Rabbi's Blog

Dear OZ family,

Parshat Kedoshim assumes something amazing about us. It commands a whole series of Mitzvot about the way we think. It commands us to love, and it commands us not to take vengeance. It commands us not to hate, and it commands us not to bear a grudge. If we were in such control of the way we feel, the therapists would be out of work. The Torah, however, not only has faith in us that we are in control of what we do, it also has faith in us that we are in control of what we think.

This does not just come to us overnight, but is a long process. If a three year old is raised in a way that when asking for ice cream, the child is calmly told that he can’t fulfill this craving because he just had a frankfurter, and he knows that this is not negotiable, he begins to learn control. If a six year old wants a box of Lucky Charms, and is calmly told that this is not possible because it’s not kosher, he continues to learn control. When he’s ten and he’s with friends on a busy street, he knows that if he wants a snack, he has to look for a Kosher symbol. He knows if he wants to eat something he has to make a Bracha. He knows that after he uses the bathroom, he thanks God that the plumbing works. At thirteen, he is already very much in control of his actions and now he begins to mature to take control of his thoughts, because, as we know, actions shape character.

At thirteen he knows to avoid lashon hara, to judge people favorably, and to empathize. At twenty two he may be newly married and is in such control, that he knows to follow this week’s Parsha in refraining from intimacy at certain intervals. When he is thirty, and he feels he has good reason to bear a grudge, he is in such control that he is able to replace those feelings with an accentuation of what is positive in his life, and an appreciation of all that is blessed in his life, and a sense of gratitude for all of life’s gifts. This type of control takes a long time to inculcate and is the essence of Kedusha.

Please join me in wishing Mazel Tov to the Deborah, Zamoczyk, and Forman families on the Bar Mitzvah of Ezra Deborah. Mazel Tov also to Pia & Paul Rubin on the birth of a grandson to their children, Yossi & Tova.  

Be safe.  Be healthy.   Be excellent.

Rabbi Allen Schwartz

Rabbi Allen Schwartz

Congregation Ohab Zedek

118 West 95^th Street | New York, NY  10025-6604

Phone 212.749-5150, ext 200 | Fax 212.663-3635

E-mail ras@ozny.org

Website:  www.ozny.org