Monday, March 30, 2026

Symbolism of the offering by the Rebbe

 

Friday: The Inner Sacrificial Altar

Sixth Reading: Leviticus 8:22–29
Translated and Adapted by Moshe Wisnefsky
As was the case with most sacrifices, parts of the sacrifices of the installation rituals were burned on the Outer Altar.
The Inner Sacrificial Altar
וַיִּקַּח מֹשֶׁה אֹתָם מֵעַל כַּפֵּיהֶם וַיַּקְטֵר הַמִּזְבֵּחָה וגו': (ויקרא ח:כח)
Moses took [specific parts of the slaughtered sacrifices] from the hands [of Aaron and his sons] and burned them up on the Altar. Leviticus 8:28

The procedures for the sacrifices all allude to inner, psychological processes that we must undergo in order to draw close to G‑d. (As mentioned above, the Hebrew word for “sacrifice” [korban] means “drawing close.”)

Slaughtering the animal alludes to how we slaughter – i.e., renounce – our animalistic orientation toward life. Sprinkling the blood on the Altar alludes to how we then re-orient our enthusiasm (signified by our warm blood) toward G‑dliness. Placing the fat of the slaughtered animal on the Altar alludes to how we re-orient our sense of delight (signified by fat, which results from indulging in eating foods that trigger feelings of delight in our brain) toward G‑dliness. Burning the animal by fire on the Altar alludes to the consumption of our animal nature by Divinity, meaning that our formerly animalistic drives become drives for goodness, as we transform the world into G‑d’s home.1

FOOTNOTES
1. Reshimot 108.

Friday, March 27, 2026

Maybe be the camel



After being rescued from a petting zoo, a special camel had trouble fitting in with the other animals on the rescue farm. It wanted nothing more than to be friends with all the horses and alpacas, but they had never seen a camel before. After a while, they realized that it was just a funny version of them, so they began to warm up to it, and now it has become part of the herd 


https://x.com/i/status/2037152600051617848

Thursday, March 26, 2026

cooler heads

Some rabbis are so out of touch with the concerns of people that it is appalling. I once attended a talk given to a Carlebach minyan where a visiting rabbi told a room of music lovers that listening to music has been forbidden since the destruction of the Temple, except for zmiros at Shabbos tables and some music at weddings. Rabbi Shlomo Carelbach was a talented songwriter and performer who built an entire kiruv track based largely on music. People who follow his derech connect to Judaism largely through music. I do not know what this rabbi was trying to accomplish with his presentation, but he certainly risked pushing people away from Torah observance. I know this rabbi to be a gentleman, but he was trained to impose Judaism like a straight jacket. Incredibly, he is Modern Orthodox and is associated with Yeshiva University, but many rabbis in the Modern Orthodox world have taken on sensibilities of other groups even though they are paid by Modern Orthodox people. 

But cooler heads can prevail. One BT who was an aficionado of opera was most upset to hear that halacha prohibited him from attending operas because he'd hear women singing. The rabbi who gave him this news eventually took him to a prominent posek  who told him if I recall correctly that attending operas would be permitted to him if his interest was in the entire spectacle, not just the women singing. After the young man left the room, the posek took the rabbi aside and chastised him, saying that he should know better than to pass on such restrictions without checking for a leniency. 

Friday, March 20, 2026

The fraudulence of Western Society

 The government forces you to go to public school where you are brainwashed on the alleged sanctity of college. The colleges charge more money than the price of a house but claim to give "financial aid" to 80% of students. Turns out the 80% of that aid is loans upon which one cannot default. They work like this;





One of the reasons tuition has gone up at twice the rate of inflation is because of the student loan program. 

And then in college, there's hardly a major that leads to earning income. It's mostly musical theater, literature, philosophy, biology, etc. 

Now, one reason her interest is so high is because she probably pays less than the full amount each month. But that could be in part because she couldn't find a job. 

Tuesday, March 17, 2026