Weekly Parsha

Mazal Tov: Rabbi Tank's daughter Liora Rachel Tank for her birthday.

Pray for Refuah Sheimah: Yossefa (Josie) bat Sharon, Rafael ben Gladis and Shoshana (Susana) bat Gladis.

Continue Praying for: Miriam (Mariana) bat Zulay, Adina (Heidi) bat Sarah and Yosefa (Josie) bat Sharon.

Sukkot

Exodus 33:12-34:26

Moshe pleads to the Almighty to "make known to me Your ways." The Almighty commands Moshe to carve two stone tablets to replace the Tablets that Moshe destroyed bearing the 10 Commandments. Moshe carves them and ascends Mt. Sinai. The Almighty descends in a cloud and reveals to Moshe the 13 Attributes of Divine Mercy which are constantly repeated in the Yom Kippur prayers.

Moshe asks the Almighty to "forgive our transgressions and make us Your Heritage". The Almighty responds that He shall seal a covenant with us. The Almighty then warns the Jewish people against idol worship (idolatry is believing that anything other than the Almighty has power).

The reading ends with the Almighty commanding us to keep the Festivals -- Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot.

Between the holidays of Sukkot and Simchat Torah we have Shemini Atzeret.

Shemini Atzeret is actually a separate festival adjacent to Sukkot. Atzeret is an expression of affection, as would be used by a father to children who are departing from him. The father would say, "Your departure is difficult for me, tarry yet another day." The Jewish people prayed and brought offerings all the days of Sukkot so that the 70 nations of the world would have rain in the coming year. The Torah and the Almighty keeps us one more day for a special holiday to make requests just for ourselves. That's Shemini Atzeret.

Simchat Torah is the celebration of completing the yearly cycle of Torah reading and beginning it again. The evening and again the next morning are filled with dance and songs rejoicing in the Torah and thanking G-d for our being Jewish and that the Almighty gave us the Torah! We read the last Torah portion in Deuteronomy, Vezot Habracha and then begin immediately with Bereshit, starting the book of Genesis.

It's a new beginning. Let's improve our Middots. The Torah puts great stress on character development — on becoming better people. This is called Tikkun [correcting] Middot [our character].

If you want to find happiness, find gratitude!

Shabbat Shalom 

Rabbi Ovadiah Tank

Online Learning

Rabbi Tank is dedicated to finding modern usefulness and meaning in ancient wisdom texts and he is happy to provide spiritual, cultural, social and educational programming for communities around the world. 

Rabbi Tank is a professor at the American Jewish College of New York where he teaches classes on Talmud, Chassidism, Jewish History, Contemporary Jewish Law and Jewish Music. He has got a Harvard Degree in Judaic Studies. He also got his Bachelor's in Business Administration and he earned a postgraduate degree in International Relations. 

Rabbi Tank works as a Kosher Supervisor and as a Chaplain, with active involvement in Bikur Cholim, peace negotiations and humanitarian relief operations. Rabbi Tank is a Member of the National White House Faith Leaders, an Executive Office of the President of the United States.

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