Venue: Yad Binyamin, Israel Yad Binyamin, Israel

Parsha:

Bechukotai,  Behar 

Description

Commenting on the end of the Tochecha, where God promises not to abandon us completely, the Meshech Chochman wonders: how is possible that we could survive in a strange land through generations of persecution without assimilation? How indeed. From there he proceeds to describe the circular nature of the Jewish predicament in the exile, and more importantly, why it keeps happening. And he wrote all of this mere decades before the Holocaust. This important passage from Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk represents a key commentary that should be part of any modern Jew's religious awareness.