Moshiach teaches specifically through vision. We will no longer need to turn to the written text, “for they will all know Me.” * Be real and authentic and those around you will automatically light up with inspiration of their own.
A collection of relevant halachos regarding the Mitzvah of Birchas Hamazon mentioned in Parshas Eikev from AskTheRav.com & Halacha2Go.com.
A mentally unstable individual decided one fine spring day that he was…deathly ill! He started to cough very loudly, groan excessively, and cry out from imaginary pains. One community member, a doctor by profession, decided to “handle” this special case. He invited him to undergo a thorough medical examination at his private clinic.
There is an enigmatic statement in the Midrash about the opening words of this week’s parsha
The Talmud (Brachos 8a) relates that the Israeli Sage, Rabbi Yochanan, upon hearing that there were old people living in Babylonia said in amazement: “How could that be? It is written, ‘In order to prolong your days and the days of your children upon the land [that G-d has sworn to your ancestors to give them],’ however, not so outside of the Land of Israel.”
Judaism is about our relationship with G-d. All relationships involve our emotions. In the man-G-d relationship, the Torah emphasizes the emotions of ahava-love and yira, generally translated as fear. Indeed, one of the most repeated demands G-d makes of us in His Torah is to fear Him.
Since the Alm-ghty is the very essence of goodness, and the nature of the good is to bestow benevolence upon others, G-d fulfills this person’s wish and shows him the exalted heights of the Rebbe – that the Rebbe transcends even the Seventh Heaven – and this person remains below [i.e., distant from the Rebbe]…
A Jew’s most important prayer is the well-known Shma, which contains three paragraphs, the second of which is taken from this week’s parsha of Eikev. When we contrast the first two paragraphs of the Shma we can see many similarities and many differences between them.
To underscore the role of gratitude as an identifying sign of Moshiach, the Talmud (Sanhedrin 94a) relates that G-d initially wanted to proclaim King Chizkiyahu as Moshiach. When Chizkiyahu failed to sing praise at the miraculous downfall of the Assyrian King Sancheriv, G-d changed His mind.
An egg is larger than an olive. If indeed it is praiseworthy to thank G-d for smaller amounts, the Torah should have reversed the order. It should have stated that we are deserving of favoritism because we bless G-d even when eating the amount of an egg, or even a smaller amount—the size of an olive. Instead, it says that we recite the Birkas HaMazon even if we eat an olive’s worth (the smaller amount) and even if we eat the size of an egg (the larger amount)!
July 27, 2021