Av; the most solemn day on the Jewish calendar.

After that? We turn towards the light to when we get to the 15th of Av; Tu B’Av which is the Jewish version of Valentine’s Day. It’s a day of Love. It’s a day of rebirth.

This is a good reminder for us that the energies around us fluctuate like waves. So if you are struggling today? Or over the next few weeks? It could be connected to this!

And yet, in this darkness there is still light. The Torah itself will shine for us! So let’s dig in!

Todays key passage (in my opinion) is “my food on my altars; a pleasant aroma for me.”

You can see below what I wrote about this a year ago. But for today? We are reminded that even though our hearts may be heavy. Even though we may be struggling, we can still light our way with the Torah.

And although the temple is destroyed for now; we offer the sacrifices of our prayers. And in these prayers, the sacrifices of wrapping tefillin? They remain a pleasant aroma for Hashem.

So in our struggles, remaining in love with ourselves (and the Neshama within us) is key to navigating the next three weeks!

Blessings to us as we navigate this all together!

These are my thoughts? How about you!

Here are my Torah thoughts from a year ago:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 22 Tamuz, 5782

Good morning!

Todays portion starts with God telling Moses to talk to the children of Israel and offer up sacrifices at the appointed times. God calls them “My food on My fires; a pleasant aroma for me.”

Rabbi Schneerson has some interesting thoughts on this:

God describes the daily sacrifices as “My food,” a metaphor that suggests that the sacrifices actually “sustain” the Almighty, so to speak.

Since the prayers were instituted as a direct compensation for the sacrifices (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 26b), it follows that every one of our daily prayers is of tremendous significance to God, to the extent that He describes them as His very “sustenance” (Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady)

Through the sacrifices, the Shekhinah (Divine Presence) entered the Holy Temple, from which it spread throughout the entire world. It follows, then, that each different type of sacrifice was responsible for a different aspect of Godly revelation, and this was expressed by the nature of the sacrifice and the mode in which it was offered.

The sacrifices which are discussed here in the current passage could be broadly divided into two categories:

(a) Continual Offerings- the two offerings which are offered on a daily basis, each morning and afternoon (v. 3-8); and,

(b) Occasional Offerings–brought on a special

occasion, such as the Sabbath, New Month or the Festivals (v. 8f.).

The fact that the occasional offerings were bound by a specific time suggests that the spiritual revelation which they brought also possessed a certain limitation. The continual offerings, however, were offered every single day, suggesting that they brought a totally unlimited form of spiritual revelation that could not be “contained” by any particular time or moment. (End quote)

It is interesting that there are energies that exist daily for us to tap into AND there may be special energies at appointed times. This is a great framework for the sacrifices we are learning today!

First we learn about the continual offering – offered up daily – like when they were at Mount Sinai. One in the morning, one in the evening.

Next, we learn about the additional sabbath offering. This is not a replacement sacrifice according to Torah. It’s an additional sacrifice on the sabbath.

One struggle/question I have is around the idea of the Sabbath and work. Wouldn’t it have been “work” to sacrifice on the sabbath? Aren’t we supposed to rest?

The answer is “yes” we are supposed to rest. and, we are reminded that it is about Hashem. The sabbath isn’t necessarily to just kick back; it’s to focus on what matters to Him!

The next sacrifice is the new moon sacrifice – at the beginning of every month there was a sacrifice to be made. This was not a replacement sacrifice for the daily ones; it was in addition to.

What are your thoughts on sacrifices? We should be sacrificing daily for Hashem! What in our lives are we doing to ensure that we are our putting ourselves aside for Hashem and leaving our selves behind; even for a minute or two each day?

Thoughts?