In this week’s portion, Vayetzei, it is written about Yaacov, “Va’yifga ba’makom…” which is translated in Artscroll as:

“He [Yaacov] encountered the place…”

Rashi says on those words, “The verse does not mention which place, but ‘the place’ is… Mount Moriah about which is said ‘And he [Avraham] saw the place from afar.’”

Then Rashi goes on to translate “va’yifga” as “encountered”. And immediately after, Rashi brings another translation, translating va’yifga as “prayer”:

“And our Rabbis explained that it is an expression of ‘prayer’ like ‘Tifga’ [do not beseech me] and it has taught us [that Yaacov] instituted the Maariv prayer.”

Surprisingly, Rashi does not say that this is another translation; there is no transition. Rashi seems to be saying that va’yifga means two things simultaneously: that Yaacov avienu “encountered” and “prayed”.

But grammatically this creates a major problem. An encounter is an occurrence, but prayer is an action. You can say that Yaacov “encountered the place”, or you can say that Yaacov “prayed in the place”. But it is impossible to say that Yaacov “prayed the place”. That’s not a statement! And yet, this is exactly what Rashi seems to be saying.

So, how is this resolved? It is possible that it can be understood from the previously cited instance of Makom, the place. Rashi, citing a Midrash in Bereishis Rabba teaches us that Avraham knew that this was the place because he “saw a cloud affixed to the mountain”.

To Avraham, it was obviously the place. Avraham and Yitzchak saw “a beautiful mountain with a cloud affixed to it”, but when Avraham asked the servants what they saw, the servants said “Nothing at all.” And so, Avraham left the servants and the donkey behind.

Perhaps this is what is meant by “va’yifga”, spiritually awesome and significant encounters are only possible when one knows how to see. “And Avraham lifted his eyes and saw the place from afar.” Prayer helps us to perceive the spiritual splendor of our surroundings and to act appropriately. Perhaps Yaacov “prayed the place” into perceivable reality:

“And Yaacov awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely Hashem is in this place and I did not know!” And he became frightened and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the abode of G-d and this is the gate of the heavens!”

“The blessed Creator is the very essence of good. It is the nature of good to bestow good. This is why the Lord created men, so that He could bestow good upon them. For where there is no receiver, there is no bestowal of good. In His sublime wisdom, however, He knew that for this good to be complete it should be received as the fruits of one’s labor. For then the recipient would feel himself the proprietor of that good and would not be shamefaced in receiving it, as if he were receiving charity. As it is said: ‘One who does not eat of his own is ashamed to look at his benefactors’ (Yerushalmi, Orla 1:3).”

- The Ramchal, The Knowing Heart

At the Russian military academy, a general gave a lecture on “Potential Problems and Military Strategy.” At the end of the lecture, he asked if there were any questions. An officer stood up and asked, “Will there be a third world war? Will Russia take part in it?” The general answered both questions in the affirmative. The officer asked, “Who will be the enemy?” The general replied, “All indications point to China .” All in the audience were shocked.

The officer asks, “General, we are only 150 million. There are 1.5 billion Chinese. Can we win at all?” The general answered, “Just think about this. In modern warfare, it is not the quantity that matters but the quality. For example, in the Middle East we have had a few wars recently where 5 million odd Jews fought against 150 million Arabs, and Israel was always victorious.” After a small pause, the officer asked, “Do we have enough Jews???”

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Thanks to Moshe for sending this my way.

Last year had over 300 people and this year promises to be bigger! It’s the Tu B’Av LOVE FEST 2009!

Get your tickets now to save money!: http://www.jconnectla.com/register-now/

Add the event on Facebook and invite your friends: http://tinyurl.com/LoveFest2009

“You must be aware that the sole purpose of creating man and placing him in this world is to enable man, through his own effort, to achieve perfection.”

-The Ramchal, Gates of Wisdom

Check out the daily live and recorded Torah class of Rabbi Joshua Gordon teaching Chumash with Rashi and Tanya, the Alter Rebbe’s classic work on practical Kabbalah!:

http://encinolive.com/

This is an early prototype of an effort that Daniel Aharonoff and I are working on… we want to facilitate quality live streaming and recorded Torah classes to the world. The strategy is threefold:

1) Facilitate the streaming and automated recording of classes (especially daily and weekly classes) in one click.

2) Create a web presence that makes classes feel like watching TV with free pay-per-view.

3) Develop simple to use hardware that makes it easy for hospitals, schools, shuls and libraries to sit in on great Torah classes even without a physically present teacher.

If you are interested in lending for the initial setup of this cause, would like to sponsor a class or classes in the name of a loved one or would like to have your Rabbi’s classes added to our program, please call me on my cell: 818.943.2810

Thank you & Bracha V’Hatzlocha!

An excellent response by New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the unfair criticism Israel received for responding to the rocket attacks coming from Gaza:

TIME 100 honoree LeBron James nominates fellow Ohioan and Jewish philanthropist Jay Schottenstein, the man behind Arstscroll’s translation of the Talmud Bavli (written in Aramaic) into English, Hebrew and French:

The actual nomination in TIME 100:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1887846,00.html

And a humorous take by Heeb Magazine:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.heebmagazine.com/files/photos/5/large/3675.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.heebmagazine.com/blog/view/1581&usg=__c3Bc_hv5yHVtf79BPwceWBD8eE0=&h=329&w=332&sz=65&hl=en&start=10&um=1&tbnid=MObyXOJp9xTWxM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=119&prev=/images%3Fq%3Djay%2Bschottenstein%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1