My sister's Book!


In this week's Torah portion, Moses delivers a foundational declaration of faith, the Shema:"Hear, O Israel: Hashem our G-d, Hashem is One." (Deuteronomy 6:4) The Shema demands that we love the Creator with all our heart, soul, and might. Is there any universal massage from this verse that is relevant to every human being?
We often fall into the trap of viewing creation as a past historical event, something that G-d built, and left to run on its own. The Torah's proclamation of Divine Oneness, as explained in Sha'ar HaYichud VeHa'Emunah, dispels this illusion. Creation is a continuous, dynamic process. The universe does not possess independent existence; rather, Divine energy flows continuously into the world at every single second, sustaining and renewing all matter (Sha'ar HaYichud VeHa'Emunah). The very existence, the next breath, and the beating of the heart are being actively recreated…
In this Torah portion, we encounter a defining historical moment: the explanation and translation of the Torah to the entire world. On the eve of entering the Land of Israel, Moses explained the Torah in seventy languages. Furthermore, he commanded the people to inscribe the Torah upon huge stones in seventy languages immediately after crossing the Jordan, once standing at the land of Israel (Sotah 32a). The Sages explain that this was done so that the nations of the world would have access to the Written Torah and would have no excuse to claim that they had never been given the opportunity to study it (Sotah 35b).
Yet there is another event of translation of the Torah that was regarded negatively. Ptolemy, the king of Hellenistic Egypt, compelled the elders of Israel to translate the Torah into Greek. Concerning that day, the Sages said: "That…
How lovely! Much success!