Mid-Day Promotion Day

The meetings are done. The grades - almost. Rabbi Ronn Yaish shared a lovely dvar Torah from Rav Moshe Feinstein. He said that the flowers remaining on Aharon's staff even after the almonds appeared teaches a deep lesson. Often in life we think the end is all that matters. Not so. Process is key. He applied this to school and how hard work of teachers is at the heart of the matter.

I keep thinking about graduation (a friend of mine has been working at a school for four years at a school and their tradition is after four years of teaching there a teacher is placed in the yearbook pictures with the students who are graduating after four years - accordingly next year will be my fourth graduation from The Frisch School). In his graduation speech the principal, Dr. Kalman Stein, cited the following idea from Rabbi J.J. Schachter in the name of his father (Rabbi Herschel Schachter): The medrash teaches that G-d said to the Jewish people, "Either accept the Torah or - sham thei kvratchem." The latter part of this phrase is generally understood as a threat and translated to mean this will be your burial place. The thing is that it doesn't say that, it says there will be your burial place. Where? Israel. G-d was explaining that the consequence of failing to build a Torah foundation for their lives in Israel would mean that the land would eventually turn into a burial ground for their way of life as it had for the civilizations that dwelt there before them. To me a wow. Bottom line, we need the stability that Torah provides.