Torah E-Thought: time to build an ARK
 
ב״ה
 
 
This Week at Chabad Lubavitch Leeds

Light Candles in Leeds :

Friday, 9th August  7:30pm
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Shabbat Ends,
9:43 pm
 
Torah Portion: 
 

Chabad Lubavitch Leeds   Email: [email protected]   Phone: 0113-2663311www.JudaismLive.com

 
 
Message from the Rabbi
 
 
Dear Friend,

Next Tuesday, if Moshiach is not yet here, we will mark the destruction of the First and Second Beit Hamikdash. You can read more details on our site here.

After a year full of activities, energy and great achievements, we bid farewell to our shluchos, Bassie Lawrence and DL Bloom and wish them well for the future. We look forward to our new shluchos arriving for another great year!

It’s been another great week at Lubavitch Day Camp! You can see pictures from this week here.

The Shabbat Dinner Pack booking form is closed until September. We will still be delivering to our regular recipients and if anyone is in urgent need they can email [email protected] and we will do our best to help out.


Wishing you a Good Shabbos,


Rabbi Eli Pink
Director of Education
Chabad Lubavitch Leeds

.........................

For some time now, the world seems to be going through significant turmoil. Islamic fundamentalism has put everyone on edge and now the far-right are showing their faces too. It seems that the lunatics are running the asylum that is the UN when it comes to Israel and worldwide politics just seem like a nightmare that we are waiting to wake up from.

At the beginning of this week's parshah, Moses begins by making an oblique reference to a number of places that the Jewish people had grumbled against G-d whilst travelling through the desert, thus rebuking the Jewish people for their behaviour. The commentators discuss why Moses did not openly refer to the incidents at this stage, but perhaps a bigger question is why the Jews even rebelled? Surely the generation that saw the Ten Plagues, the Splitting of the Sea and the Giving of the Torah should have been a bit stronger in their belief in G-d?

It is instructive that all the occasions that Moses refers to at the beginning of Devarim were connected to concerns over their food supply; a lack of water, discontent over the manna and a desire to eat meat. The Jewish people never suffered from a lack of faith - their problem was trust. It was unquestionable to them that G-d could sustain them in the desert had He wished, their issue was whether he would.

Approximately one thousand years ago Rabbeinu Bachaya Ibn Pakuda wrote a fundamental book on Jewish faith called the Chovot Halevovot that is still studied to this day. On the issue of trust in G-d he defines seven conditions that are necessary for a person to have complete trust in another. While some of the seven may be present in others, all seven can only be found in G-d.

The idea to 'throw your burden on G-d,' may have been adapted to another faith, but its source - King David in the Book of Psalms - is clearly Jewish. While we must do all we can in practical terms, King Solomon reminds us in Proverbs that 'the hearts of Kings and Ministers are in the hand of G-d.' 'Think good and it will be good,' the saying goes. This is more than the power of positive thinking; it is the belief that through our trust in G-d, He will shower us with an abundance of blessing, health, safety, wealth and prosperity.

The flip side of the coin, is that we can’t sit back and rely on G-d. While the terrorist leaders say that the waiting game is part of their psychological war, and the political and military leaders debate whether to launch a pre-emptive strike, we should be galvanising ourselves.

I remember several years ago when I took some Mental Health training as part of my chaplaincy work, part of the discussion centred around a project called D.A.R.K. They explained that when someone is in a dark place in their life they should engage in Daily Acts of Random Kindness and through these acts, they will find purpose and improved mental health.

I was stunned. The words could have come straight out of any classic book of Chassidic philosophy. We teach that a little light dispels a lot of darkness, but that even more powerful is to turn the darkness into light. Through acts of random kindness. The Chassidic singers Eighth Day have even made a song about it. And in South Africa, Chabad Lubavitch have pioneered a program encouraging people to engage with ARK – Acts of Random Kindness.
 
We don’t need to sit back and wait, now is the time to strengthen our trust and increase our actions to ensure safety and security and the ultimate blessing of peace with the coming of Moshiach now!

 
 
 
JNET

 
 
Upcoming Events
Summer Camp - Week 2
Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024 - 12:00 pm
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Friday, Aug. 9, 2024 - 12:00 pm
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Shabbat Morning Service
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Candle lighting and Friday night service
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Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024 - 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Candle lighting and Friday night service
Friday, Aug. 23, 2024 - 7:30 pm
Shabbat Morning Service
Shabbat, Aug. 24, 2024 - 10:00 am
BLT Sunday Morning Bagel Minyan
Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024 - 8:30 am
Lunch and Learn
Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024 - 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Candle lighting and Friday night service
Friday, Aug. 30, 2024 - 7:30 pm
Shabbat Morning Service
Shabbat, Aug. 31, 2024 - 10:00 am
 
 
CGI Summer Camp
 
 
 
 
 
 
Service Times

Friday Night 7:30pm

Shabbat Morning 10:00am

Sunday Morning 8:30am
 

 
 
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Parshah in a Nutshell

Parshat Devarim

The name of the Parshah, "Devarim," means "the words" and it is found in Deuteronomy 1:1.

On the first of Shevat (thirty-seven days before his passing), Moses begins his repetition of the Torah to the assembled children of Israel, reviewing the events that occurred and the laws that were given in the course of their forty-year journey from Egypt to Sinai to the Promised Land, rebuking the people for their failings and iniquities, and enjoining them to keep the Torah and observe its commandments in the land that G‑d is giving them as an eternal heritage, into which they shall cross after his death.

Moses recalls his appointment of judges and magistrates to ease his burden of meting out justice to the people and teaching them the word of G‑d; the journey from Sinai through the great and fearsome desert; the sending of the spies and the people’s subsequent spurning of the Promised Land, so that G‑d decreed that the entire generation of the Exodus would die out in the desert. “Also against me,” says Moses, “was G‑d angry for your sake, saying: You, too, shall not go in there.”

Moses also recounts some more recent events: the refusal of the nations of Moab and Ammon to allow the Israelites to pass through their countries; the wars against the Emorite kings Sichon and Og, and the settlement of their lands by t he tribes of Reuben and Gad and part of the tribe of Manasseh; and Moses’ message to his successor, Joshua, who will take the people into the Land and lead them in the battles for its conquest: “Fear them not, for the L‑rd your G‑d, He shall fight for you.”

Learn: Devarim in Depth
Browse: Devarim Parshah Columnists
Prep: Devar Torah Q&A for Devarim
Read: Haftarah in a Nutshell
Play: Devarim Parshah Quiz