Queens Jewish Link
Connecting the Queens Jewish Community It seems that each time I am away from home, Hashem grants me new precious gifts to strengthen my...
In preparation for Shavuos, we are presenting a review of three of our Ahavah Rabah segments (This is the second of three). We will return, b’ezras Hashem, to learning Az Yashir after Shavuos.
Part 3
The Jewish People: Chosen for What Purpose?
In preparation for Shavuos, we are presenting a review of three of our Ahavah Rabah segments (This is the first of three). We will return, b’ezras Hashem, to learning Az Yashir after Shavuos.
Miracles Hidden and Open
We may acquire a better understanding of the first blessing based on the words of the Ramban at the end of Parshas Bo. There he writes that, from the experience of the clearly obvious miracles that the Jewish people experienced in the Exodus and in their sojourn in the wilderness, we may discern the nature of hidden miracles, as well: namely, that everything is in fact miraculous, and represents the hand of Hashem guiding the world. For the most part, the miracles that occur in our experience are couched in the natural order, to the extent that one can come to rationalize and justify these occurrences as “the way of the world.” However, Hashem chose for a period of time to perform certain clearly miraculous acts, to facilitate our ability to see through the cover, to perceive various other phenomena as equally miraculous, even though their inner miraculous nature has been camouflaged.
Part 4
The Temple and Birkas HaMazon
In the third blessing, we reference Jerusalem and the Beis HaMikdash (the Holy Temple). We need to understand what the connection of these two are to eating and to reciting Birkas HaMazon, and why these deserve a blessing on their own, and could not be included in the previous blessing, which referenced the land, the Torah, and bris milah, among other things. Why couldn’t we have added Jerusalem and the Temple to that list, and thereby saved an entire blessing, which now seems superfluous.
We will now begin a five-to-six-part series on Birkas HaMazon. We will be presenting a masterpiece written by Rabbi Shlomo Goldfinger, who has also authored very insightful s’farim on tefilah.
