$0/$300
for Feb | Toda Raba! We thank you for your gifts & generousity. |  | 
|  |
Biblical Faith Shows
Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” Peak
Emunah channel is here. For Info www.torahfaith.org
Do not read charut (engraved) but read cheirut (freedom)
This interpretation appears to be irrelevant play on words, but truth it conveys a remarkable idea.
The mind conceives a picture of an object, but that conceptual representation, of course, is not the object itself. Similarly, the Torah is a picture of the world-indeed, it is the blueprint of Creation and a prescription for how the world should be-but it is not the world itself. Script is a parallel to Torah, for script is also a graphical representation of words, but not the words themselves.
Dedicated to Gordon and Christy Smith
Program Link – Read the Torah w/Shmuel – Contact – Emunah Channel
Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” Peak
Emunah channel is here. For Info www.torahfaith.org
The image “Like a golden ring in a swine’s snout” conveys that even an extremely precious article becomes disgusting when it is attached to something so repulsive as a swine. Similarly, the beauty of even the most attractive woman becomes repugnant if she is inane (empty).
The golden ring and the beauty of the woman are metaphors for the intellect, for intelligence shines in a person’s face with the same radiance as beauty. The pig’s snout is a metaphor for the physical component of a human being. The verse tells us that if the precious intellect is not applied to Torah, it is an irrelevant accessory of the physical body. It becomes as worthless as a golden ring attached to a snout that pokes around in the garbage heap.
Dedicated to Gordon and Christy Smith
Program Link – Read the Torah w/Shmuel – Contact – Emunah Channel
Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” Peak
Emunah channel is here. For Info www.torahfaith.org
A commentary from Rabbi Chayim of Volozhin by Rabbi Avraham Sutton
What is the meaning of man being the soul of all the worlds? The essence of the matter, however, is that G-d created adam (man) only after having brought the (primordial) worlds into existence. [It is by virtue of his been having been created last that] man is such a marvelous creature. He was created [thus] so that he could have the ability to bring all that was created before him to perfection. For G-d incorporated in him [aspects of] all the wondrous rarefied lights, and of all the supernal worlds and spiritual palaces that preceded him, as well as the complete blueprint of the supernal glory [Atziut] as it rides upon and governs the merkavah [lower universes of Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah].
Dedicated to Robert Wright
Program Link – Read the Torah w/Shmuel – Contact – Emunah Channel
Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” Peak
Emunah channel is here. For Info www.torahfaith.org
Chapter 6
Mishnah Two
Mount Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai, famous as the site where G-d gave the Torah. The word Horeb, חורב comes from the same Hebrew root as does חורבך, churban, meaning “destruction.” Why does Rabbi Levi refer to Mount Sinai by the term that designates “Mount Destruction”? We would have expected the opposite, for Torah brings structure and security to the world, fashioning it into an edifice.
The truth is that the Torah has a double-edged power. For people who seek the Torah, it brings fulfillment and structure to their lives.
Dedicated to Robert Wright
Program Link – Read the Torah w/Shmuel – Contact – Emunah Channel
Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” Peak
Emunah channel is here. For Info www.torahfaith.org
Chapter 6
Mishnah One (continues)
From a teaching by Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, Ruach Chaim.
The Zohar comments that before Sinai, all the creatures were controlled by the cosmic forces. Once the Torah was given to Yisra’el they were freed from the control of these forces. Indeed, one who studies Torah for its own sake actually controls the forces of nature. He can change them at will, and they fear him. In this context, the Mishnah comments that Torah gives him sovereignty and dominion.
Dedicated to Deana McGluflin
Program Link – Read the Torah w/Shmuel – Contact – Emunah Channel
Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” Peak
Chapter 6
Mishnah One (continues)
He loves the Omnipresent, he loves people . . .
We said one that learns Torah for its own sake is a “friend” and “beloved” of both G-d and people. It is the study and practice of Torah that infuse the world with its values. Since Torah flows from G-d, and Torah lives in people, a person who is embodiment of Torah is tightly bound up with both G-d and mankind.
Indeed, one who learns Torah for its own sake is the vehicle through which the spiritual and physical lanes of existence unite.
Dedicated to Deana McGluflin
Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” Peak
Chapter 6
Mishnah One (continues)
From a teaching by Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, Ruach Chaim.
The Torah shields and saves. Mitzvoth (commandments) shield but do not save. The mitzvoth actually represent a healthy diet and life style. When a human being performs a commandment they are surrounded by an aurora of holiness that shields them from their own evil inclination. However, once a human being becomes sick through the sins they have committed, and then they are required Torah study for its own sake, because the evil inclination attacks aggressively the impurity in their own heart. The Torah not only shields them from the evil inclination, but it also purges the evil in their heart and makes that individual fit to embark upon the journey of righteousness and repentance.
In memory of Jerry Dean