In the days of Moses and the Jews in the Wilderness, the Moabite women were seducing young Jewish men. The Almighty was angered and sent a plague upon His people. Jews were dying left, right and center. To compound matters, Zimri, a Prince from the Tribe of Shimon was himself consorting with a Midianite Princess named Kozbi and flaunting their illicit relationship in the face of Moses. Enter Pinchas, a young Jewish zealot who kills Zimri and Kozbi. Suddenly, the plague stops. No more Jews die. And G-d declares Pinchas not a murderer but a hero. He is appointed to the priesthood and as befits a hero gets a whole portion of the Bible named after him, the parsha, Pinchas.

I’m definitely not suggesting that we root out all sinners by putting a spear through them. What was appropriate in ancient times is not necessarily appropriate today. The way to stop the internal hemorrhaging of our people through assimilation and intermarriage is not the way of Pinchas.

Most people who turn their backs on Judaism today do so out of ignorance. We cannot condone it, but such people don’t need a whipping, they need a whetting of their spiritual appetite. They need an education, urgently. They need a lot of love and warmth and for people to reach out to them and share the beauty of a Shabbat or an inspirational Shul experience. Show them their own Jewishness and how meaningful it truly is, and they will no longer want to give it up.

What, then, is the message of Pinchas for our time? That sometimes, even today in our super-sensitive, tolerant society, we do need to take a stand. That there will be issues which demand that we put our foot down, that we insist, that we say “No!”

It might be different issues for different people. For some it may be Jerusalem, for others Yom Kippur, and for still others it might be insisting that their daughter’s boyfriend cannot sleep over. Somewhere, surely, there has got to be a bottom line.

Generally, diplomacy and positive encouragement work much better than fighting. But inevitably there will be occasions when even pacifists like us will need to adopt the zero-tolerance Pinchas approach. When we, too, will have to say, “I’m sorry. I cannot accept this kind of behavior. This is wrong. Stop!” Even in our OK Generation, not everything is OK.

From an article by Rabbi Yossy Goldman

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This Shabbat is Shabbat Mevarchim (“the Shabbat that blesses” the new month). A special prayer is recited blessing the Rosh Chodesh (“Head of the Month”) of the upcoming month of Av (also called “Menachem Av”), which falls on Friday of next week.

Prior to the blessing, we announce the precise time of the molad, the “birth” of the new moon.  

It is a Chabad custom to recite the entire book of Psalms before morning prayers, and to conduct farbrengens (chassidic gatherings) in the course of the Shabbat.

Chabad.org

Faith believes that which it is told, because it wants to believe. Intellect believes that which it understands, because it wants to attain understanding. Wisdom believes that which is true, because it is true. Wisdom doesn’t have to fit that which faith wishes to believe. Neither does it await the approval of intellect to say, “This can be understood.” Wisdom is a power of vision, the power to see “that which is” without attempting to fit it into any mold. Wisdom, therefore, is the only channel by which an Infinite G-d may enter.

Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

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The Messianic Era will be one of tremendous prosperity—”delicacies will be commonplace like dust.” That will leave humankind with ample free time—and all the nations of the world will be preoccupied with one pursuit: the study of G-d and the Torah. Moshiach will reveal profound hitherto unknown dimensions of the Torah. The Midrash goes as far as to say that “the Torah which we study in this world is naught in comparison to the Torah of Moshiach.” Furthermore, while our present-day knowledge of G-d is limited to intellectual perception, when Moshiach will teach about G-d, we will actually “see” what we are studying. 

Visit Chabad.org for more about the Torah of the Messianic Era—its superior nature as well as the radically different way we will grasp the knowledge.

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A husband was once asked for the secret behind his happy marriage. “It’s simple,” he replied. “We divide responsibilities. We decided long ago that my wife makes all the small, routine decisions, and I make the major decisions. She decides what house we buy, where we go on vacation, whether the kids go to private schools, if I should change my job, and so on.”

“And what are the big decisions?”

“Oh, I make the big, fundamental decisions. I decide if the United States should declare war on China, if Congress should appropriate money for a manned expedition to Mars, and so on.”

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Life is a series of choices and decisions. The decisions, however, are relatively simple in comparison to their implementation. The majority of us “choose” to live healthy lifestyles; improve our parenting, spousal and interpersonal skills; increase our knowledge; advance our careers; etc. Carrying through with these choices is the challenge. The trick is to concentrate on one, two or three of these choices. But that just leads to another choice. Which of these choices should we focus on?

Let us look to the Torah, and specifically the description of the methods by which the Land of Israel was to be divided amongst the tribes, for insight on this matter. “To a large [tribe] you shall give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller tribe you shall give a smaller inheritance” (Numbers 26:54). The division of the land was logical: each tribe was allotted land according to its size. Furthermore, the land wasn’t divided merely based on acreage. Rather, the land was evaluated for quality and potential crop yield, ensuring that each tribe received a fair portion.

Nevertheless, the final say belonged to the lottery. After the land was divided into twelve portions, each portion earmarked for a particular tribe with the population which corresponded to its size, a lottery was made to determine which tribe would receive which portion. Miraculously, the lottery confirmed the division which was previously agreed upon. Why the need for this two-track process? Perhaps the lesson G-d was teaching the Israelites before they entered the land, before they became involved in the art of making a living and the many decisions which this entails, was that even those decisions which seem to be in our hands are also ultimately determined by lottery, orchestrated by G-d’s hand.

The Talmud tells us that forty days before a child is conceived, an angel approaches G-d and inquires whether the child will be wise or dim, muscular or frail, wealthy or poor, and whom he or she will marry. He does not, however, inquire whether the child will be righteous or wicked—because “all is in the hands of Heaven besides for [an individual’s] fear of Heaven.”

We may think that we determine our spouse, our field of work, our city of residence, etc. In fact, though, these questions have all been answered before we were even conceived. Yes, G-d expects us to make wise decisions, but ultimately these wise decisions are manipulated and guided by G-d, who orchestrates the circumstances to ensure that we follow the path which He planned for us. Yet we rightfully pride ourselves in being creatures that possess freedom of choice. But this choice is relegated to the arena of right and wrong, ethics and morals. We do have the ability to choose whether to pray with concentration, give charity, be kind to our fellows and keep kosher. And ultimately, our choices in these areas will be our lasting legacy—because in reality they are our only real and un-influenced choices.

So, on which choices will we focus? The “big” ones, over which we have no control, or the “small” ones, which are entirely in our hands? As is it turns out, it is the small choices which impact the world.

From an article by Rabbi Naftali Silberberg