From Aish

Aish Minnesota's Annual Leadership Celebration

Featuring Dennis Prager

Honoring Gurstel Chargo

Susan & Todd Gurstel and Susan & Mitch Chargo

with the Community Leadership Award & Highlighting the local leaders of the

 JEWISH WOMEN'S RENASSAINCE PROJECT - J.W.R.P.


June 13 at 6:00 PM

at the Metropolitan Ballroom 5418 Wayzata Boulevard Golden Valley, MN 55416

$90 Includes Cocktail Hour and Dessert Buffe


To RSVP, visit: http://www.aishmn.com/new/event.php?id=137

Lag Ba'omer BBQ and Bonfire- May 22, Sabes JCC;

At KI - Sunday Morning Inspiration , "The Way of God" - 10:15 am; "Strive for Truth" - 11:00 am;

●At the JCC "Current Affairs - Viewing world events through the Torah's prism"-Wednesdays, 10:45 am, Sabes JCC; Parenting Class- Wednesdays, 11:30 am, Sabes JCC; Practical Applications for Business and Jewish Law;

For more information about these events, contact AISH MN at 952 843 3034.

Dvar Torah Courtesy of Rabbi Da-vid Rosenthal – AISH MN (May 20, 2011)

G-d’s Curfew

A friend of mine (let’s call him Noah) once told me about an interesting story that happened to them as a teenager. A good friend of Noah’s – let’s call him Sam – had a great setup with his parents. His parent’s attitude was that since teenagers are going to get into mischief, one way or another, there really was no point trying to clamp down on them. Let them be free to explore and try things out, and once they get it out of their system, they’ll be fine. So Sam had his own car, had no curfew, he could go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted. A dream situation for a teenager.

One night, when Noah and Sam were hanging out together, Noah expressed his envy of Sam. “I would love to have no curfew, love to not have to live with a ball and chain!”

Sam turned to Noah and said “No, you don’t get it – at least your parents care about what you do”.

Looking at parenting with an immature perspective, one might think that parents who impose consequences for misbehavior care less about their children than those parents who adopt an attitude of tolerance and understanding. In reality, the more you care about your child, the more dedicated you are to teaching them the difference between right and wrong, and showing them that our actions have consequences, sometimes not-so-pleasant consequences. No one enjoys seeing their child suffer because of something that they themselves inflicted. In an extreme example, if my child ever threw all his food on the floor during dinner in a fit of rage, I would make him go to bed without dinner. Does that make me happy when I hear him crying that he’s hungry? Of course not – it hurts me to see him suffer. But he has learned a valuable lesson, one that cannot be conveyed through long discussions or negotiations.

In this week’s Parsha, G-d shows us that he cares about the Jewish people a lot. The Torah lists a series of outcomes: if we stay true to the Torah, things will go well, and if not, well… not so much. Some of the consequences for our misbehavior are rather extreme(check out Vayikra 26:14-41). Does this mean that G-d doesn’t love us?

Quite the contrary! Hashem cares about us so much that he is willing to watch us go through some serious difficulties in order that we learn to change our ways. A Jewish mother doesn’t settle for mediocrity for her children, neither does G-d. He wants the Jewish People to achieve greatness in this world, and there are consequences if we don’t.

We need to take heed to Hashem’s warnings, because they are not idle threats. We have lived and suffered through the descriptions in this week’s parsha, and we don’t want to have to do that again.

Conversely, when we heed Hashem’s words, and try to do his will, our lives will be filled with blessing and prosperity, and opportunities to attain an even greater connection with the Almighty.

May we all take this week’s Parsha seriously, and devote ourselves to better fulfilling the word of Hashem.

Good Shabbos,

Da-vid Rosenthal