Broadcast #1 - July 21, 2019
No One is Immune
Israelnationalnews.com
The public Torah reading of Yom Kippur during the afternoon service deals with those physical relationships between humans that are forbidden by the Torah.
Yom Kippur represents to us the ability to disassociate ourselves from bodily wants and needs. The rabbis of Israel, who understood the human condition fully, chose that this portion should specifically be read and emphasized on the afternoon of the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
The Talmud warns us that there is no guarantee or guardian for human beings when it comes to matters of desire and physical sexuality. No one is above it and only those who think that they are somehow immune to it are the ones who are most vulnerable.
On Yom Kippur, when we are at our holiest, we are also reminded how low and evil we can be if we do not guard ourselves. To ignore our weaknesses is to constantly live in peril of irreparable damage to ourselves and to others.
Even a cursory review of daily events in our time will show us how easily even great and noble people can create the greatest harm to themselves simply because they believed that it could not happen to them. The Torah is the book of realism, the book of humanity.
Yom Kippur represents to us the ability to disassociate ourselves from bodily wants and needs. The rabbis of Israel, who understood the human condition fully, chose that this portion should specifically be read and emphasized on the afternoon of the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
The Talmud warns us that there is no guarantee or guardian for human beings when it comes to matters of desire and physical sexuality. No one is above it and only those who think that they are somehow immune to it are the ones who are most vulnerable.
On Yom Kippur, when we are at our holiest, we are also reminded how low and evil we can be if we do not guard ourselves. To ignore our weaknesses is to constantly live in peril of irreparable damage to ourselves and to others.
Even a cursory review of daily events in our time will show us how easily even great and noble people can create the greatest harm to themselves simply because they believed that it could not happen to them. The Torah is the book of realism, the book of humanity.