by nvpadmin | Jan 1, 1970 |
These few trees stand tall in courageous posture. This large park at Yad Vashem has only a relatively few trees planted in memorial to the righteous gentiles who saved Jews during the war. At great risk to their families and to themselves, they put their lives and those they loved dear in harm’s way just to save Jews. In Israel, to honor these heroic individuals a special tree is planted for every righteous Gentile who is deemed deserving. Why did a non-Jew do such an act of courage? One hero of this tree said that it was not about decision. It was about the moment. For him, it was midnight on a bone chilling rainy winter Sunday night. Had you asked him if he would have saved a Jewish family, he would have looked directly into your eyes and said of course not. What do I have to gain? I have everything to lose. But then one night, there was a knock at the door. Knock. Knock. Knock. Again. Knock. Knock. Knock. Harder this time. More urgent. Louder. He rolled out of his warm bed from underneath his heavy wool blankets, mumbled a few words to his slumbering wife that they had to get up in a few hours to feed the animals and who in the hell was knocking at this late hour? How was Mrs. Sobesiak down the road? Maybe she has taken a turn for the worst? Knock. Knock. Knock. Was he the only one hearing the steady sounds, like a drum beat on a death march? He stumbles out of the bedroom and shuffles down...
by nvpadmin | Jan 1, 1970 |
by nvpadmin | Jan 1, 1970 |
“After the Lord your God shall you follow and Him shall you fear; His commandments shall you observe and to His voice shall you hearken; Him shall you serve and to Him shall you cleave. … For the life of a man is like the tree of the field.” Deuteronomy 13:5-20:19. The Tree of Life This Tree of Life speaks of the Torah. The Torah is a Tree of Life to those who hold fast to it. Her branches, bursting with foliage, embrace the world. She shelters the smaller trees behind her, like the children of Israel. Surrounded, she stands alone. She protects the entrance to the garden below. With her shade, she guards God’s land with glory and...
by nvpadmin | Jan 1, 1970 |
From the cracked hearts of broken lives, like fractures in worn rock, a lovely, pure, and gentle flower is born. How can life grow from barren rock? Where do water and nutrients feed this newborn growth? How can a life that saw unspeakable horror, that lost all that was near and dear, move onward and forward, with hope and a future? How is life, like this flower, reborn? This image speaks of this human condition. From unspeakable horror, death and despair, torture and brutality, hunger and starvation, disease, and bitter cold, the survivor, like this flower, refuses to die. From Auschwitz, a remnant few lived on. And, like this newfound plant, survivors recreate new lives for themselves, born from ashes, traumatic loss, haunting memories and broken...
by nvpadmin | Jan 1, 1970 |
“You shall not cook a kid in the milk of its mother.” Exodus 23:19 Exodus 34:26 Deuteronomy 14:21 Judaism is filled with prohibitions, restrictions, laws of separation and sacrifice. Nowhere is this as clear as in the laws of kashrut. “The prohibition of cooking meat and milk together applies to all sheep and cattle; not only kid meat in the milk of its own mother. The Torah gives this prohibition three times. It is forbidden to cook it, to eat it, and even to benefit from it. (Rashi). R’Hirsch suggests a reason for the prohibition and for its insertion in this passage. Meat represents the animal portion of life, the muscle and sinew. Milk represents the reproductive capacity of animal life, for milk is the nourishment that supports new life. In animals, these two aspects of life are inseparable; animals instinctively eat and reproduce. Man has a higher calling. He must not mingle these aspects of his nature. To the contrary, he must learn to differentiate between his activities and – primarily – to subjugate them all to this duty in the service of the God and to put Godliness into all his activities. The higher duty is symbolized in the prohibition against mixing milk and meat. Its proximity to the laws of the festivals and the first fruits conveys the teaching that one who succumbs to his animal instincts destroys the holy nature of the seasons and God’s blessings of prosperity.” Etz...
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