Middle of the Road: R’ Yehuda Oppenheimer

Parshas Chayei Sarah and some thoughts after a disappointing election

One of the fascinating episodes in Parshas Chayei Sarah is Avraham Avinu’s insistence that Eliezer travel back to his homeland to find a wife for Yitzchak. Despite having established himself as a respected figure, a nesi Elokim, in Canaan, when it came to finding a wife for Yitzchak and securing the future of his family, he was unwilling to rely on the surrounding society.

When Yom Kippur was observed in the time of the Beis HaMikdash, the avodah of the day stood at the center of its observance. It was the one time during the year when the Kohen Gadol entered the Kodesh HaKodashim, lifnai v’lifnim, crossing a boundary that no other human being was permitted to cross.

In the new book After the Davening, which presents the teachings of my rebbi, Rabbi Michel Twerski shlita, he offers a searching way to measure whether we are living the Torah we profess.

We usually think of the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah as the days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. But Chazal did not call them the “seven days of repentance.” They are the Ten Days of Repentance, which means that Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur themselves are not merely the bookends of the process. They are part of it.

The sukkah is a temporary structure, but it is meant to become our home. The Mishnah tells us that for seven days, a person should make his sukkah his permanent dwelling and his house temporary. We leave behind the solid walls and protections with which we surround ourselves all year and move into a fragile dwelling beneath the s’chach.

Two recent stories highlight both the promise and the risks in expanding chareidi military service.