I hope the ideas contained below, will provide you with some topics for discussion, at your Shabbos table.

Post-Shovous Reflections.

If you have a satnav in your car, you will probably find it has two functions. Firstly it tells you how to get from A to B. Secondly, if you take a wrong turning or make some other mistake, it starts telling you how to proceed from where you are now, towards your desired destination.
When the Jewish people received the Torah at Sinai each individual understood how he had to proceed to keep it, with his particular personality , nature, and circumstances. Every person has to make a different journey to keep the Torah, because no two people are the same.
For example, the Midrash tells of Rabbo Shimon ben Chalafta who was so poor he could not make Shabbos. He prayed for heip, and some of the reward which had already been stored up for him in the World to Come was given to him immediately, in the form of wealth. When his wife heard what had happened she did not want him to lose part of his reward in the World to Come, in exchange for wealth in this world. Rabbi Yehudah the prince offered to replace any of the reward Rabbi Shimon might lose from the World to Come, with some of his own future reward. She replied that is impossible, because it is written each person goes to his reward. Every person has to make different kinds of efforts to keep the Torah because everybody has different strengths and weaknesses. Therefore everybody will receive a different kind of reward in the World to Come, so one person`s reward cannot replace another person`s reward. The reward for each person, will be appropriate to the kind of journey, he had to travel to keep the Torah.
Like the satnav “Lehavdil”, the Torah tells you how to get to the correct destination from wherever you now are, even if you have taken a wrong turning, spiritually speaking, as we all do occasionally.

SOURCES; Lev Eliyahu, Parshas Pekudei & Sefer Latorah Velamoadim Parshas

Parshas Nosso

Is it possible to watch a pornographic film and then davven immediately afterwards with proper devotion? Absolutely not! In fact it is not possible then, to do any Mitzvah with proper devotion. In contemporary society, when we are constantly bombarded with indecent and immoral images we have to take steps to avoid being in that situation. In fact we all have to employ a kind of self-censorship.
The Sedra tells us the laws of a Nazir, who makes a vow which forbids him among other things to have any wine. It writes it, after the Parshah which talks about a woman who is suspected of committing adultery. Because a person who had seen what happened to her, might well want to vow not to have any wine, so that he would not get drunk and find himself in the same situation.
Underlying this, is the idea of making safeguards for oneself according to the situation one is in. As mentioned above, every person and also every society has to travel a different journey to arrive at keeping the Torah. Frequently this involves making safeguards. appropriate to a particular situation. Unquestionably one of the safeguards we have to make in contemporary western society, is the exercise of self-censorship.

QUESTION FOR THE WEEK;

Why is the Parshah of “Duchaning”-the priestly blessing written immediately after the Parshas of “Nozir”

ANSWER;
To teach us that somebody who makes safeguards for himself deserves Blessings.

SOURCES; Midrash Rabah 11-1