LESSONS FOR LIFE FROM GEESE

As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird following. By flying in a V formation, the whole flock adds a 71% longer flying range than if each bird flew alone. Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can go where they are going quicker and easier when they travel on the thrust of one another.

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front. Lesson: If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation with those who are headed where we want to go.

When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into the formation and another goose takes over at the point position. Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership because people, like geese, are interdependent upon each other.

The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. Lesson: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging -- not something less helpful.

When a goose gets sick or wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow him down to help and protect him. They stay with him until he is either able to fly again or dies. Then they launch out on their own, either with another formation or to catch up with the original flock. Lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we'll stand by each other like they do.

Make Her Happy

Men and women are different, not just physically and emotionally. Perhaps the biggest difference is that women are relationship beings ... and men are not. At one seminar Rabbi Pamensky divided the men and women into two groups to come up with descriptions of the ideal husband, wife and marriage. When they reassembled, he called upon a woman. However, before asking her for the descriptions, he asked her the name of a woman who was in her group. "How many children? Boys? Girls?" He then asked her the same questions about 2 other women at random. The woman knew about each woman in the group.

Rabbi Pamensky then called upon a man and asked him to name ANY man in the group. He couldn't do it. None of them could. They had worked out excellent descriptions of the ideal husband, wife and marriage, but it just wasn't important to know each other's names or about their families. Says Rabbi Pamensky, "When do they learn the names of the other men? When their wives introduce them!"

What do men need to be successful with a relationship being? They need a job description to know what to do! Here is a husband's job description: Your job is to make your wife happy all the time! If one told women that their job was to make their husband happy - then the husband would be happy. However, if the husband makes his wife happy, she'll return it multifold ... because she is a relationship being! Make her happy and she'll make the relationship happy and filled with intimacy, connection, closeness, passion and growth.

There is no Artist like God

Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz used to give the following allegory. When a small child draws a person, it is obvious from the start that the circle on top is the face, the line going down is the body, and the lines projecting out are the arms and legs. But when a master artist paints a person, he may start with a stroke of bright red, which to the uninitiated viewer appears to ruin the canvas. Only when the painting is completed, will it be obvious why the stroke of red was needed for contrast. So, too, God is painting a masterful panorama of history. As the painting develops, there are strokes that we see as unnecessary or detrimental. But when the painting is finished, it will be obvious that every stroke was necessary for the perfection of the picture. That is what the Talmud means when it says there is no artist like God (Berachos 10a).

Bless us all

Life is full of sweet surprises
Everyday's a gift
The sun comes up and I can feel it lift my spirit
Fills me up with laughter, fills me up with song
I look into the eyes of love and know that I belong

Bless us all, who gather here
The loving family I hold dear
No place on earth, compares with home
And every path will bring me back from where I roam
Bless us all, that as we live
We always comfort and forgive
We have so much, that we can share
With those in need we see around us everywhere

Let us always love each other
Lead us to the light
Let us hear the voice of reason, singing in the night
Let us run from anger and catch us when we fall
Teach us in our dreams and please, yes please
Bless us one and all

Bless us all with playful years
With noisy games and joyful tears
We reach for You and we stand tall
And in our prayers and dreams
We ask you bless us all

We reach for You and we stand tall
And in our prayers and dreams we ask You
Bless us all...

We need the hope of redemption.

In 1943 in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp, devout Jews secretly gathered to light the Chanukah candles. After chanting the blessing "Who made miracles for our ancestors, in those days at this season," the Bluzhever Rebbe broke into sobs, for he had already lost his wife, his 10 children, and his grandchildren.

The Rebbe said:"We may wonder as we stand here in the Nazi pit of death, where are the miracles for us today? Yet of one thing I am certain: Just as God pulled the Maccabees from darkness, and just as He has preserved the Jewish people throughout the ages, so will the Jewish people survive this, too."

Rabbi Azriel Tauber, a businessman and Torah scholar in New York, says he was able to survive the Holocaust because every day, his father would encourage him and say: "Don't despair, my son, for redemption can come at any moment."

2 Messiah

There will be two messiahs one day -- Messiah Son of Joseph, who prepares the way for the Messiah Son of David, himself a descendent of Judah. According to tradition, the Messiah Son of Joseph will unite all Israel in preparation for the arrival of the Messiah Son of David, but will die in the process [Sukka 52a] in an act of self-sacrifice for his people. Just like his ancestor Rachel, whose self-sacrifice allowed the building of the Second Temple, his self-sacrifice will allow the building of the Third Temple. The spiritual model is Joseph, who chose not to contact his father even though it would have made for a "nicer" life.
Rabbi Ari Kahn
Tell me what you take from this statement?

Behold the Lamb!!

When Jesus said He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end (e.g. in Revelation 22:13), He also spelled a Hebrew word, if you consider the first and last letters (beginning and end) of the Hebrew alphabet, as follows:
Alef is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet Tav is the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet Vav is the letter that means “and”. The ancient Hebrew letters are as follows:
= (alef) the first letter = (vav) “and”
= (tav) the last letter This word,in ancient Hebrew pronounced “Oht” means “the sign” or “the seal”. This is the word used for the blood of the lamb placed on the door post on Passover (Exodus 12:7). Examining the Hebrew letters more closely, we get:
= (alef) meaning “leader”
= (vav) meaning “nail”
= (tav) meaning “cross” The blood placed on the doorpost on Passover signifies “the Leader nail[ed] [to the] cross”.

They Wouldn't see him

It is taught that Joseph looked like his father Jacob, yet his brothers did not recognize him. He was interested in hearing about his father. He wanted to know about Benjamin. The brothers knew that he could have landed in Egypt. He took an abnormal amount of interest in them, giving them grain for nothing. He invited them to a banquet and seated them in order of birth.
He did not look like an Egyptian and yet they didn't recognize him. (I should note here that Jewish sages believe Joseph remained very much like his father and was not Egyptian in appearance). The Bible merely says he disguised his voice and spoke roughly.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. John 1:10
Here is a picture of Israel's blindness.
Joseph being the picture of the salvation of Israel and the children of Israel knew him not.
There are so many Messianic pictures and they were hidden. Hidden like a gold cup in a sack of grain.
Here are the children of Israel that have gone astray and will some day be reunited with Messiah.
Rabbi Rosenblatt says this, "The Sages tell us that if we do not wish to face reality, it can stare us in the face and we will not see it. If we desire something not to be so, it will not be so. And all the evidence in the world will not change our minds. That is the nature of human beings. We have a frightening propensity to rationalize and convince ourselves that we are honestly seeing reality, when deep down we know we are not."
Joseph dreamed and his brothers thought he was delusional. Jesus was treated the same way.
Those dreams became reality just as sure as Jesus is coming again.
It was too painful for the brothers too accept that it was Joseph. Likewise it was too painful too accept the God robed Himself in flesh for the Jews.
They knew but could not bring themselves to accept that He is Messiah.
It happens to us, too. How often do we convince ourselves that things are true because we want them to be, or not true because we do not?
Reality always stares us in the face. We do not need to be able to see it. We need to be willing to see it.

Signet, Cord and Staff

Joy Sweetens Judgment

There are angels that wait to sing their song only once in seven years. Others sing only once in fifty years, or even once in a thousand years. Whatever they say is brief and to the point. Some say, “Holy!” Others say, “Blessed!” Some say a single verse—it is said about certain angels that each one says one verse from the chapter of Psalms that begins, “Give thanks to G‑d for He is good.”

Yet we Jews are permitted to say praises at any time or season, and to draw out the praises, songs and raptures as much as we wish.

The best way to understand this is with a parable of a king, to whom all his servants and officers come and recite hymns of praise. Each one has his appointment and quota of time to speak his praise, each according to his position and importance.

Yet this is only when the king is in a favorable mood. When the king is upset and angered, then all are afraid to provide him any praise whatsoever, as it is written, “Why are you praising the king at the time of fury?”

So, due to the concern that the king may, heaven forbid, not be in the best of moods, or that he may be angered due to something or other, they are accustomed to be as brief as possible at all times, and make a hasty exit.

Yet when the king’s dear and precious son enters, he has no such concerns. For even if the king was in a state of anger, the very sight of his precious son brings him joy and delight. The anger dissipates of its own, and obviously never returns, all the time his son stands before him, as is human nature. The son, therefore, has no worries, and enters at any time he so wishes and exudes praise without end, for he knows that this brings the king, his father, joy and delight.

Why is it this way? Why do anger and fury disappear when joy and love enter? Yes, this is human nature, but nevertheless, we must try to understand how and why.

Possibly what occurs is that when love and joy dominate, they cause anger and fury to ascend upward toward their root. There they are sweetened—as it is known, that forces of strict judgment are sweetened only when they reach their root.
Rabbi Freeman

You Really Do Have Everything.

True Wealth
Vayishlach (Genesis 32:4-36:43)
by Adam Lieberman

Jacob saw his brother, Esau, for the first time after many years of hiding from him. During their childhood, Esau was angry at Jacob because he thought that Jacob had stolen his birthright. Jacob now wanted to give Esau some of his flocks as a peace offering, but Esau declined, saying:

"'I have plenty ... let what you have remain yours.' But Jacob said, '...I have everything.' " (Genesis 33:9-11)


A LIFE LESSON

There is a world of difference between what Esau meant when he said he has "plenty" and Jacob declaring that he has "everything". Esau, a selfish person caring only about his materialistic possessions, proclaimed that "I have plenty" because "plenty" is quantitative. His material possessions are what he saw as his net worth. If he would ever lose a majority of his possessions, then he would be plenty no more.

Jacob, however, who had his entire family with him, proudly declared, "I have everything." Our most valuable and prized possessions will always be what money can never buy - our lives, our health, our families. For thousands of years, the wisest men have been preaching this truism. But why do we fail to embrace it?

In interviews with elderly people who look back on a life gone by, they dejectedly speak about how they should have spent more time with their families, taken better care of themselves, and certainly focused less on their careers. In fact, there isn't a headstone that could be found on a single grave site that states that the one buried achieved great success in business, real estate, athletics, or the arts. Rather, it proclaims the virtues that the deceased possessed as a grandparent, parent, sibling or spouse.

And this is the world's most ironic paradox. While society, the media, and the world-at-large shower accolades and praise on those who achieve business or personal success, when you pass away this isn't at all how your life is judged - by man or by God.

Monetary and career success are wonderful things. We're all designed for greatness and should strive to succeed and grow in many aspects of our lives. But it's the priceless things in our lives that we tend to take so much for granted and never fully appreciate until we, God forbid, no longer have them or are faced with a fear of losing them.

This is why Jacob knew he had everything. Is there not a dying wealthy person who would without hesitation give his entire fortune to live another year? How about for just another week? Would you ever want to switch places with him? Of course not. Yet, billions of people who still have so much physical life in them choose to walk the earth being unhappy, discontented, and miserable.

The reason for this is that they're usually focused on only the same things that Esau was. Their idea of wealth is exactly what the zombies of society and the media have said that it should be. So instead of appreciating and loving their tremendous and endless amount of true wealth that constantly surrounds them, they instead choose to dwell on missed and lost opportunities, the things they don't have, and all of the possessions they long for.

If you think about "what you have" in the same terms as Esau, then you are certain to have a life filled with frustration, disappointment, and unhappiness. But if you understand the life-changing statement of what Jacob said and you think about all of the irreplaceable and priceless things you have in your life right now, then you now will wake up each and every morning confidently knowing that you really do have everything.
Adam Lieberman

And He Sent

Jacob prepared "and sent" (vayishlach) gifts to Esau in the hope that this might "appease" his anger. Note that the word translated "appease" comes from the verb kafar (כְּפַר), from which the word "atonement" is derived ( i.e., kippur: (כְּפַר). Does this imply that Jacob needed to atone for his sins against his brother? Genesis 32:13-20.

Choose To Do

Vayetzei (Genesis 28:10-32:3)

Isaac had given Jacob a blessing that Esau, Jacob's brother, felt should have gone to him. Out of fear that his brother would harm him, Jacob left his parent's home. He went by a well and saw a woman, Rachel, who was there to water her father's flock. And it was....

"... when Jacob saw Rachel… Jacob came forward and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the sheep..." (Genesis 29:10)


A LIFE LESSON

Acts of kindness usually take place when someone makes a request from another person. It could be asking for someone's time, money, opinion, etc. The person being asked could either say yes or no, and if he says yes, then an act of kindness has taken place. This is certainly a praiseworthy act for the person who gave selflessly to someone else in need clearly did a mitzvah, a good deed.

But there's a much higher level that can be attained when doing acts of kindness. There's something you can do that can elevate your good deed into a great deed. This happens when someone anticipates the needs of others and without ever being asked, he simply comes forward. This is what Jacob did for Rachel. When you proactively do a good deed without ever being asked, then it transforms your act of kindness into an entirely new and higher dimension.

Most people are generally good, meaning, they'll usually do acts of kindness for others when asked. If someone needs something and we're able to give it to him without causing much discomfort for ourselves, most people will do it. These are good people doing good things. Some more, and some less.

Jacob, however, teaches us how to become a great person who does great things. Ironically, the act we proactively choose to do will usually be the same one we would do if asked. By acting first, however, it puts the same action on a radically higher level.

It's certainly more difficult to anticipate the needs of others and come forward, but now it becomes a supreme act of kindness because it was offered instead of being asked.

It's also important to know that many people also have a hard time just asking others for help. But they're in just as much need, if not more, as those who more easily ask others for assistance - Coming forward with them is of paramount importance.

So the next time you choose to come forward - and you do so without any provocation - and give someone a kind word, a small loan, or a helping hand, it will be an act equal to what Jacob did for Rachel at the well. And you will have done a great deed.
Adam Lieberman

Parashat Toldot

Semantic Insight into Parashat Toldot – Gen. 25:19-28:10

 Dr. Yitzhaq Hayut-Man. The main narrative of the entire Book of Genesis-Bereshit  is the struggle between brothers over theblessing (which is also a curse) to become a leader for humankind. There are six such scenes in Genesis, roughly parallel with the six day pattern of chapter one.

This Parashah brings the fourth scene of struggle between brothers – and dramatically so. To the extent of similarity with Parashat Bereshit, there is some similarity here of the struggle between the two chief luminaries, the greater Sun and the lesser Moon of the fourth day (Gen.  1:16). The Midrash tells that these two were of similar size when they were created, and their function was to tell the times (thus allow evolutionary leadership). But because the Moon insisted on one being the leader, saying “no two kings can use one crown”, she was instructed to become smaller.

In this Parashah the two brothers are actually twins, though of different character. Much of their distinction is evident from their very names.

The name of Esau-ESaU has to do with “Making”. It is written exactly like ASU – “(they) made”, and about the same as ASUY – “Made Up”. Esau’s conduct is the more natural, animal-like. He comes ready for the struggle of life. Like the great Nimrod, he is a hunter (the Midrash associates them, as if Esau killed Nimrod in a hard fight) and “Man of the Field” (Ish Sadeh). In the first scene of struggle between brothers, of Qayin and Hevel, the killing was made “while they were in the field” (Gen. 4:8), where Qayin had the advantage. But this time the struggle is performed not in the field but inside, hidden in a tent.

The name of Jacob-YaAQoV means literally “(he) would follow” and also “(he who) would cheat”. So the first thing to note is that this proper noun is actually a verb in future tense. Jacob-YaAQoV does not come ready but has to develop. Hefollows his father Yitzhaq whose name is a future tense verb and would give birth to two leaders, Yehudah and Yoseph, whose names are also actions/verbs in future tense. The similarity in this semantic series is still deeper, as revealed by the Gematria of their names: the Gematria value for YiZHaQ is 208 = 26 X 8; the value for YaAQoVis 182 = 26 x 7, while for Joseph-YOSePh it is 156 = 26 x 6. 26 is the Gematria value of the Name of the Lord YHWH. So we can say that these three generations “haveYHWH in them” (while the name of YeHUDaH has the letters of YHWH explicitly in it).

This name, Jacob-YaAQoV, must have been given due to his behavior right at birth (or the story of the birth came to explain the name) – he followed his brother out of the womb, but he held his brother’s Heel – AqeV – as if to catch up and overtake Esau. Jacob-YaAQoV is then characterized as Ish Tam yoshev Ohalim – “An innocent/simple (but also, eventually, “whole” – as we shall see in Gen. 33:18)dweller of tents”. As for his innocence, he soon loses it and has to struggle for decades to get a kind of paradoxical “acquired innocence”.

The Hebrew here for “Tents” is OHaLIM – a noun made of the same letters asELoHIM – namely God. This is a subtle reference to the future, to the main object of the Book of Exodus-Shemot, where chapter after chapter detail the construction of a tent  – the desert Tabernacle – and to the later exclamation of Bil’am “how goodly are thy tents, O, Yaaqov, and thy tabernacles, O Yisra’el” (Num. 24:5). A tent protects from the sun and provides inner space, but it is lightweight and does not stop sound. So that later Rivqah could hear what Yitzhaq was telling Esau, and hurried to foil their plan so that her favorite younger son would receive the Blessing – BeRaKhaH.

The word for Blessing – BeRaKhaH has the same root letters as BeKhoRaH – Seniority. It would have been the natural thing that Esau the firstborn – BeKhOR – should receive the Blessing – BeRaKhaH if it were not for Rivqah’s scheming.

The name RiVQaH is feminine of the root word RVQ (or RBQ)[1]. This three-letter word root (which is the general rule in Hebrew) is meaningful in all its six permutations. RVQ has to do with cattle pair; RQV with rot; QRV with nearness; QVRwith burial (as what was the issue in the preceding Parashah); BQR with morning, as well as with cattle; and BRQ with lightening or shining. In each subsequent name in the list of the matriarch, the affinity with (Kosher) animals is more pronounced. SaRaHcould just barely be associated with ShOR (Bull), RiVQaH, as we saw, has something to do with cattle, whereas RaHeL (Rachel) plainly means young female sheep.

My exegesis to the Torah (which presently covers the Book of Genesis fully and has excerpts from a few other Parashot) claims that the Torah is a prophecy book that was always aimed for these present times. We come now to an issue that has many ramifications at present, namely the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its possible resolution. In this Parashah we come to Yitzhaq’s dealings with the Philistines-PliShTIM. The name of the PliShTIM has already come up in the dealings of Abraham with Abimelekh King of the PliShTIM (Gen. 21:22-34). But whereas with Abraham it is only the land that is calles EReZ PliShTIM – “The Land of the Philistines, here with Yitzhaq the King Abimelekh is mentioned clearly as “King of the Plishtim” (26:1, 26:8), and Yitzhaq was envied by the Plishtim (26:14, 26:15, 26:18).

The name PliShTIM appears once before in the Torah (Gen.  10:14) as issuing fromMizrayim (Egypt), the son of Ham. The next time they are mentioned is at the Exodus, when God preferred not to lead Israel in the short straightway, which is through “The Philistines’ Land” (Exodus 3:17), because it was clear that the people who dwelt there will wage war with the Israelites, presumably with a better army. Later, in the Books of the Judges and of Samuel we would find some 144 references to the PliShTIM as the perpetual scourge and enemies of the Israelites.

The general view of contemporary researchers is that those PliShTIM were the refugees from Crete, “The Sea People”, who invaded the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean and even occupied Egypt for a period.[2] Their core settlement was at the Southern Coastal plain of the Land of Israel (or as many would call “Palestine”) as federation of five main cities. They had superior organization and arms – they had iron weapons, whereas the Cana’anites and Israelites first had only bronze weapons, and they had iron-clad war chariots that dominated the plains of the land. The Plishtim were finally conquered by King Hizqiyah of Judea and soon afterwards came the Assyrian King Shalman’eser conquered the Kingdom of Israel and exiled much of its population, and apparently made the same to the Philistines, who have not been known or mentioned again till the 2^nd century C.E., when they were “resurrected” by the Roman Emperor Hadrian (see below).

According to the history research, the account in Genesis is anachronistic, because there were not yet Philistines in the land at the time of Abraham. They have come from the West shortly before, or even in parallel with, the Israelite exodus and conquest of the land from the East.

We can see, however, that the apparent anachronism of the Hebrew Bible is not a mistake, but an intentional move to include the issue of the Philistines with the ongoing story of the establishment of Israel – up to our own times. There is no doubt that nowadays, the problem with Plishtim-Palestinians is the gravest issue of the modern Israel, a matter of survival.

What are the current implications of the ancient Biblical story? It can be argued that the covenant with the Philistines made by the founders of the nation of Israel, both Abraham (21:27, 32) and Yitzhaq (26:28) are still valid to this day – that the historical region of the Southern Coastal Plain, namely the Gaza Strip, might be preserved as “Palestine” even in a larger Israelite confederation of regions and communities – see outline.[3]

What is especially significant for our semantic analysis of the Torah, is the power of names and their persistence, which is so much attested in the present story. The original Philistines, the Western invaders, were exiled from the land millennia ago and disappeared from history. But when the greatest and most learned Roman emperor, Hadrian, overcame the Bar Kokhvah Revolt around 130 C.E., he wanted to make sure that no Jewish Judea will ever remain. So he did three things: he rebuilt the ruined city of Jerusalem and renamed it “Ilya Capitolina”, where Jews were not allowed to dwell; he proceeded to replace the ruined Jewish Temple with shrines to the Roman Gods Jupiter and Hera; and – because he knew his history, that the ancient Philistines where the bitter opponents of Israel, he changed the name of the land of the former Judea to “Palestina”. Hadrian forbade the Jews to live in Palestina, so all the people of the land became “Palestinians”. According to studies by Tsevi Misinai and his associates, these new Palestinians were originally Jews who preferred not to go on exile but cling to their land (“Tsumud”) even in the price of changing identity.

Later, during the Byzantine Christian rule, Jews were again excluded from Jerusalem and still later, after Muslim conquest and its rule, more of the Jews of the land converted to Islam, whether to avoid exorbitant taxation or under force at the time of the Caliph el-Hakim. However, the new genetic research has revealed that the majority of Palestinians have genes otherwise unique to Jews. While the name Palestina got forgotten in the Middle East and no locals knew they were “Palestinians”, the name was still kept in Europe, the heir to the Roman culture. So when the last Western power, the British Empire, got hold of the land, they renamed it Palestine, and its inhabitants became “Palestinians”.[4]

Taking a broad historical perspective, which is what the Torah narrative is meant to foster, we can see that the identity of “Palestinian” and “Israeli” has changed around over the centuries. The original Philistines-PLiShTIM where invaders – PoLShIM – from the West drove the Israelites to the hills regions of (nowadays again) Judea and Samaria. It was the later Western colonialists who resurrected Palestine and the Palestinians against the Israelites. Nowadays these people are split, some (the Gaza Strip) in the original historical Philistia, some in the “West Bank”/Judea and Samaria who are driven there by the larger power of their Western invaders in the shape of the Israelis – and some in Diaspora, acquiring the historic fate of the Exiled Jews who dream to return to Zion.

“And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although it was near (Exodus 13:17). The Hebrew translated as “it was near” (in past tense) is in the Hebrew original “ki karov hu” because it is near (in present tense). The nearness is not just geographical, but that the Philistines and Israelites were close to each other in character, and in destiny.

Dr. Yitzhaq Hayut-Man
English blog: http://www.global-report.com/thehope/en/

---

[1] Note that we use here the two letters B and V for the one Hebrew letter of B’et.

[2] An intriguing account of the Sea People, the Exodus and Israelite history in the controversial book of Immanuel Velikovsky “Ages in Chaos” (1952).

[3] I first heard of this concept from Rabbi She’ar Yashuv Cohen (Chief Rabbi of Haifa). I also came across opinion that this covenant was made for only three generations.

[4] Note that in English, “Philistine” means hater of culture. It is also phonetically close to “Falsity”. It can be claimed that Palestinian-Filastin is a case of “False Identity”.

Posted with permission from Dr. Yitzhaq Hayut-Man

http://israelseen.com/?p=7335

True Joy

TRUE JOY

Our Rabbi's tell us that the Covenant at Sinai is a marriage.²⁶ So, too, the Revelation at Sinai is described as a healing event.²⁷ Sinai is also where foundations of stability are laid. Sinai is where happiness is rediscovered. The voice (kol) at Sinai is joyful celebration of a marriage, a union of the Jewish People and God. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught that the way to defeat the Evil Inclination is with authentic happiness.²⁸ The sulam and the kol are the same: both uplift us when we are down. When the Jewish People were faced with destruction, Yirmiyahu prophesized against despair:

Thus says the Lord; Again there shall be heard in this place, which you say shall be desolate without man and without beast, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast. The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who shall say, Praise the God of Hosts; for God is good; for His mercy endures for ever; the Sacrifice of Praise shall be brought in the House of God, "For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first," says the Lord. (Yirmiyahu 33:10-11)

Those words are echoed at every Jewish wedding, and they have redemptive powers: they can bring joy and help rebuild the Temple:

R. Helbo further said in the name of R. Huna: Whoever enjoys the wedding meal of a bridegroom and does not help him to rejoice transgresses against 'the five voices' mentioned in the verse: The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that say, Give thanks to the Lord of Hosts. And if he does gladden (the bridegroom), what is his reward? R. Joshua b. Levi said: He is privileged to acquire [the knowledge of] the Torah which was given with five voices. For it is said: And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there was thunder and lightning and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a horn . . . and when the voice of the horn waxed louder . . . Moshe spoke and God answered him by a voice. … R. Abbahu says: It is as if he had sacrificed a thanksgiving offering. For it is said: Even of them that bring offerings of thanksgiving into the House of God. R. Nahman b. Yitzchak says: It is as if he had restored one of the ruins of Jerusalem. For it is said: For I will cause the captivity of the land to return as at the first, says the Lord. (Talmud Bavli Brachot 6b)

The voice is a voice of joy, of marriage, of Torah, and of bringing an offering in the Temple of Jerusalem. Those who participate in the joy are seen as having rebuilt one of the ruins of Jerusalem, for all of these ideas are inextricably linked, made of the same voice of joy. This is what Yaakov perceived, lying on the ground someplace between Be'ersheba and Charan. Despite the fact that he now knew that he was in a holy place - perhaps the holiest place on Earth - and that this place would belong to him and his descendents, he nonetheless continued his journey to find his bride, while at the same time dedicating himself to building the House of God that he saw in his dream.

* * *