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i-Can: Skills

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Prayer Skills-Terumah-For The Unification

The 28th of Shevat is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Menachem Nachum Twersky (ben Yochanon) of Chernobyl, the Rachmistrivka Rebbe (1840-1937). Grandson of Rav Menachem Nachum (author of Meor Einayim).

i-Can: Skills

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Prayer Skills-Terumah-Turning Wood Into Gold

The 29th of Shevat is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Chananya Yom Tov Lipa (ben Yekusiel Yehuda) Teitelbaum (1836-1904), author of Kedushas Yom Tov. “They shall make an Ark of acacia wood.… You shall cover it...

i-Can: Skills

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Prayer Skills-Terumah-Accessing the Highest Mysteries

Human prayer is the service of the spirit. Although people do not realize it, it involves the highest mysteries, even when they do not understand. We learn from the Tabernacle that prayers split thr...

i-Can: Skills

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Prayer Skills-Terumah-That Dwells Amidst Their Imperfections

Thoughts that disturb your prayers can be an atonement for your sins. When you are not suspicious of God and believe that He certainly wants to draw you close and accept your prayers, that the only ...
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i-Shine: Hallel

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Hallel for Rosh Chodesh Adar: Paragraph Six

This paragraph is sung by Mordechai and Esther as they reflect on the Purim story:   “Give thanks

i-Shine: Hallel

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Hallel for Rosh Chodesh Adar: Paragraph Five

I suspect that the Jews who heard of Haman’s decree did not celebrate God’s kindness, or perceive His truth, and yet, there were indications of both even in the darkest hours: Esther was Queen, and ...

i-Shine: Hallel

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Hallel for Rosh Chodesh Adar: Paragraph Four

The “Servant of God” who is singing the Hallel sees life as a series of challenges to grow as a human being and maximize his potential. He understands that each situation promises an opportunity of ...

i-Shine: Hallel

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Hallel for Rosh Chodesh Adar Paragraph Three

The Chasid Ya’avetz introduces this paragraph by explaining it as the praise of Israel when they have survived tragedy, and have experienced a ‘taste’ of the World to Come, a world of endless possib...

i-Shine: Hallel

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Hallel for Rosh Chodesh Adar Paragraph Two

The Chasid Ya’avetz continues his commentary on Hallel by pointing out that the Children of Israel sang because the miracles were a demonstration of God’s deep and abiding love for them. They saw be...

i-Shine: Hallel

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Hallel for Rosh Chodesh Adar Paragraph One

According to the Chasid Ya’avetz, the key verse of the Adar Hallel is, “The heavens are God’s, while the earth has been given to people.” The Purim challenge is how we choose to live in this world ...
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Haftarah: Tisha B'Av: Waves of Tears Print E-mail
HaftarahJeremiah 8:13 - 9:23: I am proud that we continue to read this prophecy more than 2400 years after Jeremiah first spoke it. We stand up, two and a half millennia later, and accept the prophet’s words of rebuke. We chant this mournful Haftarah with full acknowledgment that we are responsible.  The centuries have not diluted our awareness. We have not used all this time to find excuses, reasons and explanations. We have not dumped Jeremiah’s thoughts on the “dustbin of history”. We read Jeremiah because we understand that his words are as real today as they were when first spoken to the people of Jerusalem 24 centuries ago.

(Please see Lamentations: Kinah 8: Lessons About Crying on The Foundation Stone Blog for insights into this Haftarah.)

One of the most emotionally intense prophecies in the bible, this Haftarah hits us with waves of passion. The first wave crashes over us with words of a warning that is not what may happen, to be determined by the people’s response, but a massive wave of what will happen: “I shall utterly destroy them. There will be no grapes on the grapevine and no dates on the date palm, the leaf will wither, and what I have given them will pass away. God has silenced us and given us poisonous water. We are hoping for peace, but there is no good; for a time of healing, but behold, there is only terror!” (8:13-15)

We are shivering, soaked, choking, when the second wave smashes us with God’s cry of rebuke: “Why have they angered Me with their graven idols, with their alien vanities?” (8:19)

We are flattened by Jeremiah’s tsunami, struggling to breathe, and we watch a small wave of tears approach us: “The harvest has passed, the summer has ended, but we were not saved” (8:20)

Are we ready to be inundated by Jeremiah’s pain? “Over the collapse of my people’s daughter have I been shattered; I am blackened, desolation has gripped me.” (8:21) How can we find the strength to stand up to Jeremiah’s agony? He stood up and warned us for so many years and we chose not to hear him, not to listen, not to change.

We sit on the ground, chilled to the bone, grasping onto anything firm that will allow us an illusion of security. We survey the destruction around us: the physical destruction, and the spiritual. We remember and consider the lost souls, the wasted efforts and lives, the unanswered questions, the gnawing doubts, the vacuous voices of authority, the lack of meaningful direction, and we mourn. How much more can we survive?

Another wave is forming. We are too defeated to run, but we watch as it grows into a huge beast: “Who is the wise man who will understand this, to whom the mouth of God speaks – let him relate it: For what reason did the land perish, become parched like a desert, without passerby?” (9:11) We believed in our sophisticated wisdom. We had confidence in our logic and intellect. We thought we had the answers, but now we cannot even answer this basic question.

“An intellectual is usually someone who isn’t exactly distinguished by his intellect. He claims that label to compensate for his inadequacies. It’s as old as that saying, “Tell me what you boast of and I’ll tell you what you lack.’ The incompetent always present themselves as experts, the cruel as pious, sinners as devout, usurers as benefactors, the small-minded as patriots, the arrogant as humble, the vulgar as elegant, and the feeble-minded as intellectual.” (Carlos Ruiz Zafon: The Angel’s Game)

This wave washes away the last of our illusions that we were too wise for the Torah, to pious, humble and devout to be punished. We are left with all our false constructs smashed to smithereens by the waves of tears crashing from Jeremiah’s eyes and words all over us.

“So says God: Let not the wise man laud himself with his wisdom and let not the strong man laud himself with his strength, and let not the rich man laud himself with his wealth. Only with this may one laud himself –discernment in knowing Me, for I am God Who does kindness, justice, and righteousness in the land, for in these is My desire,’ the words of God.” (9:22-23)

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