Lech Lecha<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nA Legacy of Love!<\/p>\n
What is love?<\/p>\n
Love is closeness.<\/p>\n
Even more, it\u2019s whole-hearted, committed closeness.<\/p>\n
The heart\u2019s warm flutter can be fleeting infatuation, here today and gone tomorrow. Love is different. It\u2019s substantive. Real. Love is a bond that stands strong in the face of day-to-day volatility, an emotional anchor that\u2019s unshaken by life\u2019s waves.<\/p>\n
Love is other-centered devotion. There\u2019s a Chassidic story about a child who watches an adult catch and prepare a fish. Before his first bite, the adult exclaims \u201cI love fish.\u201d The child responds: \u201cSir, you apparently don\u2019t love fish; if you did, you would have let this one stay in the water. You actually love yourself, and this fish is just another avenue for feeding your self-love!\u201d<\/p>\n
Genuine love isn\u2019t about us gratifying ourselves (although that may be a nice by-product). Love is about making space for the other\u2019s needs. Love is when the other\u2019s sensitivities become our personal concern.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, looking after our personal needs is a part of other-centeredness. If I take a day to care for myself, so that I am better fit to discharge my responsibilities to G-d, to life and the world, I\u2019m still living a day of other-consciousness. Meeting my own needs can be a necessary preparation for fulfilling my responsibility to others.
\nIn Torah language, this deeply committed, loving relationship is called a Covenant (Bris in Hebrew); it\u2019s when two parties reach a profound, integral Oneness.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what Abraham had going with G-d.<\/p>\n
Abraham made genuine space in his life for G-d. Abraham\u2019s definition of a \u2018meaningful life\u2019 was to be the person who G-d had created him to be. So his material endeavors, including his \u2018self-gratifying pursuits,\u2019 were all opportunities for deepening \u2013 and expressing – his devotion to living a meaningful life.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why G-d commanded him to express their Covenant by marking an area of the physical body which symbolizes the pursuit of pleasurable physical engagement. To Abraham, all of life \u2013 even the pleasurable part – was all about reaching his\/our Divinely-granted goal of finding deep connectedness with others and making this a better world. Life was all about the Covenant, all about mindfulness of higher Purpose.<\/p>\n
Abraham showed us how to live life as it\u2019s meant to be lived.<\/p>\n
Shabbat Shalom!
\nRabbi Yanky and Rivky Klein<\/p>\n
This email is In Loving memory of my dear father
\nR’ Yerachmiel Binyamin Halevi ben R, Menachem Klein OBM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shabbat Candle Lighting Times for Moscow, Russia Friday, November 11th Light Candles at 16:11 Join us Tonight! Weekly Kabbalat Shabbat Services 20:30 Followed by Shabbat Dinner Shabbat, November 12th, Shabbat Ends 17:28 Torah Portion: Lech Lecha A Legacy of Love! What is love? Love is closeness. Even more, it\u2019s whole-hearted, committed closeness. The heart\u2019s warm …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2949,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948\/revisions\/2949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}