Dear Talmidot, Parents and Friends –
 
1)       This week at Midreshet Moriah
2)       Faculty Devar Torah – Mrs. Lauren Goldschmidt
3)       Mazel Tovs
4)       Mi She-Berach List
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This Week at Midreshet
 
To all Alumnae -
A special "Haggadah" for Pesach has been written for you by our very own faculty.
 
Follow this link to view and print:
http://www.midreshetmoriah.org/uploads/files/Haggadah-_alumnae.doc
 
  
Wishing you all a Chag Kasher Ve' Sameach !
From the entire staff and faculty at Midreshet Moriah
 
 
Pictures from our year can be seen at http://midreshetmoriah.com/pictures/
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Parshat Achrei Mot/Shabbat HaGadol
 
True Freedom
Lauren Goldschmidt
           
Although there's a mitzvah to remember the Exodus every day of the year, on Pesach we have a special commandment to relive the miraculous transition from slavery to freedom.  Throughout Pesach, we constantly mention our freedom by calling Pesach "zman cheirusainu" (time of our freedom) and we have numerous commandments and customs which are designed to help us personally experience the change from being downtrodden slaves to becoming a free and independent nation.
           
 On a practical level, however, it seems that Pesach is the furthest thing from a time of freedom and we seem to feel the least amount of freedom precisely on Pesach.  Ask any Jewish mother, who personally prepares, cooks, and cleans for the holidays, which is the most strenuous and exhausting holiday to prepare for. Undoubtedly the answer would be Pesach.  One would imagine that since Pesach is the time to celebrate our freedom, prior to Pesach we should be given time to rest and relax in order to properly train and prepare ourselves to fully experience what it means to be free, and we should also be given ample time to study the story of the Exodus so that we can have a total appreciation of Hashem's kindness in taking us out of Egypt.  But we find the exact opposite to be true.  Prior to Pesach, we are toiling and laboring for weeks to clean our homes and our belongings from every crumb of chometz.  We are running to kasher and tovel all of our pots, pans, and dishes for Pesach.  We are making seemingly endless trips to the supermarkets to buy kosher for Pesach ingredients in order to cook.  Instead of studying the story of the exodus, we are forced to study the complicated laws of how to do bedikas and biur chometz and how to conduct the seder properly.  By the time Pesach comes, instead of feeling invigorated and energized for the upcoming chag, we are usually exhausted from all of the wearisome preparations and find ourselves wondering whether we are supposed to feel like free men and women or like slaves.  How do we reconcile the expectation of feeling free with the crude reality of feeling like a slave?
           
In order to properly understand the Torah's perspective of freedom, we must first understand the reason why Hashem took us out of Egypt.  In his sefer, Leil Sh'murim, Rav Shlomo Brevda quotes the Rabbeinu Yona in Mesechta Brachot which tells us the true reason why we were taken out of Egypt.  The gemorah in Berachot 4b says that anyone who does not talk in between the berachah of “go-al yisrael” and shmoneh esrei is considered to be a ben olam habah.  All of the commmentaries ask how can one merit to become a ben olam habah, something which should seemingly require much effort and time, by simply not talking for a few seconds before starting shmoneh esrei?  The Rabbeinu Yona answers the process of joining together the berachah of go-al yisrael with shmoneh esrei is no easy task, and in fact it's one of the foundations of Judaism.  The Rabbeinu Yona explains that in the berachah of go-al yisrael we are reminded of the kindness that Hashem did for us by taking us out of Egypt, but it was ONLY so that we become His servants, as the pasuk says in Vayikra (25:42) "For they are My servants, whom I have taken out of the land of Egypt.”  Therefore, after acknowledging that we were taken out of Egypt for sole purpose of becoming servants to Hashem, we immediately do the greatest act of servitude - tefillah which is known as Avodah she'b'lev (the service of the heart).  It emerges, that the process of joining together the berachah of geula to the shomoneh esrei, requires the utmost concentration and awe in order to fully become aware that one only exists for the purpose of serving Hashem, and it's for that reason precisely that one merits becoming  a ben olam habah. 
           
The Rabbeinu Yona enlightened us with a fundamental idea that can sometimes be forgotten, especially in our times.  Hashem did for us the greatest kindness in freeing us from the hundreds of years of bitter slavery, not merely to be autonomous and free to pursue our own desires, but to become His servants and follow His Torah, which makes us truly free and fulfills the purpose of the creation of the world.  The Yerushalmi (Pesachim, 5:5) says that at the time of the Exodus, Pharoh was miraculously given a booming voice that could be heard throughout Egypt.  What did He say? "Go leave my land, previously you were servants to Pharoh and from now on you are servants to Hashem." At that moment, Klal Yisrael began to recite "Hallillu Avdei Hashem v'Lo Avdei  Pharoh" (Tehillim 123). We would think that Klal Yisrael would praise Hashem that they were no longer servants to Pharoh, but that was not what inspired them to sing, rather it was the realization that they were privileged to become the servants of Hashem for eternity.
           
Chazal have taught us that on Pesach we have the opportunity to rededicate ourselves to the service of Hashem.  It is the time when we confirm that our freedom was only a means of becoming true servants to Hashem.  While being slaves to Pharoh, we were deprived of olam hazeh by having to labor endlessly with backbreaking work and of olam habah because we were not in a state to realize our spiritual potential; but by becoming slaves to Hashem, we are privileged to a meaningful olam hazeh, by following the Torah which guides us how to become the greatest possible human beings, and to olam habah, our true destination.  All of the seemingly tedious commandments that we perform to prepare for Pesach were given to us in order to provide us with the unique opportunity to demonstrate our loyalty to Hashem.  Every crumb we clean and every pot we wash is our way of expressing our thanks to Hashem for being and eved of Hashem and not an eved of Pharoh. 
 
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Mazel Tov
 
Weddings:
Amanda Tammam (08-09, 09-10) and Menashe Benadict 
Yhi ratzon shetivnu bayit ne'eman bYisrael 
 
  
Please help us stay informed - http://midreshetmoriah.org/send-mazaltov.asp
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Mi SheBerach List

Please email midmoriah@gmail.com if there is a name you would like to add or remove! 
 
 
Chaim ben Chashka (3/3/2011) – diabetes complications 
Matityahu Yaakov ben Gittel Rivka (3/5/2011)
Tziporah Feiga Bat Sima Sheindel (2/26/2011)
Shira bat Deena Miriam – premature baby on a ventilator (2/19/2011)
Noa Batya bat Daniella Rut – 7 month old with leukemia (2/5/2011)
Leah Alona Bat Tziporah (2/5/2011)
Leora bat Sarah (2/5/2011)
Frimit bat Devorah (2/5/2011)
Rivah bat Jane (1/29/2011)
Amitai Yaakov ben Bracha - a 16 yr. old just diagnosed with leukemia (1/29/2011)
Dina Eta bat Chaya Tzippora Sheva (1/22/2011)
Aharon Yitzchak ben Deena Yehudis (1/6/2011)
Adi bat Zahavit (twin baby who is sick)
Reut bat Zahavit (twin baby who is sick)
Chaim Yissachar ben Chaya Mushkit (26 year old with 2 children, leukemia)
Shraga Feivel ben Sasha
Ari ben Rivka (young husband with brain tumor)
Inbal bat Nelya
Zacharia Kalman HaCohen ben Yael Margalit
Shai Ben Meital - 4 yr old with brain damage and seizures
Aviva Miriam bat Esther - 9 month old baby with cancer going through chemo
Tzipora Fayga Bat Sima Shaindel- 33 year old mother of 3 with Leukemia(9/19/2010)
Tzvi Ilan ben Gita (8/12/2010)
Chaya Tziporah Sheva bat Faiga (8/12/2010)
Chisha Bayla bat Miriam
Chaya Meira Mindel bat Chava Golda - Midreshet alumna with cancer
Refael ben Nomi- 10 month old baby who has meningitis
Avraham ben Elka (5/21/10)
Rivka Bracha bat Yehudit - mother of 6 with cancer, doing better BH
Rivka Margalit bat Ita - 12 year old girl with a brain tumor (5/27/2010)
Rachel bat Re-ayah - mother of 7 with cancer that has spread
Batya Leah bat Sara - cancer
Noa Chaya bat Nava Yehudit - baby
Yehuda Moshe Yosef ben Miriam
Rayzel bat Rifka
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Midreshet Moriah
The Educational Wing
Shaare Zedek Medical Center
P.O. Box 3235, Jerusalem, Israel
tel: 972-2-652-7449 fax: 972-2-651-1524
www.midreshetmoriah.com