The Israeli cabinet yesterday recieved a briefing from MI (military Intelligence ) chief Yadlin.Only one sentence was made public (see JP) namel " The policies of Obama can endanger Israel."( see yeterdays blog)
Tonite as I noted my shiur is completing Tractate ( Talmud) Makkos,and will have a celebration (siyum) at a restaurant in Monsey.It is so appropriate that almost 55 years after the Shoah when Hitler tried to eradicate the Jewish people, physically and spiritually,a group of primarily secular Jews ( 10 physicians and 1 accountant) have been studying weekly for almost 24 years to make themselves better Jews and human beings. THEIR LOVE OF LEARNING HAS BEEN AN INSPIRATION TO ME AND TO MY COLLEAGUE DR. MICHAEL MUSCHEL, WHO FOR THE PAST 2 YEARS OR SO HAS TAUGHT THE CLASS WHEN I AM IN FLORIDA.
THE THEME OF THE LAST PARAGRAPH IN MAKKOS IS "NECHAMA" CONSOLATION.
On a personal level,when we pay a shiva visit,we console the mourners.On a national level we experience Nehama when for example we celebrate the State of Israel ,when no person in their right mind could have thought it possible at the end of the Holocaust.Similarly there is a sense of nechama when Jewish study of Torah at every level is at a point that no one could have predicted only a little over a half century ago.
The introduction of Art Scroll type Hebraic translations have made it possible for indididuals who cannot read Hebrew to master the texts.
This is our third tractate that we have finished studying,and Friday we begin Tractate Sanhedrin.Hopefully the class will be blessed with success and health to celebrate its conclusion.
