PEACE IN THE HOME

Dear Family,

I hope that everyone is well.

Wishing Claude a refuah shleimah.

One of the themes that came up this week was PEACE (In relation to the passing of Aharon HaKohen in this week's Sedra, whose hallmark was making peace between Jews), and how this relates to refining ourselves:

• Our Sages say that whoever instills peace in his own Family is considered to have instilled peace amongst the entire Jewish Nation

Every person can influence his home

• Our Sages comment on the verse 21:18 in this week's Sedra Chukas "..and from the Wilderness to Matana." as follows:

Matana is the name of a place, but it also means 'a gift' in Hebrew.

So they explain the verse to mean: He who makes himself into a 'wilderness' ie he works on refining his character until his ego is as ownerless as a wilderness, will be truly worthy of receiving the precious 'gift' of the Torah.

• In the Maamar called Hechaltzu, which is a treatise on Love of a Fellow Jew from the Rebbe Rashab, this theme again came up:

A person who is in touch with the Holy side of himself will have an ingrained humility, which leads to an acceptance of others, which leads to PEACE

Whereas a person who is primarily influenced by the negative side of their nature, characterized by selfishness, will give rise to separation and division, with an ultimate result of baseless hatred towards a Fellow Jew.

It is known that Torah brings PEACE to the world.

This month features both the Frierdike Rebbe and The Rebbe

The Frierdike Rebbe instituted the daily study as laid out sections, of Chumash, Tanya and Tehillim, known by the acronym ChiTaT.

And the Rebbe added to this the programme of studying Rambam's Mishneh Torah daily, either 3 chapters per day over 1 year, or 1 chapter per day over 3 years. Children can also participate by learning Sefer HaMitzvos in parallel with the learning of the adults.

Wishing everyone a Good and Peaceful Shabbos