Podcasts about Avel

The Three Weeks: Beginning with the End in Mind There is a well-known rule: סוף מעשה במחשבה תחילה (Sof ma'aseh b'machshava techilah) "The end of an action must first be conceived in thought." In other words: Begin with the end in mind. The Three Weeks culminate with Tisha B'Av. The specific text our Sages instituted for us to read on Tisha B'Av is Eicha (Lamentations). How does Eicha end? "Take us back, O Hashem, to Yourself, and we will return; renew our days as of old." (Eicha 5:21) These are the final words we recite. The Real Final Verse: A Deeper Reading Now, hold on. Someone might argue that this isn't actually the final verse of Eicha . The technical final verse is: "For even if You had utterly rejected us, You were only exceedingly angry with us." (Eicha 5:22) We normally repeat the previous verse ( Hashiveinu ) because we don't want to conclude on a negative note. However, the truth is that the absolute last verse is not actually negative. The Reishit Chochma ( Sha'ar HaTeshuva , Chapter 7) explains that the verse should be read like this: "If You were truly disgusted with us, You would have destroyed us completely in Your extreme anger. But we see that You did not destroy us completely." We are not wiped out; we are still here. We still have a remnant. Therefore, it is obvious that the purpose of the exile and the destruction was never to eliminate us, but rather to direct us to return to Him in teshuvah (repentance). Why then do we repeat the second-to-last verse ( Hashiveinu )? I saw once—though I don't recall the exact source—that the average person reading the literal text might misunderstand the final verse. They might mistakenly think it means God is genuinely and permanently disgusted with us. Therefore, we repeat Hashiveinu so nobody walks away with a mistaken impression of what Tisha B'Av is truly about. It is about Hashiveinu —returning. "Renew Our Days as of Old" The verse says: חדש ימינו כקדם ( Chadesh yameinu k'kedem ) — "Renew our days as of old." We want to go back to the old days. What does "the old days" mean? It means the era when Hashem dwelt among us in an open, revealed way. God still dwells with us today, but His presence is hidden. That is the core theme: We want to rejuvenate that old relationship. There is a fascinating Gemara in Masechet Berachot 3a that describes what happens when the Jewish people gather in Batei Knesiyot (synagogues) and Batei Midrashot (study halls) and declare: יהא שמיה רבא מברך ( Yehei Shmei Rabba Mevarach ) — "May His great Name be blessed..." The Gemara states that Hashem, so to speak, shakes His head back and forth and says: "Fortunate is the king whose children praise him in his house! What is there for a father whose children have been exiled from his table? And woe to the children who have left their father's table!" Hashem, as it were, bemoans the fact that we are not at His table, that we are scattered among the nations. Tur, Orach Chaim, Siman 56 ומה שאנו אומרין הקדיש בלשון תרגום And regarding that which we recite the Kaddish in the Aramaic language ( Lashon Targum ): יש אומרים מפני המלאכים שלא יתקנאו בנו שאנו משבחים שבח נאה כזה There are those who say it is on account of the angels, so that they should not become jealous of us because we are praising [Hashem] with such a beautiful praise. וגם שע"י זה הקב"ה נזכר לחורבן הבית וגלות ישראל And furthermore, because through this [praise], the Holy One, Blessed be He, recalls the destruction of the Temple and the exile of Israel, כדאיתא בפ"ק דברכות as it is brought down in the first chapter of Berachot (3a): בשעה שישראל עונין אמן יש"ר הקב"ה מנענע בראשו ואומר "At the hour when Israel responds, 'Amen, Yehei Shmei Rabba...', the Holy One, Blessed be He, shakes His head and says: אוי לבנים שגלו מעל שלחן אביהם 'Woe to the children who have been exiled from their Father's table, ומה לו לאב שככה מקלסין אותו בניו ורחקם מעל שלח נו and what is there for a Father whose children praise Him in this way, yet He has distanced them from His table?'" וכביכול שיש דאגה לפניו Thus, kavyachol (so to speak, as it were), there is distress and anguish before Him. ואם יבינו המלאכים זה יקטרגו עלינו And if the angels were to understand this, they would prosecute (bring accusations) against us [out of jealousy or judgment over our survival despite our failings]. ע"כ אומרים אותו בלשון שלא יבינו שאינן מכירין ארמית . Therefore, we recite it in a language they do not understand, as [the ministering angels] are not familiar with Aramaic. The Father-Child Connection Hashem "cries" for us daily. Think of a child who goes away to summer camp or to Israel; the child might be perfectly happy in their new environment and might not even miss home, but the parents back home are miserable. We have been in Galut (exile) for so many years that we have forgotten what it actually means to sit at our Father's table. The Zohar explains that we perform the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird ( Shiluach HaKen ) to arouse Hashem's mercy for His children. He hears the mother bird's cry and remembers His own children. Similarly, when a child says Kaddish for a deceased parent, they deeply miss that parent, and that act arouses Hashem's own "feelings." He sees an orphan reciting Kaddish , and it invokes— kavyachol (so to speak, since God does not possess human emotions)—that deep, intrinsic Father-son connection. Rav Nosson Wachtfogel, in his commentary on Tisha B'Av, notes the specific language used: the children were exiled from the Father's table. The table itself is still there. We still receive our sustenance from it; we are just no longer sitting directly at it. As we say in Birkat HaMazon : Shulchan aruch lakol —the table is set for everyone. We are still being fed from our Father's table. And that is the profound difficulty of life: We can have everything in the world, but our Father isn't openly there with us. That is what is missing. Avel vs. Aval : The Life of "But" The Hebrew letters for a mourner ( lo aleinu —may it not happen to us) are א-ב-ל ( Avel ). Often, when people are learning, they encounter this word and accidentally read it as אֲבָל ( Aval ), which means "but." There is an underlying homiletical truth here: The avel (mourner) lives a life defined by a "but." Lo aleinu , a person is at a beautiful wedding, but their father or mother is missing. The wedding is gorgeous, but the parent isn't there to see it. In semantics, there is a major difference between the words "and" and "but." If I say, "I like the cake, but it has blueberries in it," the "but" inherently detracts from or negates the first part of the sentence. If I say, "I like the cake, and blueberries are not my favorite," I am still holding onto the first statement while simply adding context. "And" adds; "but" subtracts. Our lives in exile are a life of "but." Everything can be fine—the wedding is beautiful— but we still break the glass to remember Jerusalem: "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill." (Tehillim 137:5) There is always something vital missing. The job of the Three Weeks is to start missing our Parent again and to realize just how much He loves us. Correcting the Mistake of the Spies This dynamic traces back to the mistake of the very first Tisha B'Av. In Devarim 1:27 , when reviewing the tragic episode of the Spies, Moshe reminds the nation of what they grumbled in their tents: "Because Hashem hated us, He brought us out of the land of Egypt [to destroy us]." This verse appears in Parshat Devarim , which we always read on the Shabbat immediately preceding Tisha B'Av, specifically to remind ourselves of this foundational error. Just a few verses later, the Torah states: "...and in the wilderness, where you saw how Hashem your God carried you, just as a man carries his son..." (Devarim 1:31) Yet the very next verse admonishes: "Yet in this matter, you do not believe..." (Devarim 1:32) What does it mean that they didn't believe? Rashi explains that they didn't believe in God's promise to bring them into Eretz Yisrael. But the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh offers a alternative explanation: "You don't believe that God carried you like a father carries his son." That is what they failed to believe. Notably, the Hebrew month in which Tisha B'Av falls is called Av ( אָב ) —which literally means "Father." Our goal, beginning with these Three Weeks, is to re-internalize that reality. The Parable of the Father and Son The Ohr HaChaim connects this back to Shemot 17:7 , where the Jewish people questioned: "Is Hashem among us or not?" Rashi there provides a famous parable: A father is carrying his son on his shoulders during a journey. The son meets a passerby and asks, "Have you seen my father anywhere?" The father responds, "I have been carrying you on my shoulders the entire time, and you ask where I am?" The father sets the child down, and immediately a dog comes and bites him—which symbolizes the sudden attack of Amalek. Moshe continues to recount how God went before them on the road with a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. All of these expressions of care are still happening. We are still being led by the cloud and the pillar of fire; we just don't visually see it. Creating the Yemei Ratzon (Days of Favor) I will conclude with a powerful quote from the Be'er Mayim Chaim ( Parshat Bo , Chapter 10). He writes that a person must constantly tell themselves: "Nothing in this world happens on its own; everything is decreed by Heaven. As our Sages taught, a person does not even stub their toe below unless it was decreed from Above. So why is God doing this specific thing to me? Isn't God good to all, as it says: 'Hashem is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works' (Tehillim 145:9)? It must be that God is doing this precisely because He wants me to remember Him and return to Him in teshuvah." The Be'er Mayim Chaim continues that when a person internalizes this—realizing that God's challenges are merely reminders to connect—then (to quote his exact words): שש ושמח ( Sas v'same'ach ) — "He becomes happy and joyful," filled with immense awe and pride seeing how much God supervises him individually to bring about that reconnection, כחיבת אב על בנו ( k'chibat av al b'no ) — "like a father's deep endearment for his son." As the verse in Mishlei 3:12 states: "For whom Hashem loves He rebukes, even as a father the son in whom he delights." This insight is unbelievable: We are the ones who create the Yemei Ratzon (the Days of Favor). The upcoming month of Elul is known as a time of Ratzon (Divine favor). How do we activate that favor? When we recognize that Hashem is actively watching over us, and we realize that even His rebuke stems from love, we awaken our own ratzon (desire to connect). That alignment brings about genuine joy ( sas v'same'ach ), leading right into the uplifting holiday season of Tishrei. Ultimately, these three weeks are the days designated for us to focus on the enduring truth that God is still our Father , and to genuinely yearn to return to the days of old. That is the true theme of the Three Weeks.

The Rebbe addresses whether a mourner (avel) should lead Hallel in prayer, referencing established Chabad custom and halachic sources. He also discusses who should say Kaddish for a deceased grandmother when there are no sons, and the appropriateness of saying Kaddish after eleven months. https://www.torahrecordings.com/rebbe/igroskodesh/012/004/4008

É uma das pessoas mais marcantes da minha vida. A sua coragem era lendária, o seu gosto para a provocação uma delícia e a sua carreira no jornalismo fala por si. Ninguém é como Luís AvelãsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Gemara in Sukkah 25a says an avel doesn't wear tefillin because thy are called a pe'er — an adornment. Firstly, how so? And more importantly, so what? Why does this create an exemption? In three different places, Rashi gives three subtly different explanations.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Resnick offers clear and to-the-point classes in plain English on the daily portion of Rambam's Mishneh Torah for the 3 chapters a day cycle.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Classes on Rambam, divided according to the daily schedule.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Classes on Rambam, divided according to the daily schedule.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Classes on Rambam, divided according to the daily schedule.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Classes on Rambam, divided according to the daily schedule.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Classes on Rambam, divided according to the daily schedule.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.

Rabbi Gordon studies one chapter a day from Maimonides' classic legal work of Mishneh Torah. The original Hebrew text is read and then translated and clearly explained in English.