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Rabbi Lipskar's weekly d'var torah
Chayei Sarah
This week’s Torah portion brings us into the heart of marriage, the deepest and most human relationship we know. We meet Abraham at the final chapter of his lifelong bond with Sarah, his true Aishes Chayil. She has passed away, and the Torah lets us see Abraham’s love not through speeches, but through his actions: he mourns, he cries, he arranges her burial personally and with complete devotion. Even in her passing, the Torah calls the chapter Chayei Sarah, the Life of Sarah, highlighting that every chapter of her life radiated beauty, purity, purpose, and holiness. You can feel, in the text itself, how complete and sacred their partnership was.
A few lines later we encounter the Torah’s first fully described marriage, that of Yitzchak and Rivkah. We watch it unfold step by step: the sending of Eliezer as the matchmaker, his heartfelt prayer for success, the encounter at the well, the gifts, the negotiations, and finally the beginning of their home together. When Rivkah arrives in the Land of Israel, the very first moment she sees Yitzchak is while he is praying Mincha. She is struck by his holiness, his presence, his quiet royalty. Yitzchak brings her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and in that moment he finds comfort again, recognizing in Rivkah a woman of deep righteousness, a true heir to Sarah’s spirit.
Our sages explain that Sarah’s tent was not just a physical space. When she was alive, her Shabbos candles miraculously stayed lit all week, blessing rested tangibly on her home’s food, and a cloud of Divine presence hovered above the tent. After her passing, these signs vanished until Rivkah entered. With her arrival, the light returned, the blessing returned, and the protective presence returned. It was a home reawakened.
From this, the Torah teaches that the foundation of a strong and loving Jewish home rests on three core mitzvos: Shabbos, Kashrus, and Family Purity. Shabbos reminds us that we are held by a Creator who guides every detail of our lives. Kashrus ensures that what nourishes our bodies also elevates our souls. Family Purity sanctifies the physical side of marriage, making intimacy purposeful, holy, and lifelong. These mitzvos are the spiritual architecture that has kept Jewish marriages thriving from the youngest beginnings, Rivkah was only three, to the fullest length of life, like Sarah at 127.
Of course, a healthy marriage also requires love, trust, tenderness, loyalty, admiration, the everyday emotional ingredients of a good home. But the Torah is telling us something profound: when you combine human love with a life of mitzvos, you don’t just build a marriage, you build eternity.
Later in the portion, the Torah describes Sarah’s age in a strange way: “One hundred years, and twenty years, and seven years.” Rashi explains that at 100 she was as free from sin as at 20, and at 20 she was as beautiful as at 7 — and then adds a remarkable comment: “All her years were equally good.”
Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik offered a moving insight. Each stage of life has its gifts, the innocence of a seven-year-old, the idealism of a twenty-year-old, the wisdom of a hundred-year-old. Most of us leave one stage behind as we move to the next. But Sarah carried all of them with her, always. Throughout her life she still had a child’s purity and trust in G-d. As she aged, she still had the passion and idealism of youth. Even in her early years, she already had the depth and maturity of old age. Her greatness was not in outgrowing stages, it was in integrating the best of each one into every moment of her life.
And maybe that is the real message of these stories of marriage: a Jewish home is built not only on love, and not only on mitzvos, but on the ability to keep growing, to carry innocence forward, to hold onto idealism, and to deepen in wisdom year after year. Abraham and Sarah lived that way. Yitzchak and Rivkah began their home with that same light. And each of us has the power to shape our homes, our marriages, and our relationships with that same blend of purity, passion, and purpose.
Have a great Shabbos and a good week.
Rabbi Zalman Lipskar
(adapted from the writings of my Father and Teacher, Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar, obm)
The Shul Pushka Campaign
It's the little things in life that count. G-d fills the world every moment with His divine energy. Tzedakah is one of the special and significant ways to create an all-encompassing Mitzvah, and in today's world, we need more Mitzvot than ever. It doesn't matter where or how much you give, just make Tzedakah part of your day.
The Shul provides beautiful Pushkas (charity boxes) to the community and to all those that would like to participate in the important Mitzvah of Tzedakah. To request a Shul Pushka please call The Shul Office at 305-868-1411 or fill out the form below.
To Learn More About The Meaning of Tzedakah Click Here
Jewish Holidays
All Jewish holidays begin the evening before the date specified on most calendars. This is because a Jewish "day" begins and ends at sunset, rather than at midnight. If you read the story of creation in Genesis Ch. 1, you will notice that it says, "And there was evening, and there was morning, one day."
From this, we infer that a day begins with evening, that is, sunset. Holidays end at nightfall of the date specified on most calendars; that is, at the time when it becomes dark out, about an hour after sunset.
UPCOMING JEWISH HOLIDAY
For more information Click here
Project 33154
Project 33154 is a community wide program to create a neighbor to neighbor Jewish experience. The initial case study started Chanuka 2002 where 10 young Yeshiva boys visited every home in Bay Harbor to identify which ones were Jewish and give them the necessary items (Menorah, Candles, Guides etc.) for the Holiday of Chanuka.
Over 250 Jewish Homes were identified together with a color coded map of Members, Non-Members and Unaffiliated Jews. Over the next Purim and Passover the same idea was used in the Surfside and Bal Harbour area and over 800 new Jewish homes were contacted and had a taste of The Shul.
Block Shluchim
Together with color coded map each neighborhood was split up into different areas that include a lay leader from The Shul.
Before each Yom Tov The Shul prepares a special food package which promotes holiday awareness.
Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Succot, Chanukah, Purim, Pesach andShavout
Every newly identified Jewish household in the Bal Harbour, Bay Harbor Islands and Surfside areas has been contacted with thousands of Apples and Honey packages, Chanukah kits and Purim Mishloach Manos and food packages distributed this year.
Over 350 pounds of hand-made Shemurah Matzo (that’s about 2,450 pieces of matzah) has been distributed throughout 33154. If you are new on the 33154 area, please let us know so you can be included in this amazing and inspiring Jewish Program.
Send a letter to the Rebbe זי"ע
Throughout his lifetime, the Rebbe received hundreds of letters every day, from people of every conceivable background, occupation and faith. Today people continue to send letters to be placed at the Ohel for the Rebbe's guidance and intervention On High, in the age-old tradition of written prayer petitions at our holiest sites
Whether referring to one's own self or mentioning someone else's name in a letter, one should always include the name and mother's name (e.g. Isaac the son of Sarah) of both the one(s) who are in need of blessing and the signer.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/761128/jewish/Why-Use-the-Mothers-Name-When-Praying-for-Someone.html
http://www.ohelchabad.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/78445It is preferable to use one's Jewish name. (Customarily gentiles use their father's name.) Letters can be written in any language. You can fax directly to the Ohel at: (718) 723-4444 Or you can use the form below to have the rabbis at Ohel Chabad Lubavitch http://www.ohelchabad.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/78445personally bring your prayers to the Rebbe’s resting place.
The Rebbe
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of righteous memory, the seventh leader in the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty, is considered to have been the most phenomenal Jewish personality of modern times. To hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of sympathizers and admirers around the world, he was -- and still is, despite his passing -- "the Rebbe."
Whether referring to one's own self or mentioning someone else's name in a letter, one should always include the name and mother's name (e.g. Isaac the son of Sarah) of both the one(s) who are in need of blessing and the signer.
Click Here to Know More Click Here.
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