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How My Grandmother Died

What Did Adam & Chava Do When Their Son Was Murdered? Why Only One Yartzeit Is Mentioned in Torah?

1 hr 26 min

Rabbi YY Jacobson at his bar mitzvah, in 1985, with his grandmother Mrs. Teibel Lipsker

Class Summary:

The women's class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Matos-Masei, 22 Tammuz, 5780, July 14, 2020, streaming live from Rabbi YY Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY

Please leave your comment below!

  • SR

    Sidhaarth Radhakrishnan -1 year ago

    Source sheets in English?

    Hey there, 

    When will the source sheets be available for these great videos and in English? 

    To The Only Temple!

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  • SR

    Shmuel Rosenfeld -3 years ago

    Dear Rabbi Jacobson,

    I enjoyed listening to your shiur.A beautiful insight into why Aharon of all tzadikim in the torah was metioned the date of his petira and only in parshat Masai.The idea for us to decide whether we want to be part of the churban or the binyam reminds me of  a thought that came to mind that I heard from Rav Moshe Shapiro Shapiro zt"l  and the present Tolna Rebbe yblt...Rav Moshe said sometimes we get so depressed  at a close relatives death that we emotionally  bury ourselves with the niftar and cant seem to get back to ourselves..said Rav Moshe..the word "Avel" (mourn) are the same letters for the word "Aval"-however..you can either remain in the abyss or rise to a greater level then before.Said the Tolna shlita in the name of the chiddushey Harim..אבל is the roshey taivot forאיך בין לסטיג.Im full of joy..its all where we want to be.

    שנזכה ל..הפחת מספדי למחול לי..פיתחת שקי ותעזרני שמחה

     Yasher Kochaha

    Shmuel Rosenfeld 

    Har Nof,Yrushalayim

    שנזכה ל.והראנו בבנינו ושמחנו בתיקונו בבמהרה בימינו..אמן

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  • M

    malka -3 years ago

    I read with interest your article about criticism. It's quite an avoda to defang criticism and to hear it in a dispassionate, and ultimately productive way. 
     
    Your full-bodied explanation was a pleasure to read and has given me much to reflect upon - as I personally relate to the struggle ;-). 
     
    But something is bothering me about this exchange. True, Bnei Reuven and Gad could have explained their perspective sooner, but as I understand your article, it seems as if Moshe's response was reactionary (with faulty assumptions, to boot!). 
     
    Even mere mortals are expected to learn how to engage in reflective and empathic listening (active listening)...to recognize that often the words expressed do not reflect the speaker's intention. When something niggles at us, it behooves us to leave some space for the possibility that we are not "getting" what the person is really trying to say, even if their words sound pretty explicit! Instead of an immediate reaction, we should train ourselves to ask - in a soft and truly open-minded manner, "What do you mean by that?" In my experience, this empathic and humble approach "opens" the space (practically and symbolically) for the initial statement (or in this case, question) to be refined. 
     
    Moshe Rabeni is anav mikul adam. Could I be reading this exchange in the wrong key?

    Sincerely,
    Malkie 

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    • Anonymous -3 years ago

      Thanks so much for your kind words and reflection.
       
      But actually, here it makes sense:
       
      Seeing what happened last time 40 years earlier, when the Meraglim returned, and Moshe allowed them to share their feelings, and it caused a catastrophe, this time around Moshe perhaps was determined to nip it in the bud immediately and root out any second crisis.

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  • TM

    Tzivia Mashinsky -3 years ago

    Dear Rabbi Jacobson,

    Thank you for the most meaningful tribute to my Bubby Ungar a'h, Tziporah bas R' Nuchem. Indeed, she lived a beautiful and ful'filled' life, passing away on 3 Tamuz, exactly 98 years after the day she was born.

    Correction to one small detail: She survived Auschwitz with 3 sisters.

    She built a beautiful family and merited to 'dance' in her heels at many great-grandchildrens weddings!

    Gut Shabbos.

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  • J

    joe -3 years ago

    the raven

    U asked in z aforementioned shiur
    That being that
    H” had told AH that he’d return to “afar”/עפר
    How was he puzzled what to do with Hevel?
    Actually if one looks @ “nature”
    @a tree 4instance- z return עפר2
    Is through decay. Why would he have been unsure oib azoiy?
    Also maybe the Raven who aborted his mission on z Teyva bec of irrational jealousy; wasnt doing chessed @ all let alone shel emmes?? A person is choshed others often when possessing those very middos
    ...Maybe he had murdered a competitor, & was burying him to hide the evidence.
    The raven After all לפי חזל is evidently highly intelligent, & capable even, of thinking like a member of the currently maurauding BLM MOB..!

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  • M

    Moshe -3 years ago

    Adam and Chava stumbled upon the lifeless body of their son

    How did they even begin to  understand the  concept of  actual physical death (altho it was decreed for them, they never had seen what it looks like) and what that meant?  

      "To  dust you shall return" could also mean just to leave the  lifeless body there on the ground to decompose and  disintegrate into dust. 

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  • M

    Moshe -3 years ago

    Aaron HaCohen was mourned BY ALL the yidden cuz he made peace

    He made peace between spouses, even with "white lies". He made peace between friends and relatives.  Maybe even between partners, sho knows?

     Wait a minute.

      Their food came from shomayin, and had almost any taste they desired , the water from a rock, the clouds smoothed the way and cleaned their clothes. Moshe was the teacher. They had the mishkan and palpable evidence of Hashem's prescence.All their spiritual and physical needs taken  care of. (Ok, they rebelled often and eventually had to die in the midbar). 

      But besides knowing they would die in the midbar (not even  true for the women, the Leviim, and those under 20 at the time of the decree); WHAT WAS  THERE TO  FIGHT ABOUT? 

      I guess there must have been something to  fight about cuz Aaron had to make peace between spouses and family and  friends. 

      And us, who must fight for our daily bread, can't see Hashem's prescence? 

       

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  • M

    Moshe -3 years ago

    The Refuah precedes the illness

    Just like the commandment to give a tithe of a certain exact number of  captured Midianite slaves  and cattle preceded the war and the capture of  the exact amount of  booty that would yield, by the percentages dictated, exactly that  number of tithe.

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  • פ

    פינחס -3 years ago

    שלום כבוד הרב שמעתי את השיעור היום יום שלישי מיותר לציין על היופי והחשיבות של השיעור חשבתי לספר לרב בנוגע לעניין שהרב דיבר על יום היארצייט .

    אבי ע"ה היה מאוד מקפיד להתפלל במניין מעטות הפעמים שראיתי את אבי ז"ל מתפלל בבית רק אם היה ממש חולה או אנוס וכדו' אבי נפטר בליל ר"ה תש"ע זה היה בער מגוריו בני ברק בבית רפואה מעייני הישועה הזמן שהוא נפטר היה זמן שרוב העולם בביתם עושים קידוש אוכלים סעודה גיסי היה איתו וראה שהמצב מחמיר מיד קרא לצוות וניסו אך ללא הועיל בנתיים משום מקום מגיעים 9 בחורי ישיבה ומיד קרא להם למניין בעת יציאת נשמה זה היה מאוד מוזר שפתאום יבואו 9 בחורים אז שנסעתי לארץ לשבת שבעה ושמעתי את הסיפור הזה מיד אמרתי לאחים שלי אבא ע"ה היה מקפיד מאוד במניין וזכה למניין ביצאת נשמה .
    תודה רבה לרב על הכל אני ממש נהנה מכל שיעור כולל כמובן שיעור נשים רמב"ם וכו. 

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  • E

    ella -3 years ago

    I just wanted to say thank you for your zoom studies. I just came off of your 9:30 Torah study and I was deeply touched by the stories that you shared.

    Thank you for the unique wisdom and insight you brought to the word of God, and for reminding us that there are very complex situations in the world that aren’t black and white.

    Your message of universal love is one that struck me, and encourages me to allow the Lord to use me for that ferocious love you so beautifully described. I’d love to speak to you some if you ever have the time.

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  • K

    Kaila -3 years ago

    Question for Rabbi YY

    First, I want to thank you for applying Torah to our lives and the difficulties some of us face in our life. When I learn divrei Torah, that is what I'm always looking for. We have a brain damaged child who has been on a feeding tube the last few years. I also have someone,who used to be my brother, who has been stealing a very large inherintance.He's not frum. I would sometimes learn late at night until I found that one sentence or thought that would give me the peace to go to sleep. Please do not publish.

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  • AH

    Alizah Hochstead -3 years ago

    An AMazing SHiur

    Thank you just what I needed to hear

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  • S

    Sara -3 years ago

    Amazing and I think profound...

    That Gd chose the Raven of all the possibilities to teach Adam and Chava what to do and how to go on.

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  • AG

    Anshel Grosz -3 years ago

    Thank you for the nice Shiur.

    Where is the Sfas Emes please you mentioned?

    Also - 

    There is a very nice story that was told many times by the Klausenburger Rebbe Zt"l (Shefa Chaim)

    There was an old woman in Krackow before the war and she only had 1 request , to be burried in the old רמ"א cemetery that wasnt in use anymore for over 200 years.

    Always she saw someone she knew, she always asked the other person " please bless me to be burried in the old cemetery". Everyone blessed her and laughed, but she always answered OMAIN.

    The day she passed away, there was heavy rain and fluds, it was impossible to burry in the new cemetery eventhough everythng they tried, and the Chevra Kadisha had no choice and were forced to burry her body in the old one

    Thank you for all your amazing lectures!

    Anshel Grosz

    Israel

    (We met last year Motze 17 Betamuz after Maariv, I came over to you in Beis Hamdrash....Einikel of R' Avrohom Werdiger...you were just learning the Rambam Pesicha to Maseches Shvuos if I dont mostake saying אינו דומה הלומד 100 פעמים ללומד 101)

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    • Anonymous -3 years ago

      Likkutei Yehuda Matos

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  • Anonymous -3 years ago

    Better Quality Live Video today

    Hi Rabbi. Such a precious story about your grandmother... I can really relate to it. I am watching on your website today because your few classes on YouTube have had a strange repetition/delay and it is not occuring on this video today. Just thought you'd want to know.

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    • Anonymous -3 years ago

      I meant to say your last few classes, last few days had a delay.

      Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

  • SM

    Sara Metzger -3 years ago

    The story of the girl that had the baby in France

    Another beautiful story of Gd’s orchestration in our lives. I still think it’s a miracle.

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  • AH

    Alizah Hochstead -3 years ago

    Question for Rabbi YY

    I would like to appear live at this event
    The seger of Beitar began on the 17th of Tammuz. We are in the midst of it now. Many people are sick and the numbers are growing. How does if affect the times we are now in

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  • M

    Moshe -3 years ago

    Are the observances of a yortzeit post-biblical?

    Of course the observances of  a yortzeit by the family of  a nifter or by yidden of a tzaddik or  a  godol or other great figure (e.g. Rachel's yortzeit) are common and known. 

       The date of the yortzeit of most great people in the Chumash isn't mentioned.

       But, are the various yortzeit observances by family or by yidden as a whole, anywhere dictated or hinted to in the Torah or did they arise by decree or custom AFTER the Torah was given and written?

     If it so that the yortzeit observances arose somehow AFTER the Torah was written, then it is no "peleh" (wonder) that the date of the yortzeit of biblical personalities are not mentioned. Is there ANY mention on chumash itself of ANYONE observing a yortzeit of anyone? Avraham buried Sarah but did he observe her yortzeit? Rochel died young, Yakov's "favorite" and he knew where he buried her. Did he visit the kever or observe the yortzeit any way?

      

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  • A

    Alizah -3 years ago

    Question for Rabbi YY

    But we do it on Moshe’s yahrzeit with the dinners of the chèvre Kaddishe and on Rochel Imanu’s yahr`eit iwith davening at her kever

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  • CA

    chaim akerman -3 years ago

    Question for Rabbi YY

    when is the rambam shir?

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  • KS

    Kaila STEMPEL -3 years ago

    I would like to apply for Rabbi Jacobson's class, advertised on Yeshiva World. What are the terms for registering?

    Kaila Stempel

      

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    • RYJ

      Rabbi YY Jacobson -3 years ago

      I send out via email weekly essays and classes. I think you would enjoy some of them; if you would like to receive them, please click here:  https://www.theyeshiva.net/jewish/2453
       
      Also, if you want to receive my whatsapp clips, please click here: theyeshiva.net/whatsapp

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Maasei Women's Class

Rabbi YY Jacobson

  • July 14, 2020
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  • 22 Tamuz 5780
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  • 3714 views

Dedicated by Franki Cohen, for the Refuah Sheleima of Ezriel ben Mina

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