There Is Nothing New Under The Sun

Among the many many wise words I have listened to and have heard from my Rabbi, Rabbi Yisroel Jungreis, is the phrase: “There is nothing new under the sun.”

Once again we find in the Torah the relevance of the Parsha to the twenty first century.

When I hear the interpretation from my Rabbi about each weekly parsha I make mental notes on where to apply all of this important information into my every day life. It is always quite relevant and easily fits into either my life or the lives going on around me.

This week in Parsha Pinchas we learn how important it is to show up in life, fight for the right reasons and most importantly, to “step up to the plate.” If we want peace in our lives it is truly essential to prove that we are worthy of the gift of obtaining that peace by becoming “shalem.” The Rabbis teach us that unless we are complete as in the Hebrew word “SHALEM,” we may not achieve SHALOM within our lives.

Therefore if there is a call for us to help out a person or in a given situation, OR if there is an injustice going down around us, we must speak up, for that is our obligation to one other. If we don’t, we will see how The Boss works in mysterious ways. For those that have taken on the role of deceiving people in their life, it seems to me that it is basically guaranteed that their day in court will come.

If the Pinchases of the world do not face situations then that negligence will be addressed, in one way or another. Pinchas chose not to be passive. Rather he was brave and did not allow the actions of others be his lead. When chaos and sin erupted from immoral behavior, Pinchas did rise to the occasion and put everyone in their place for the sake of peace and to prove that we can be good and respectful in this life to one another.

Next time you are summoned; pay attention. Do not let people get away with being bad, wrong, or deceiving. This sort of behavior is never ever acceptable so don’t think twice about your actions. SPEAK UP; you will reap the benefits and feel SHALOM because you will be SHALEM! That to me seems guaranteed.

Right again, Rabbi Yisroel, there really is nothing new under the sun……………

Shabbat Shalom with Love!