DONKEY

Dear Family.

Hope everyone is well.

Welcome to our home Avi, on your way to Eretz Yisrael. It is so nice of you to have stopped by for Shabbos. Enjoy! And enjoy London. Of course we are missing Penina being with you.

Happy birthday to Alisa on her birthday today!

And we wish Renee long life for the Yohrtzeit of Aunty Lottie AH.

We also wish Hirshy good luck with his marathon and fund raising for Hatzola of LA. It is not too late to sponsor his beautiful Mitzva. I also heard that you and Mariasha had many guests for Shabbos last week. Tizkeh lemitzvos!

RAMBAM 5 MINUTES PER WEEK -7 CHAPTERS - SEFER ZEROIM, HILCHOS BIKURIM CHAPS 4,5,6,7,8,9,10. SEE ATTACHMENT BELOW. P 12

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18LCdtnMoOFsfxkxHjcW3nyVIjV-D3hX5S6oFAycC -cA/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13BSSFKAX8Sy47ZRWnb48R9ci2Gbla0ChC21hWds1 2dQ/edit

I saw a nice Dvar Torah in this weeks Hayom Yom. (28th Shvat)

I love the Teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, and this is one of them.

It is based on a Posuk from last weeks Sedra (Mishpatim) which says:

'When you see the CHAMOR (DONKEY) of your enemy (I presume this means a Jewish 'enemy') struggling under its burden, and you may feel that you do not want to help him, (nevertheless) you should make every effort to help him (to unload his donkey)'

So The Baal Shem Tov explains the verse as follows:

When you see the CHAMOR - (Chamor has 2 meanings ie either donkey or materiality) So 'When you carefully examine your Chamor ie YOUR MATERIALITY to do with your body, you will see..

Your enemy 'ie your chomer may hate your Divine Soul that longs for G-dliness and the Spiritual, and furthermore you will see that it is..

Lying under its burden 'ie the body understands that it has a big job to do regarding Torah and Mitzvos, but it is lazy to fulfil them (because it seems a burden to him). It may therefore occur to you...

To refrain from helping (the body) ' ie it may occur to you to be hard with the body, and to break its materiality through afflicting it with ascetic practices. Or just ignoring its burden. HOWEVER THE BAAL SHEM TOV WARNS US THAT THIS IS NOT THE CORRECT PATH TO FOLLOW. Rather.....

You must aid it 'purify the body, refine it, but do not break it by mortification. SO THAT THE 'ENEMY' SHOULD BE TRANSFORMED INTO AN ALLY, (ie a vehicle for the Soul to attain great heights which it would not be able to attain without the body and the physical world), by doing the physical acts down here as prescribed by Torah'

Gut Shabbos to all.