This week's parsha

Unless otherwise noted, "This week's Parsha" comprises articles taken from contributors to the Chabad.org website. We show the original author's name here, so that proper attribution is given. For the sake of brevity, footnotes cited in the original author's writings are omitted from this website. If you need to see the citations, please refer to the original articles on the Chabad.org website.

Ark Sweet Ark

Published: 16 October 2012 | Written by Naftali Silberberg

A remarkable but often overlooked aspect of the story of the Flood is the living conditions within the Ark, and the "strange bedfellows" it created. For an entire year, this relatively small vessel housed at least two specimens of every living creature. This means that animals which in their native habitats are predatory lived in close quarters with their natural prey -- but no creature was harmed. Cooperation and harmony between all inhabitants of the Ark was key to their survival.

Our sages explain that the Ark was pervaded by a Messianic spirit which produced a miraculously harmonious atmosphere. "A wolf shall live with a lamb... and a lion, like cattle, shall eat straw" (Isaiah 11:6-7). The Messianic "new world order" described in the books of the prophets was temporarily realized in the confines of the small Ark.

What lesson can we derive from the Messianic aura which pervaded the Ark during the dark days of the Flood?

Light

Published: 10 October 2012 | Written by Tali Loewenthal

"And G-d said: Let there be light!"

The Midrash compares G-d's creation of the universe to the work of a human architect. When a person wishes to build something, first he fixes his purpose in his mind. Then he starts his labor.

"Let there be light" was the first statement in creation because "light" is the true purpose of existence: through the study of Torah and the fulfillment of mitzvot, Divine radiance is revealed.

"Light" is the purpose of existence as a whole. Further, each individual is a microcosm of the world. "Light" is therefore the purpose of each Jew: that he or she transform his or her situation and environment to light, goodness, instead of darkness.

If light is the purpose of every created thing, it follows that it must also be the purpose of darkness itself. Darkness does not exist only in order to be conquered or avoided, thereby presenting man with a choice between good and evil; the fulfillment of darkness is when it is changed, when the bad becomes good -- when darkness is transformed into light.

The problems that we meet in life might sometimes make us despair even of winning the battle of light over darkness, let alone of turning the bad itself into good. But with the words "Let there be light!" the Torah presents the goal for each of us as individuals and also for humanity as a whole. This is the Divine purpose for our existence: and if this is G-d's purpose for us, there is no doubt that we will be able to succeed!

Torah Reading for Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret

Published: 05 October 2012 | Written by Administrator

(taken from the website: www.chabad.org)

The Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret Torah readings are from Leviticus 22-23, Numbers 29, and Deuteronomy 14-16. These readings detail the laws of the moadim or "appointed times" on the Jewish calendar for festive celebration of our bond with G-d; including the mitzvot of dwelling in the sukkah (branch-covered hut) and taking the "Four Kinds" on the festival of Sukkot; the offerings brought in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem on Sukkot, and the obligation to journey to the Holy Temple to "to see and be seen before the face of G-d" on the three annual pilgrimage festivals -- Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot.

On Simchat Torah ("Rejoicing of the Torah") we conclude, and begin anew, the annual Torah-reading cycle. First we read the Torah section of Vezot Haberachah, which recounts the blessings that Moses gave to each of the twelve tribes of Israel before his death. Echoing Jacob's blessings to his twelve sons five generations earlier, Moses assigns and empowers each tribe with its individual role within the community of Israel.

Vezot Haberachah then relates how Moses ascended Mount Nebo from whose summit he saw the Promised Land. "And Moses the servant of G-d died there in the Land of Moab by the mouth of G-d... and no man knows his burial place to this day." The Torah concludes by attesting that "There arose not a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom G-d knew face to face... and in all the mighty hand and the great awesome things which Moses did before the eyes of all Israel."

Immediately after concluding the Torah, we begin it anew by reading the first chapter of Genesis (the beginning of next Shabbat's Torah reading) describing G-d's creation of the world in six days and His ceasing work on the seventh -- which He sanctified and blessed as a day of rest.

Page 124 of 172