Shluchim Sermons

  בס"ד Shluchim Sermon From the Rebbe’s Torah   Shoftim Humor to begin with: I told my brother not to stand too close to the trees in our backyard. I don't know why, but they seem shady…  * The prohibition against cutting down fruit trees is taught to us in this week’s parsha . The Torah says that it’s forbidden because “man is a tree of the field .”  The Talmud asks: “Is man a tree of the field?!” Why such a blatant and outright statement?  The Talmud answers that we are comparing man to a tree of the field in this strong manner because if someone (a member of the human race — who are like “trees”) is a Torah sage who is “decent,” you should “eat from him” — meaning, let him give you his fruit and teach you Torah — and “don’t cut it down,” so to speak.  But, if he does not behave properly, it is a tree that can be “cut down” — meaning: you should not “take fruit/teachings” from him.  * The Talmud offers a very specific inference from a tree — to a certain specific case. Would

  בס"ד Shluchim Sermon From the Rebbe’s Torah   Re’ei Humor to being with:  My friend lost his job at the cemetery after burying someone in the wrong hole. It was a grave mistake…  — Burying the dead as kindness will be a topic of our sermon… * The Torah tells us in this week’s parsha that we should “attach ourselves” to G-d .  The passuk reads: “You shall follow G-d, fear Him, and fulfill His commandments; listen to His voice, and serve Him — and you shall attach yourself to Him.”  Rashi explains that this means that we should “attach ourselves” to His ways — which will result in our attachment to Him. “Do kindness, bury the dead, visit the sick — just as Hashem did,” Rashi says.   When did G-d bury the dead? It was when G-d buried Aharon the Kohen. The passuk tells us that “Aharon died on the top of the mountain,” and then, immediately after, “Moshe and Elazar descended” from the mountain. It does not say that he was buried. Two parshas later, however, in last week’s parsha, Ei