On Sunday night, December 1, The Young Israel of Holliswood hosted a virtual Rosh Chodesh Kislev women’s shiur. Professor Shoshana Schechter, Associate Dean of Torah Studies at the Stern College for Women and the director of the Mechinah Program at the college, shared an uplifting beautiful shiur titled “Am Yisrael Chai: Covenant, Connection, and Continuity.”
Professor Schechter related how Chanukah is about light coming in difficult times. This is the story of the Jewish people. We balance so many emotions. How do we celebrate when things are so dark?
We have to focus on the light. Our relationship with each other and our relationship with Hashem are what carry us through the darkness.
She shared how she began the Mechinah Program at Stern College 20 years ago. Recently, due to the anti-Semitism on campuses, Yeshiva University has received an influx of transfer students, and she has a large increase of students in the Mechinah Program. The students who came to the Mechinah Program have told her that they feel more connected now to their Judaism. Non-Jewish students and faculty viewed them with pity, because of the anti-Semitism, but every student expressed that she never felt prouder to be part of the Jewish people.
She shared two inspiring stories about students in the program. One student, from a totally secular background, ended up transferring to the program before October 7. She was scrolling down her social media and spotted an advertisement for Yeshiva University that said, “Discover Judaism.” In the beginning of the year, last year, there was a Shabbaton at a camp. She went, and on Friday night the participants began a kumsitz that went on for hours. She stood outside the kumsitz, and she was crying. She told Professor Schechter that seeing these girls so happy and singing and connecting to G-d like this made her realize how much she wanted to be a part of this.
Another student who came from a non-Jewish background shared that she grew up Catholic, and she felt that none of the students in her ninth-grade class really loved G-d. They were supposed to start the day saying they loved G-d, but it didn’t feel real. She wanted to learn how to love G-d, so she Googled the question and a shiur from YU Torah came up. She listened to the shiur and to more shiurim and she was inspired; eventually, she started a conversion process and ended up at Stern College.
Professor Schechter taught that hakaras ha’tov means recognizing the good, and this is a prerequisite for appreciating G-d. We recite the line in the Amidah on Yom Tov: “You chose us from all other nations.” This means that Hashem chose us to love us and to have a relationship with us. We should appreciate this wonderful opportunity to have a relationship with Hashem.
Rashi teaches us life lessons. She noted how, though he doesn’t have a formal introduction to his commentary, he has an introduction to each book of the Torah, and each one expresses the same theme of Hashem’s love for us and our relationship with Him.
She then detailed each one. In B’reishis, Rashi says that Hashem started the Torah with the Creation to teach the other nations that it is His world, and He is the one who gave the Land of Israel to the Jewish nation. It establishes the relationship between the Jews and Eretz Yisrael.
The first Rashi in Sh’mos asked why we are counted again here, and he answers because Hashem loves us.
The first Rashi in Vayikra says that all the mitzvos in this book teach us how to connect to Hashem.
In the beginning of BaMidbar, Rashi teaches that we are counted again because Hashem keeps counting us because He loves us. The beginning of D’varim lists places where we sinned, but Rashi points out that there are no details about the sins. This is because of Hashem’s love for us. He doesn’t go into detail of our sins because he is protecting our kavod.
She taught that Avraham asked Hashem to reassure him that the promise of the land would be an inheritance. Before, Hashem had given it as a gift, but in Parshas Lech-L’cha, He promises it as an inheritance. How can Avraham question G-d’s promise? Rav S.R. Hirsch teaches that an inheritance has an inherent relationship tied to it. The promise here is an inheritance, and he wants to know how G-d can promise that Avraham’s descendants will be worthy of the inheritance. Hashem responds that, in the merit of the cut animals at the Bris Bein HaB’sarim they will merit it. These animals represent korbanos. Hashem says that your children will have a way to connect to Me. They’ll always have a way to have a relationship with Me.
Why did Hashem tell Avraham to cut the animals and leave the birds whole? The animals represent the other nations of the world, and the birds represent B’nei Yisrael. They stayed whole because B’nei Yisrael will last forever. Rashi’s peirush teaches that the birds of prey tried to eat the korbanos, but Avraham shooed them away. This represents the nations trying to destroy us.
Antiochus is an example of this. He didn’t want us to practice Judaism. Avraham shooed them away. Ramban says that this is symbolic that nations will try to prey on our korbanos, but the descendants of Avraham will chase them away. That’s what we celebrate at Chanukah time.
By Susie Garber
