The water that goes to the sea…- Ecclesiastes 1:7

Posted by Eli Dahan on February 28, 2010 under Bible, Biblical Hebrew, Personal stories | Read the First Comment

Well, my friends, after a weekend with a lot of rain in Jerusalem, I decided to write on the water today.

The water in the bible has a lot of meanings, but today we are going to look at one verse in the book of Ecclesiastes, a verse that always bring into my mind a lot of questions:

"כָּל-הַנְּחָלִים הֹלְכִים אֶל-הַיָּם, וְהַיָּם אֵינֶנּוּ מָלֵא; אֶל-מְקוֹם, שֶׁהַנְּחָלִים הֹלְכִים–שָׁם הֵם שָׁבִים, לָלָכֶת"

"All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; unto the place whither the rivers go, thither they go again.

This verse speak about the water, but it seems to be that the water here is not just the liquid , the H20, it’s also a symbol to our life, we are all going in different ways, but the end and the beginning are the same.

Furthermore, we are all going to a place that is not going to be perfect because only one is perfect and endless, this is God!

The sea will never be full because it can’t, like the stories of other people, fight against the Almighty.

There’s a program in the T.V. that my small kid likes to see, the circle of life, and this are the same situation with the water, where they go they will come back, what a beautiful metaphor…

The process is different with every one of us, but in the edges we are all one!

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Eli@eteachergroup.com

The daughter of Solomon – a story of destiny-part 1

Posted by Eli Dahan on January 23, 2010 under Jewish Folklore, Personal stories | Be the First to Comment

Some says that you can’t run away from your destiny, goral in Hebrew. Today we are going to meet a story, some say it’s a legend, but we can say this about everything in the old ages, don’t we?

King Solomon wanted to see who will be his son-in-law, so he looked at the zodiac and saw that a poor one would be the husband of his daughter!

In order to prevent the marriage he decided to take his little girl and he put her in a tower with 70 guards who kept her from the destiny. Solomon wanted to see if the lord will do something or that he will able to win the destiny …

The poor one meanwhile was so poor that he had to find himself a place to spend the night. Walking around he saw, barefoot in the field, a carcass of a bull lying there and he decided to go to sleep between her ribs in order to warm up a little bit…

A vulture in the sky went to look for the daily dinner and he saw the carcass of the bull lying there, without knowing that the poor person is lying inside.

What will happen with the poor person, will the vulture have more dinner to eat?

Next time we will see the end of this lovely story…

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Eli@eteachergroup.com

Rabbi Eliezer- the passion to learn- part 2

Posted by Eli Dahan on June 20, 2009 under Jewish Folklore, Personal stories | Be the First to Comment

In Jerusalem

Eliezer decided to leave his house and his father, and went to Jerusalem, there he met Rabbi Yochanan. When Rabbi Yochanan saw him one more time with tears, and eliezer explained one more time that he want learn Torah, Yochanan asked him, “Who is your father?” But Eliezer refused to tell him.

Can it be that you have never learned the Shema or how to pray or to recite the prayers after eating bread? Asked rabbi yochanan and Eliezer sat down and cried because of his ignorance.

The studying

Rabbi Yochanan began teaching him two halachic teaching each day. Eliezer would review them until they became part of him. For eight days straight he did not eat until finally the odor from his mouth was so foul that Rabbi Yochanan noticed it. He had Eliezer come before him and blessed him, “Just as the odor from your mouth comes up to me, so too will your Torah go up from your mouth to the heavens.

After eliezer told rabbi yochanan that he ate, tough he didn’t for 8 days, and that he a son of a rich man, rabbi yochanan decided to invite his father to eat-

The father sees his son in his studying

Meanwhile back at the farm, the sons of Horkonus convinced their father to go to Jerusalem and cut Eliezer off from any inheritance.

When he arrived at Rabbi Yochanan house in Jerusalem, Rabbi Yochanan was informed that the father of the now Rabbi Eliezer had come to see him. He had a seat prepared for Horkonus next to him .Next he fixed his eyes on Rabbi Eliezer. “Please tell us something from your Torah,” he requested.

“Rebbi, I will explain to what this is like. I am similar to a water storage cistern that can not give out but what has been put in. I can not say any Torah of my own, only that which I have been taught by you.”

Rabbi Yochanan objected. “Let me tell you to what this is like. It is like a spring whose waters continually come out and gives out much more that the mere volume of its depth. So too with you, you can tell us more than that which was made known to us by Moses at Mount Sinai.

The lesson from this story is that everyone can find the water that they should drink, if they will fell thirsty…

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Eli@eteachergroup.com

Rabbi Eliezer- the passion to learn- part 1

Posted by Eli Dahan on June 17, 2009 under Jewish Folklore, Personal stories | Be the First to Comment

introduction

Eliezer ben Hurcanus (Hebrew: אליעזר בן הורקנוס‎) was one of the most prominent tannaim of the 1st and 2nd centuries, disciple of R. Johanan ben Zakkai. A lot of stories have been told about eliezer, who was one of the wisest sages in the period of the Mishna. A famous saying about him is that he is like a spring that become stronger all the time.

Today we will tell the story of eliezer desire to learn.

The story

Horkonus, the father of Eliezer, was a respected land owner. He asked eliezer to work in the rocky ground, but eliezer was crying, so Horkonus told him to plow in the soft fields instead. When he returned he saw that Eliezer was again crying he asked him if he was crying because he gave him the easy land to plow.

“No, that is not the reason, I am crying because my desire to learn Torah” said eliezer. Horkonus advised eliezer, who was twenty-eight years old, to take instead a wife, have children and then to learn Torah. For two weeks Eliezer fasted and prayed for help. At the end of the two weeks Elijah the Prophet appeared to him and convinced him to go to Jerusalem to Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai.

What should eliezer do? Should he go to Jerusalem and disobey his father wish or should he listen to Elijah the prophet?

To be continued…

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Eli@eteachergroup.com