Ha'azinu Excerpts

האזינו

Shabbat Shalom

Still complaining about the costs of Jewish day school. That is all you do. Complain. 'It is too expensive.' The same complaints since the beginning of time. People used to say that the wanderings were too expensive. But that is what you do when you leave Egypt. You wander...That is why they didn't have Jewish day schools in the desert. Nobody could afford it.

And now you complain about Sunday School. It is Sundays, the teachers have to get more for coming in on Sundays...

Rabbis can't make money? The article by random Jewish father was offensive. That was wrong. Rabbis need raises.

I hope the heavens don't have to listen to Bernie's conversation. That is painful. Bernie sitting there and complaining about the cost of Jewish day school...Your children are 65 years old Bernie...Nobody cares if you have to work an extra two years before you retire...

uNetana Tokef at youth groups, what were you thinking? Scared the hell out of the kids. Might as well have told them about the cost of Jewish day school. They would have had nightmares about dying by famine and paying tuition. There are things you don't share with children. One of them is death. One of them is enemies. The other is a conversation with Bernie.

I don't understand a word here, in this Parsha...If we sin, our enemies will think it is them that destroyed us. But it is H.' That is the message. We mistranslate stuff. We don't see the real reason. Why do rabbis get paid? Because of H.'

It is at the point of the enemies' mistranslation of the real reason for the destruction of the Jewish people that H' will then return his vengeance on them. Yes. We will be destroyed, because we messed up. Not because of the power of the enemies. It is because we invest our money wrong. Because we complain about learning Torah on Sundays, and giving our rabbi a raise...But the focus here is the mistake of our enemies. 

That is what happens when you take credit. You are destroyed.

(32:42) 'from the earliest pogroms of the enemy.' It is because of their sins, because of their misunderstandings that they are punished. When you give credit to the wrong people, you are included in the punishment yourself. Poor credit leads to sin. We all saw what happened with the Strankovitz family. Now they are all in jail...Tax-fraud. 

Good begets a connection to good. It is not just causative. Our lives are retroactive as well. We see the truth as to who is behind the punishment, we understand. We repent.

Uses the word פרעות. Like Paroh. Paroh blocked out Gd from the equation of the plagues.

(32:43) 'Sing the praises of H.'' That is what the nations must do. They destroy us. They should be praising H.' You take credit for the evil you do, it comes back around on you. You notice H' behind the actions, you see the beauty, you live a life of praise. 

You want to be in public school, with the pogroms?!!! Because you don't have to pay. The cost is too high...

It is because of misunderstandings and false credit given that problems happen. That is why many of our congregants put their trust in the Gabai.

You give credit to pogroms for Jews moving back to Israel.

You give credit to your home for your children growing up with identity. It is Jewish day school. You are just trying to save money.

You mistranslate the real reason. You don't see H's hand. You don't see the importance in community, and that is why we have all these prayer-books that are ripped up in the middle...Nobody takes responsibility in this shul. Where's the board?

As Yom Kippur is upon us. What is the real reason for our sins? What is the cause for our destruction? The board.