Yalta - Women of the Talmud

Lesson Five: THE INNOVATION TO LEAD

Dear Students,

Allow me to share with you a short poem that I have always enjoyed.

Outwitted

by Edwin Markham

He drew a circle that shut me out--

Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.

But Love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle that took him in!

What will Rabbi Meir do when his primary teacher of Torah, Elisha ben Avuyah, turns heretic and colludes with the Romans in oppressing his own people? The rabbis refuse to even speak his name. Reviled and ostracized, Elisha is left alone in a private hell of his own making.

Now Rabbi Meir, a brilliant and daring leader, must choose how to respond. Will he side with his colleagues and turn away from Elisha? Or, knowing Elisha as no one else knows him, will his conscience dictate another solution?

We’ll discuss this question in our fifth lesson in Portraits in Leadership: Timeless Tales for Inspired Living. I look forward to seeing you next Tuesday at the Chabad Torah Centre.

Portraits in Leadership - Rabbi Meir

Is Intermarriage Good for the Jews? by Rabbi Moss

Question of the Week:

I have always felt an affinity to Queen Esther from the Purim story. Just like me, she married a non-Jew. And because of it she saved the Jewish people. Isn't the message that intermarriage can be good for the Jews?

Answer:

Esther is a tragic hero. Unlike many people's misconception, she was not happy to be queen. She was dragged away from her family and people, against her will, and forced to marry a grotesque and uncouth tyrant, the king of Persia, Achashverosh.

This was no romantic courtship. Having executed his previous queen for not obeying his wishes, Achashverosh ordered that every woman in the kingdom present herself before him. Esther, a sweet Jewish girl, was deemed the most beautiful candidate, and so she was taken to the king's palace. She had no choice - to resist meant death.

When an evil decree was made to annihilate the Jewish nation throughout the kingdom, Esther used her position to beg for the salvation of her people. She succeeded, but there was no happy ending for her. The Jews celebrated their victory in the streets, but Esther was stuck in the palace. She remained chained to her despotic husband till the end.

Esther is not a model of intermarriage. You can't compare her forced marriage to yours. But if you would like to take a lesson from Esther's life, perhaps it is this: Being married to a non-Jew in no way diminishes your responsibility to your people. Esther's marital situation was never used as an excuse for her to weaken her ties to Judaism.

A Jew, no matter how far they think they have strayed, remains a Jew. All the tasks and obligations expected of a Jew apply to you. The fact that you don't observe one law - the law forbidding intermarriage - does not exempt you from observing all the others.

Intermarriage is never good for the Jews. Esther was good for the Jews, because she never gave up her Jewishness. Neither should you.

Good Shabbos and Happy Purim!

Weekly e*Torah by Rabbi Avrohom Altein

Review of Lesson Four (Portraits in Leadership)

Thank you for joining our fourth class of Portraits in Leadership: Timeless Tales for Inspired Living. We began with Rabbi Akiva’s early years as a shepherd. One day, while walking in the fields, Rabbi Akiva noticed a rock formation that had been created through many years of water droplets falling onto the rock’s surface. Contemplating the scene, he reasoned that if water could have such an impact on the hard rock, then Torah would be able to mold and shape his heart. Rachel, seeing his potential despite his lack of schooling, married him on the condition that he study Torah. Her father considered the match unfitting, and he disowned her.

Their marriage began with great poverty, but Rachel was not dissuaded from encouraging Rabbi Akiva’s studies. He left home for twenty-four years at her urging and returned with twenty-four thousand students. When he returned and saw Rachel pushing toward him in the crowd, he told the students to make way for her because all that he and they possessed was due to her. Rachel’s father annulled his vow, and they lived in great wealth. Rabbi Akiva bought his wife a golden tiara with the image of Jerusalem as a sign of his appreciation for her long years of sacrifice.

Rabbi Akiva’s students perished within a short span of time. Tradition attributes the cause of their death to the fact that they did not show sufficient respect to one another. Despite this crushing loss at an advanced age, Rabbi Akiva nurtured additional students who were key to the survival and preservation of the oral tradition. Rabbi Akiva’s optimism and resilience is also demonstrated in an incident in which he could not find lodging and lost his lamp, his donkey and his rooster while out in the field at night. He remained positive that this was for the best, and in fact, he escaped being captured by robbers as a result of these seemingly unlucky events. In yet another illustration of optimism, Rabbi Akiva laughed when seeing the razed site of the temple, understanding this to be the first stage in its rebuilding and the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecies of redemption.

Rabbi Akiva hoped that the Bar Kochba revolt would usher in a better era, but these hopes were unfulfilled. As a result of the failure of the revolt, Roman rule became more oppressive and Torah learning was outlawed. Rabbi Akiva nevertheless continued to teach, seeing this as vital to life itself. The Romans arrested Rabbi Akiva, and after two years of imprisonment, he was cruelly put to death. Rabbi Akiva died with the shema on his lips, seeing his death as an opportunity to give his very life to G-d.

Despite many setbacks, Rabbi Akiva’s perseverance and constant optimism prevailed. Judaism was imperiled, and only one person could save the Torah and Judaism. What can one person accomplish? Perhaps we should ask instead, “what can’t one person accomplish, given sufficient resolve and determination?” Thank you again for joining us, and I hope to see you next week for our next portrait, Rabbi Meir.

Abaya's Mother - Women of the Talmud

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Love Is All You Need?! by Rabbi Moss

Question of the Week:

My relationship is moving ahead. We certainly love each other, and we have from the start, but we do have our differences. All my friends say the main thing is that you are in love, and everything else will fall into place. But is this true?

Answer:

All you need to know about relationships you can learn from making model airplanes.

A common mistake when making a model airplane is to start by putting glue all over the parts. That just creates a mess. The wrong bits get stuck together, wings get stuck to the floor, windows stuck on your fingers. It only complicates things when you introduce the glue too early.

The way to build a model airplane is to first organise the parts. Make sure the pieces fit together and nothing is missing. Then gradually apply the glue, and join the various parts, piece by piece, until it starts to take shape.

The parts may not fit perfectly at first. You may have to shave off some rough edges, or bend some parts into shape before they click. Minor imperfections can be overlooked - a dollop of glue can fix them up. With a bit of work it all comes together.

But if you find that there are parts missing, or they don't fit, then you don't have what it takes to make an airplane. You can't use glue to join mismatched pieces, and certainly not to replace missing parts. Don't even try, just look for a better model.

Your relationship is a model airplane. You and your partner are the pieces, and love is the glue that sticks you together. Without the binding power of love, two individuals could never become one. But that power, like glue, is indiscriminate. It must be applied carefully, because it could stick just about anything together; you can love someone who is simply not for you.

Before opening our hearts, we must ensure we have the right pieces to build a relationship. The building blocks of a solid relationship are shared values and common purpose. Our priorities in life, beliefs and visions for the future must fit together. We can have different opinions, different tastes and different ways of expressing ourselves; as long as we can share those differences respectfully, we can become one. But if our values are not in synch, then we simply have different futures - we are not going in the same direction.

This all may sound unromantic. The Beatles would never have made it big by singing:

"All you need is love, and shared values and commitment and a wholesome view of what a relationship really is - da dada dada."

But they should have. Model airplanes are not exactly poetic. But what's better - romantic dating that gets sticky, or a sticking together for a lifetime of romance?

Weekly e*Torah by Rabbi Avrohom Altein

Portraits in Leadership - Rabbi Akiva