Community Magazine October 2019

24 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE Home&Stone FIXTURES FAUCETS HARDWARE ACCESSORIES 1663 Coney Island Ave Brooklyn NY 11230 Valet Parking Appointments Welcome 718.787.1000 homeandstone.com @homeandstone לעילוי נשמתם של משה בן עליזה, יצחק הלל בן עליזה, והנרייט לאה בת עליזה, דוד בן גילה, רבקה בת גילה, יהושע בן גילה, משה בן גילה, שרה בת גילה, יעקב בן גילה, ואליאנה בת גילה. ולרפואה שלמה ליוסף בן אהובה מסעודה, שילת אהובה בת עליזה, ודניאל בן עליזה. Aaron 732.631.4519 New clean car with comfortable leather seats Community Driver Deal Driver To JFK $180 To LaGuardia $190 To Atlantic city $140 To Newark $90 To Manhattan $180 To Brooklyn $180 Hourly(local) $25/hour Super-Drive Super Service. Every Ride. Every time. Our team of registered dietitians and certified nutritionists can help guide you to achieve lasting change. * If you have an insurance that has no copay We offer nutritional counseling that’s 100% covered by most insurances* We customize a meal plan based on your schedule and food preferences We don’t sell any products or market special foods or supplements We offer flexible early morning and late evening hours from 7AM until 11PM and Sunday hours We are convenient to you, with offices in Boro Park, Midwood, Five Towns and Williamsburg United Healthcare Community Plan • Healthfirst • Blue Cross Blue Shield • Healthplus • Oxford Freedom • GHI • The Empire Plan • Aetna • Cigna • Metroplus • Oscar • Fidelis Essential Plan Boro Park Nutrition Boro park Nutrition Flatbush Nutrition Five Towns Nurition 1225 44th Street 5704 18th Avenue 1648 East 14th Street Cedarhurst 347-746-0453 347-770-3729 347-470-3326 516-387-5213 We are the trusted name in quality nutrition counseling TheDiet i t ianGroup.com Call now, slots filling up fast! This means that the etrog tree resembles the forbidden tree in Gan Eden , and represents the ideal world to which we aspire, the world which Gd intended at the time of creation. We have thus arrived at a new, exciting perspective on the celebration of Sukkot. After going through the difficult but exhilarating period of repentance, beginning fromRosh Hodesh, through the period of Selihot , followed by Rosh Hashanah and the Ten Days of Repentance, culminating with the intensity of Yom Kippur, we now anticipate the ultimate tikkun (rectification), theworld’s long-awaitedreturn to its ideal state of perfection. We leave the High Holidays uplifted, encouraged and inspired, confident that we are on our way to absolute tikkun , to seeing the universe perfected. And so, we celebrate with an etrog , which represents the ideal world that we have never known but we very much look forward to experiencing. Sukkot is the “first day of the calculation of sin,” the day when we seek to once and for all eliminate the effects of the first sin. Having just repented and eliminated our sins, we look forward to the time when all human sin will be erased – including the very first sin, in Gan Eden . The Ground’s Mistake As mentioned, we cannot fully understand what it means that the earth made the conscious decision to disobey Gd and produce a different kind of tree than it was commanded to produce. But leaving this question aside, we might ask, why did it deviate fromGd’s command? Why didn’t it simply produce the kind of trees it was supposed to produce? Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel of Apta (1748-1825) explained that the ground had “altruistic” motives for its disobedience. Knowing that man would be created from theearth, theearthdecided tocommit a sin so thatmanwould have an excuse, of sorts, for his own sins. We human beings can come beforeGd and say: “Wewere created from the flawed earth, which itself sinned.” Indeed, we cry in the AvinuMalkenu prayer, “Our Father and King, remember that we arebut earth.” Weplead toGd to recognize that we came from the earth, which had betrayed Him, and for this reason we are inherently flawed creatures, worthy of compassion and forgiveness. This is a beautiful insight, one which certainly gives us a good deal of encouragement when we reflect upon our flaws, our mistakes, and our failures. We are only human, created from the earth, and Gd lovingly and compassionately takes this into account when He judges us. But let us not forget – the ground was punished, and even cursed, for its disobedience. Altruistic as its motives were, they did not excuse the decision to disobey Gd, or the earth’s responsibility for the grave consequences of its disobedience. Even if one is driven by lofty and noble ambitions, this does not mean that his actions are correct and proper. We must not just mean well , but also act well – and this requires educating ourselves and thinking very carefully to determine the right thing to do. Sincere motives do not automatically make our actions correct. May Hashem always help us in our efforts to ensure that our noble intentions lead us to noble conduct, that we not only want to do the right thing, but also actually do the right thing, amen .

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