Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel Aviv

In advance of Rosh Hashanah we delve into the stories of Hannah and Rachel - the two women at the centre of the haftarot of Rosh Hashanah.
 
Wordless prayers for children - for children not yet born and for children born but exiled.
 
Why are these stories of mothers and children at the heart of our Rosh Hashanah readings and what do these two women who have hit rock bottom teach us about our own attempt to navigate life's challenges?Source sheet hereTHINK is sponsored by Dr. Alan Wecker and family, in loving memory of his dear uncle and       aunt, Yechiel and Chaya Kleinman, ז״ל.

As we approach Tisha B'Av, our final THINK before the summer break, we focus on the background to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. exploring the critical events and ideas that were swirling around Jerusalem in the 120 years or so prior hurban habayit - the destruction of the Temple.
We explore what Dr Yael Ziegler calls 'the Jerusalem myth' that sprang up in the years after Jerusalem's miraculous salvation from Assyrian attack in 701 and the role of the prophets over the course of the following century as they tried to fight against the sense that Jerusalem was invincible.
In the last ten minutes there is a twist - with a mind-bending question whose consequences are hard to wrap one's head around. But you'll only appreciate this great 'what if' if you listen to the shiur prior to that point :)
Source sheet hereAs you are might hear on the shiur we are running our annual campaign this week - if you enjoy listening to THINK we'd love your support. The page is still open at https://upreaching.com/oujlic/jlic-tlv-campaign THINK is generously sponsored by Elaine Diller in loving memory of her parents, Michael and Sarah Marton z”l , through the Michael and Sarah Marton Family Foundation.

The celebration of 250 years of American independence is an opportunity for us to reflect on what America has meant for the Jewish story. We look at a wide range of sources from poems to the letters of confused immigrants seeking advice to the responsa of the greatest American poskim to see what Rav Moshe Feinstein called Malkhut shel Hesed a kingdom of kindness has meant for the JewsThe Bintel Brief stories are here and the major sources including Rav Moshe Feinstein's letters are here
THINK is generously sponsored by Elaine Diller in loving memory of her parents, Michael and Sarah Marton z”l , through the Michael and Sarah Marton Family Foundation.

When Hashem first encourages Moshe to assume his role as leader Moshe protests, lo ish devarim anokhi - I am not a man of words. Yet in the final weeks of his life, words pour out of Moshe as he gives the people his advice and guidance for the future - elah hedevarim asher dibber Moshe - these are the words that Moshe spoke. Drawing on a beautiful essay of Avivah Zornberg, we will argue that the unlocking of Moshe's speech in his final weeks is connected to a passage and indeed a particular verse in Parshat Pinchas
 
Source sheet here
 
Dedicated by Elaine Diller in loving memory of her parents, Michael and Sarah Marton z”l , through the Michael and Sarah Marton Family Foundation.

Bilam, hired to curse, but destined to bless. What were the natures of his powers? When the gemara debates whether he was a wizard or a prophet, what is being suggested about his character?
Along the way we will examine an intriguing parallel between Bilam and Avraham, and in particular a cluster of midrashim around the akeida that may have been inspired by, and an oblique commentary on, the story of Bilam, the angel and his donkeySource sheet hereTHINK is generously sponsored by Elaine Diller in loving memory of her parents, Michael and Sarah Marton z”l , through the Michael and Sarah Marton Family Foundation.

In tonight's THINK we look in depth at the story of the ma'apilim, the lesser-known, lesser-studied sequel to the story of the spies - of the group who decided to risk everything to enter the land (even after God had decreed that they would die in the desert) and ended up paying the ultimate price.
Our class examines this tragic and strange story - and charts how in the 19th and 20th centuries the story of the ma'apilim returned to history becoming a critical image for thinkers as diverse as Haim Nahman Bialik and Rav Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe. 
Source sheet hereTHINK is dedicated by Elaine Diller in loving memory of her parents, Michael and Sarah Marton z”l , through the Michael and Sarah Marton Family Foundation. May our learning a blessing for their memories

In our second class exploring the work Nahalat Yosef, a beautiful commentary on Megillat Rut written in Tel Aviv by Rav Y.Z. Lipovitz, we examine the opening lines of the megillah and explore the character of Elimelekh.
Although the verses themselves are sparse in detail, Rav Lipovitz, drawing on classical midrash and commentaries, paints a portrait of Elimelekh as a potentially transformative leader who could have saved Israel in a time of darkness. The discussion moves beyond Elimelekh the individual and develops a philosophy of Jewish leadership and Jewish history  - as demanding and relevant now as they were in mid-century Tel Aviv when they were first written.
Source sheet here
THINK is generously sponsored by Elaine Diller in loving memory of her parents, Michael and Sarah Marton z”l , through the Michael and Sarah Marton Family Foundation.

ln 1923 a young man named Rabbi Yosef Zev Lipovitz moved to Tel Aviv. He had been one of the leading lights at the great yeshiva of Slobodka. He was a  quiet man and did not seek out fame or publicity. Instead he and his wife opened a small pension, a hotel restaurant, on Lillenblum St, where, for the next 35 years, their front room became a gathering place for anyone in Tel Aviv, from famous journalists to simple labourers to the greatest rabbis, to learn Torah with Rav Lipovitz and hear the events of the day illuminated through ancient teachings. 
 
The only work published in his lifetime was his gorgeous commentary on Megillat Ruth known as Nahalat Yosef. The work is simply beautiful, original and profound readings of Ruth that present a worldview of a great scholar and human who had much to say to the world around him
 
His name is not widely known these days and after his death in 1962, his wife Baylah, sold all her possessions down to her wedding ring to finance the publication of her husband's works. 
 
Tonight we will begin to learn this great work - bringing his insights back to life in the city that R Lipovitz moved to more than 100 years agoSource sheet here.
 
THINK is generously by Elaine Diller in loving memory of her parents, Michael and Sarah Marton z”l , through the Michael and Sarah Marton Family Foundation.
 
 
 

 
This Yom HaShoah, our JLIC TLV comunity had the immense privilege to hear from Rav Elchanan Guttman - rav of the Bet Yaakov Yosef synagogue in Tel Aviv
The shul was founded by Rav Guttman's grandfather, Rav Tzvi Guttman, and named for his two sons Yaakov and Yosef who were murdered in front of him after they were taken from their home in Bucharest in 1940. 
 
Rav Elchanan Guttman tells the moving story of Romanian Jewry before, during and after the Shoah through the story of his own remarkable and heroic grandfather. 
Towards the end of his remarks Rav Guttman shares the single message that his grandfather would have wanted to tell a kahal of young olim in 2026
 
Rav Guttman speaks in Hebrew with a summarised translation into English at intervals by Rav Joe Wolfson.
 
We are very grateful to Rav Guttman for taking the time to share his story with us and it is our joy to help fill the shul that his grandfather built in memory of his murdered sons

After the seeming ultimate triumph at Har Carmel in the previous shiur and chapter, Eliyahu finds himself in the depths of despair as Izevel still seeks his life and journeys to Har Horev (Sinai) where Hashem teaches the ultimate lesson of how a prophet should act - not through fire and noise but through the thin small voiceFrom here (at around the 40 minute mark) we move to consider why it is Eliyahu of all the nevi'im who joins us at the Pesach seder, what this teaches us about Pesach and how this might explain the remarkable difference between the harsh prosecuting Eliyahu of Tanakh and the kind, caring Eliyahu of later Jewish thought. Source sheet here
THINK is generously dedicated by Elaine Diller in loving memory of her parents, Michael and Sarah Marton z”l , through the Michael and Sarah Marton Family Foundation.