Interesting Divrei Torah

Thunder and Dreams

There are events in life whose purpose is to alarm a person into a fear of Hashem. One of them is the frightening sound of thunder. Science can supply explanations for the cause of this sound, but we have no understanding why the Creator so ordered His universe that this natural phenomenon be one of such volume that it strikes terror in the heart of man.

The reason, says Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, is to straighten out the distorted ideas in the heart of man. Maharsha calls our attention to an earlier perek (Berachos 28b) where Rabbi Hillel explains that the eighteen blessings of our Shmone Esrei prayer correspond to the eighteen times Hashem's Name is mentioned in chapter 29 of Tehillim. The nineteenth blessing which was added when the heretics began to make trouble corresponds to the Divine Attribute found in 29:3 - "the G-d of glory thunders." This thunder is a Divine message to straighten out the heretic's thinking by shocking him into an awareness of Heavenly power.

The source for this approach is the passage in Koheles (2:14) about Hashem doing things "so that people should fear Him." Back in our own perek (55a) Rabbi Chisda applies this same passage to the purpose of a bad dream which, he says, is more effective than lashes in arousing a sinner to mend his ways. The fear aroused by a dream which may foretell an unpleasant future has a longer lasting impact on the dreamer than the pain suffered in corporal punishment. According to our Sages a bad dream is therefore related to thunder which likewise instills a fear which will hopefully inspire us to return to the Creator. Berachos 59a

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin

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One of our teachers gave such a nice dvar torah about how important it is to have kavannah when saying Amen. She was saying how it is the "ticket to get into Olam Habah"-(it says that in the Gemorrah). There is a mashal to a man wanting to go into a wedding but he didn't have his invitation, the ticket. So too, if someone goes through Gehinnom, and is ready to enter Olam Habah, he won't be let in unless he has the ticket, saying Amen with real kavannah. Just something to think about...She also told us about a man who had cheated the king (i wont go into that), and was sentenced to be excited, but wouldn't (because he was so remorseful) on one condition-he wear a rope around his neck for the rest of his life..to keep him humble and remember what he did wrong. His children and grandchildren had to wear it too. By the time his great great grandchildren were wearing it, they forgot y they had to wear it and started making it out of different materials until it became a contest who's "rope" was nicer...until now it is a "tie" men wear! So too, when Adam and Chava sinned, they had to wear clothes. Therefore clothes were meant 4 us to remember their sin and be modest and good Bnos Yisroel and act with Tznius in our dress and our ways. Yet, our clothes have become a contest of who has the nicest clothes...instead of flaunting our clothes, we should realize why we have to wear clothes and dress according to how a daughter of Yackov would dress.

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