Shabbat

Portion Pinchas – Where did they All GO?

It's now the period of  3 weeks of mourning over destructions of our Temples and our people

By Babyon (2500 years ago) and

By Rome nearly 2000 years ago.

The Babylonians exiled most of our people – and the remainder were ruled by people that were moved into our territory to abuse us.

Millions were murdered and the rest became slaves to the conquerors.

The Talmud says Jewish slaves were so cheap that they were like almost sold for a penny!

So

                How are we still here 2000 years after the horrible murders and enslavement?

No-  not because we are so smart – but because of the Almighty Miracles and Promises

to our forebears Abraham and Sarah Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Rachel and Leah

Why couldn't Nasrallah coordinate attacks from the north and from Iran after October 7^th?

Didn't he have telephones (not beepers) and emissaries in all Muslim countries?

You Still can't believe in Almighty Miracles and Promises - those

To our forebears Abraham and Sarah Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Rachel and Leah.

Okay – many of us are still working out in our minds what's going to be in Harvard and UCLA etc.

BUT THE ONLY ANSWER WAS ALWAYS AND WILL ALWAYS BE

TO INSTILL IN THOSE WHO HAVE SURVIVED THE THOUSANDS – AND RECENTLY A HUNDRED YEARS - OF GREEDY HATRED – to see as Rabbi Carlebach taught:

 Come with me or go alone,

he's come to take his children home"”

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach on Parshat Pinchas  

 

Friends, let me ask you. How much do you pray to G-d that you should find your soulmate? (then) What happens after you find your soulmate? You don't pray so hard anymore.

 Before the(wedding) chuppa, the groom covers the face of the bride and says 'I'm praying for you like before I met you. I promise you my whole life I'll pray for you like before I met you..'

So Listen to this:

Before the forty years in the desert, we(Israelites) were praying to get into Eretz Yisrael.

The forty years are over, so we thought automatically that we're going into Eretz Yisrael.

 Pinchas (the hero of last week's portion) realized we'll never go in this way. ..

(The Torah writes), Pinchas got up from amongst the people and began to pray like before the forty years (in the desert).

And it is mamesh Pinchas's prayer which brings us into Eretz Yisrael.

I want you to know something so strong.

 I see so many young people come back to Yiddishkeit. How much did they pray to find their way to Yiddishkeit before they found it?

When they are already a little bit connected, they know one page, they already know everything. I can read Hebrew. I know how to pray.

What we (our current generations) have to do is pray again, Vayakom Mitoch Ha'eida. We have to pray for everything (Judaism) to be new again (to all of us)..

And I always say, Eliyahu Hanavi (Elijah) is making peace between parents and children

 because the question is always the same:

How much did you pray for children before you had them?

And once we have them, we don't pray so much anymore.

 So you see what it is, Pinchas is bringing back (our hearts to connect our generations of  Jews)

 "V'heishiv Lev Avos Al Banim",

you have to pray for your children after you have them even more so … ever® more so!

 

It's all a miracle. Hopefully these 3 weeks will show us how much everything is a miracle!

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Andy Eichenholz