When it comes to fulfilling a Mitzva in the Torah, we can do it by ourselves or by proxy. On Rosh Hashanah the Mitzva is to hear the Shofar being sounded, not that each and every one of us needs to blow it. Therefore, we have one person blowing and everyone else listening. In order to be Yoztay and fulfill one’s obligation, a person must listen to the Shofar’s blows from beginning to end without interruption. The law stipulates you must listen to the Blessings and the sounds without talking in between. It’s understandable that a commandment we can only fulfill once a year be treated with extra care and not be taken lightly.

We use different customs to confuse Satan in order to maximize our chances in fulfilling the Mitzva of Shofar. After all the precautions and maneuvering around, we are set to fulfill the Mitzva in the best possible way and then . . . we BLOW it. We blow it by coming in late or by talking in the middle of the Shofar’s blasts. Not only do we diminish the effects the Shofar can have on our souls by not concentrating; we go further by disturbing the power of the Shofar itself. We wait for this Mitzva all year long and when it finally comes, we “blow it” and ruin it. This is to teach us that Satan, as much as we try to confuse him, never rests. The Satan is always trying to find a way for us not to fulfill the Mitzvos. We need to be vigilant against our Yetzer Hara, our evil inclination, which never ceases in trying to stop us from doing the right thing.

We hope and pray the Mitzva of Shofar not only stirs us to repent during this time of year, but will remind us throughout the year of the potential of the Satan and what we need to do to combat it.

I wish you and your family a very special year that is blessed with health, happiness and success. We hope and pray for Shalom Al Yisroel and let this year be the last year of the Golus and the beginning of the Geulah Shelaima.

Ah Gut Yur
Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky

By now we should all know of the murderous terror attack this past Tuesday that left four Jewish people dead. Six children from one family are now orphaned as both their mother and father were slain; also an eight-year-old girl is without a mother now. The ongoing war is not only with the Arabs, but with the media throughout the world. Unfortunately, WE ourselves have been brainwashed and influenced by the wording and labeling on the reports of such incidents in Eretz Yisrael.

I received an e-mail statement from one of our leading national Jewish Orthodox organizations informing me about this terror attack near Chevron. I was “surprised” to have read the headline stating “Four Israelis Killed” instead of “Four Jews Killed”. Is it only “Israelis” that we are focused on or should our main focus be the victims were “Jews?” The world media, over time, have changed who we are. When someone reads the headline and reads it as Israelis, they are made to disassociate Israel from the Jews. Mind you there are many non-Jewish Israeli citizens in Israel, some of whom are Arab! People may be led by the media to think that it was not a Jew who was killed, rather leave the identity of the victim ambiguous. This thought was reinforced on August 12th of this year when an “Israeli” man was arrested in Michigan trying to board a plane and commit a terror attack in Israel. Once again, in that case the media did NOT mention he WAS an Arab. Letting the imagination think the person IS associated as a Jewish person in that scenario. Why?

After the Holocaust the world had heard enough about the Jewish suffering. In a way to avoid remembering that the Jews have been, and continue to be persecuted, they changed the reference ever so slightly. Now we have a land, so the media bypasses the word “Jew” and substitutes “Israeli” instead. The term Jew is associated with anti-Semitism while Israeli is not. We must begin to correct ourselves, each other and the media to this injustice. The Arabs who attack us are not attacking Israelis, they are attacking JEWS. Yes of course it is our land, but they attacked us in 1929 when the land was not in our control. In my opinion, the use of the term “Israeli” is a way for the media to avoid recognizing that Jews are being attacked. This labeling has to change.

One of the last Mitzvos in the Torah is read this week in Parshas Vayelech. The Mitzvah of Hakhel, to gather all the Jews and let them come once every seven years after Sukkos to hear sections of the Torah read aloud by the King. The Torah commands in chapter 31 verse 12 “Hakhel es Ha’Am, HaAnashim V’Hanashim, V’Hataf V’Gercha asher bisharecha…… Gather together the people – the men, the women, and the small children, and your stranger who is in your cities etc. The Sefer HaChinuch explains the source and root of this Mitzvah. He says we are commanded to gather together ALL JEWS to listen to the Torah because the Torah is the main connector to our people. It is the Torah that distinguishes us from all the other nations. This Mitzvah serves as a reminder to us that we are all one people, one nation of JEWS. We are Yehudim, not just the residents of a land.

Let the Neshomos, the souls, of Yitzchak Imas, his wife Talia Imas, Kokhava Even-Chaim, and Avishai Shindler – be gathered under the Shechina and rest in peace.
Let the curses and tragedies of this past year end and look forward to a Shana Tova in the coming year of 5771.

Ah Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky

I am now entering into the newest phase of vision change. As I entered into the middle of the fifth decade of my life, I started to notice a change in my ability see written words properly. By now, those of you who are older than I, can relate and figure out why reading started to change. I am at the point in life where my nearsightedness is reversing, ever so slightly. I need to now look and read something from a further distance. It is at this stage of life people usually get bifocals. Bifocals are split lenses where the top is to see far and the bottom lens is to see up close and for reading.

There are other kinds of vision that don’t have anything to do with seeing through the eyes. One such kind is when a person has a vision of something to happen in the future, such as prophecy. Another, and very important type of seeing, is looking at something with a perspective. The Hebrew word for glasses is Mishkafayim and the root of the word is Hashkafa, a philosophy. In the beginning of this week’s parsha, Ki Savo, a person makes a declaration of tithes. At the end he asks G-d to “Hashkifa,” to gaze down from His holy abode and bless the people of Israel. This was a condition to be filled by Hashem if a person tithed properly and fulfilled all of his agricultural requirements according to the Torah. Hashkafa, the outlook or philosophy is really the direction a person takes in life following the Torah.

In the verse, it says Hashem looks down and gazes from the place of holiness. God is looking down from a very high place and therefore has a wide angle lens of the world. Hashem sees the entire picture of the world. Not only does Hashem see it from the limited physical sense, but also from the beginning of time until the end of time. God’s Hashkafa, His way of seeing things, is from a different perspective than anyone else’s. Therefore, when God decides to do something, we may not agree and/or understand it. That’s because we are short or narrow sighted. We don’t have the ability to see something the way Hashem does.

We can draw a similarity between Hashem’s ability to see more than us and the fact that, as we get older, our eyesight changes along with our vision. More than the fact that our physical prescription changes is, the older we get, our perspective of life changes and so does our vision. There is a well known concept that when a person reaches forty years of age they can begin to study Kabbala. Why only when a person reaches forty? The answer is that forty is approximately the age a person has attained enough wisdom for this holy subject. Is it only an age related idea? The answer is no, rather wisdom is attained through study and experience. Life’s experiences are sometimes more valuable than any other method of learning.

So when it comes molding and shaping the direction in our lives it is important to refocus our lenses. We cannot look at today’s situations and apply the same methodology as we used in the past. Today we have so much more information and see things differently. We need to look at the past and see where we want to be in the future. There are times we can give advice to children or warn someone not to do something because we have wisdom, insight and vision due to our past experiences in life. It’s not only the lens that makes us see, rather how we look through them that can and will determine what we see. We place the Tefillin of our head between our eyes on our forehead and not literally between our eyes. The reason is that the eye is ONLY a lens, while it is actually the brain that sees and processes the information. The information has been gathering within us for many years. When a person’s eyesight changes in the middle of life, it’s not the only thing that changes. Their entire vision in how they see the world also changes.

Let us hope and pray that, as we age, not only should the bifocals we wear help us read and write, but that our vision of life should be a greater magnitude.

Ah Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky

Life is an ongoing battle. We fight in many arenas, whether it’s fighting for a job or fighting our Yetzer Hora, the evil inclination. Sometimes we are the aggressor and other times the defender. There is one particular battle that we, here in our city (and I’m sure other communities like ours), fight on an ongoing basis. This is the onslaught of visitors, vacationers, business people and the like who find themselves in San Diego, either for a short or long stay. This occurs throughout the year, Yom Tov, secular holidays, vacation times and/or any other reason people have to be in San Diego. Very often we are called upon to “host” someone who is visiting and or passing through our community.

There are two kinds of people who come through; the “offensive” and the “defensive”. The defensive ones are those who get “stuck” in San Diego for Shabbos. They would like to be home but they either couldn’t get a flight out early enough or their business kept them here over Shabbos. Others are here for personal or medical reasons and are forced to be here for a period of time. It is for those people that the Mitzva of Hachnasas Orchim applies. The Mitzva is to welcome a person as a guest when they are truly in a bind. On the other hand, the people who are coming to San Diego to “vacation” and call up for hospitality do NOT fall in the category of Hachnasas Orchim, of having guests. Someone else’s vacation does not make me liable to host them. It puts an undue pressure on the regular volunteers of hosts and they burn out from the non essential guest. I even asked a Posek (Halachik Decisor) this question and he replied “There is No Mitzva to host people coming to a city for vacation. (I must mention that it is by no means forbidden to host people on vacation). However, no one should feel guilty of not fulfilling the Mitzva of Hachasas Orchim in this case because it does not apply to vacationers.

In addition, one must be very careful when they themselves are the guests looking to be hosted. In the confession of the Chid”a, Rav Azulay mention a sin for someone eating at someone’s table where there is not enough food for the host family. At times the potential host is too embarrassed to say “no” to the request and really does not have enough food.

Finally, in today’s day and age, families are struggling financially, and with soaring food prices, feel pressured in hosting when they really can’t afford it. This is a sin being done by the guest or vacationer seeking out a meal. In this setting of hosting, the person on offense is the guest. In an offensive war there are people who are exempt. The people who are exempt are the local hosts. Only in a defensive war is everyone obligated and it’s those guests who have no choice in being here.

Let us all analyze our state of being whether we are in a defensive or offensive position. To recognize our responsibilities and not to be a burden or an imposition on others causing more harm than good. The battles are great, but with a greater understanding, not only will we win the battle but the war as well.

Ah Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky

As we have already entered into the month of Elul, it feels like time is going faster and faster as we approach Rosh Hashanah. The snowball effect kicks in and time seems to roll along faster and faster. The idea of rushing and doing things quickly can be good and bad. We have to be careful in life as we might get caught up in a frenzy and as things speed up, we can’t see whether it is good for us or not. How in the world are we able to slow down?

The answer lies in the first few words of this week’s Parsha, Parshas Shoftim. The very first verse states “Shoftim V’Shotrim titen lcha bchal sh’arecha, asher Hashem Elokecha nosein lcha lishvatecha vshaftu es Ha’am mishpat tzedek”. Judges and officers shall you appoint in all your cities- which Hashem your God, gives you for your tribes and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

The Torah here is speaking of the physical judicial system that needs to be in place with judges and officers to maintain a peaceful society. In fact one of the seven Noachide laws is to have a system of law and order in all of your dwellings. Police and law enforcement agencies post their people at different strategic locations. Take a speed trap as an example. Not only are the police who are hiding in a speed trap there to catch speeders, but also to slow down the traffic. How often it is I see a police car on the highway and all of a sudden I slow down. The police car is definitely a deterrent against speeding and also to drive with extra care. But besides the physical judges and officers the Torah mentions here, there is another meaning to officers and overseers. Hashem is telling us to post “officers” and “judges” of our own to watch over ourselves. To set up a system whereby we slow down and stop once in a while instead of just running all the time. The Yezer Hora, the evil inclination, keeps us on the go constantly not giving us a chance to think and contemplate our actions. The Torah’s message is for us to set up officers, speed bumps, unmarked cars, traffic signs; anything that will slow us down! Put these signs all over, in your house, at your desk at work, when playing ball, any place and everywhere.
Dovid Hamelech, King David, gave us the obligation to recite one hundred blessings a day. Keep in mind, if a person makes one hundred blessings daily, how often they will think of God and ultimately make a person refocus and slow down to think about life and Hashem.

The advice is strong and necessary as we live in a world that travels like the speed of light. We need to slow down and the only way we can do that is by having subtle reminders to keep us focused on Hashem. It is therefore incumbent upon us all during these last few days of the year to slow down and evaluate the past year. To make a cheshbon Hanefesh, an accounting of our life, in order to repent for anything we may have done wrong and build on all the positive and good things for next year.

Ah Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky

The results: Forty subjects (21 women and 19 men) aged 22 to 71 (mean age, 39.9 years) participated in the study. Significant overall constriction between the visual field isopters plotted during cell phone use, when compared with no cell phone use, was shown. Analysis of individuals with visual symptoms (COVD-QOL score of 20 or greater), were compared with those without visual symptoms (<20 on COVD-QOL). Both groups showed significant visual field constriction with cell phone use. The percentage of constriction was not significantly different between the 2 groups. Subjects with visual symptoms initially measured a more constricted visual field than did the non-visual symptom group. The percentage of constriction of the non-visual symptom group, while using a cell phone, was almost identical to the visual field constriction of the visual symptom group without cell phone use.
The driving-while-listening condition produced a 37 percent decrease in activity of the brain’s parietal lobe, which is associated with driving. This portion of the brain integrates sensory information and is critical for spatial sense and navigation. Activity was also reduced in the occipital lobe, which processes visual information.
Inattention Blindness is summarized to be, “Even when participants [drivers] are directing their gaze at objects in the driving environment, they may fail to ‘see’ them because attention is directed elsewhere.”

I was reviewing the portion of the week R’Ay, which means “See” and it immediately reminded me of vision. R’Ay Anochi Nosein Lifneichem HaYom Bracha U’Klala. See, Behold today I present to you a blessing and a curse. The traditional understanding is if I want life to be a blessing then I will follow and fulfill the Mitzvos. If I choose not to follow the Torah and its ways my life will be filled with curse.
Rebbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk (known as the Kotzker Rebbe) discusses why the verse opens in the singular but concludes in the plural. He says the Torah is given to every person in an equal manner, but every individual sees the depth and width of the Torah through their own insight. Furthermore, in the merit of the entire nation, even the individuals will come to see the proofs of the Torah.

God gives every person blessings and curses throughout their life. Sometimes a curse can be found in the blessing and the blessing can be found in the curse. Other times we aren’t sure as to which the blessing is and which the curse is. Finally, there are situations that a person is receiving a blessing from Hashem but it is being interfered by some other blessing. The person is being blinded (to a certain degree) of the main blessing. Cell phones are a wonderful invention and so is the ability to drive a car. But they don’t work well together and the blessing of one interferes with the other. The lesson of the parsha is to make sure we count each and every blessing that we have. Raising children can be looked at as a curse but then having children is a blessing. Difficult and strained relationships can be viewed as a curse but having relationships is a blessing. The difficulties in life aren’t always bad, they are necessary to bring out the good in every situation, thereby being a blessing in disguise. Sure there will be times that other blessings will interfere with the other. We must SEE every BLESSING in its entirety without being impacted by another blessing and for sure a curse. If we truly appreciate the obvious blessings and some of the hidden blessings and making sure they don’t interfere then we will be choosing a great life to live!

Ah Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky

There are twenty six* bones in the human foot, some in the front, others in the back and some underneath. Some are large and others are small, but they all need to be healthy in order to kick a soccer ball. Each part of the foot affects the ball in terms of direction, speed and accuracy. Depending on what you want to do, whether it’s to pass, shoot, or run with the ball, one has to use a different part of the foot.

This week’s Parsha is Eikev. Rashi explains this to be a reference to the heel of a foot.
Eikev – “on the heel of”, i.e. in consequence of listening to the Mitzvos of the Torah. I would like to offer a few interesting interpretations of the word Eikev used here in relationship to Hashem.

1) The word Eikev is seen as an allusion to Mitzvos that are associated with the heel or foot walking to the study hall or the Shul to pray or to learn. Other Mitzvos associated with the foot are, walking to visit the sick, escorting the dead to their final resting place, travelling to console mourners, etc.
2) It teaches us that the reward one reaps in this world for observance of Mitzvos is very small and of little value as is the heel of man. The major portion of reward is saved for the world to come.
3) A third and perhaps the most well known explanation of the word Eikev is: Heel of the foot alluding to the Mitzvos that are trodden upon and treated lightly.

The last reason is telling us; do not step on those commandments that we feel are not important or have little value. Rather, treat each and all Mitzvos in a special beautiful way by upholding and cherishing them. Regardless of whether we agree with that Mitzvah or not we must still perform the Mitzvah to the greatest of our ability. We, for sure, must stay away from mocking Mitzvos and the Torah. Don’t kick the Torah like a soccer ball with any part of our foot, especially the heel which literally steps and treads upon things.

A certain Rabbi named Horav Swift interprets the verse as a lesson to parents. Children follow the heel, or in the footsteps of their parents. They see and sense their parents’ commitment and take it to heart. Our greatest error is to underestimate our children’s perceptions. On many occasions, we express the hope that children will follow in their parent’s footsteps. We hope that it is an appropriate blessing.

Now that we are warned about the potential greatness and danger of the foot, we can all prepare for the coming of Moshiach. If not we will see you in Brazil in 2014.

Ah Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky

* Some people know the significance of the number 26 in Jewish lore and what it equals to. Thinking about the foot, the lowest part of our body, should humble us before God.

I was caught off guard when asked a basic fundamental question that, in Yeshiva, we really took for granted and did not really ever expect to receive. A person asked me and said: “Rabbi, what do I get for my membership?” Such a profound question floored me and I was totally flustered. This, they surely did not teach us in rabbinical school! Where does one find or even begin to look for the answer to such a question?

So the obvious address was Rabbi Wein, my Rosh HaYeshiva. After all, it was he who trained us for the Rabbinate; he should surely have the answer. After mustering up the courage to ask such a question of, what do people of a Shul get for their membership, he replied without blinking an eye or taking a breath. He said “membership to a Shul entitles you to a place to daven, to pray.” A synagogue/Shul is not the Jewish community center where we have swimming, social events, basketball, and everything secular and nothing religious. To the contrary, a Synagogue is a place of spirituality where we connect emotionally and spiritually to God. We may have some benefits of the social element at times such as during Kiddush and shalosh seudos. We also cater with activities and programs for the young and old, but that is not the main objective of a Shul. A Shul is a place to daven and pray that connects us with our creator.

There are more than fifteen Hebrew words that describe prayer. One of them is from the beginning of our parsha. The name of our Parsha this week is Va’Eschanan. The parsha begins chapter 3 verse 23: “Va’Eschanan El Hashem . . .” – and Moshe implored God to let him enter into Eretz Yisrael. A derivation of the word Va’Eschanan is chinoon, which comes from the word free. The sages tell us that Moshe was asking for a Matnas Chinam, a free gift, something that is above and beyond what he deserved. There is a storehouse waiting for us to pick up the “free gifts” and in order to receive them all we need to do is ask.

Moshe Rabbeinu is teaching us what membership entitles us to. We gather together in a Beit HaKnesset, to daven and ask Hashem for those precious things that we need, even if we don’t deserve them. One would ask, “If we don’t deserve them then why would God give it to us?” The answer lies in the word VaEschanan, whose numerical value equals five-hundred fifteen, which are the number of times that Moshe recited this prayer in order to go into Israel. Hashem told Moshe to stop and not ask even one more time, otherwise He would have to give in to Moshe and grant his request. We therefore see that our Tefillos will be answered by asking repeatedly over and over again. And even if we do not deserve that which we ask for, God should grant us our request.

Let us realize what a synagogue IS and what it IS NOT, by looking forward to come to Shul to daven and pray; not only to socialize and have a fun time.

Ah Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky

I was able to treat the bird by giving him a warm bath every morning and soothing his feet with Vaseline. Within a few days his feet were back to normal but during the illness he lost two nails and they will hopefully grow back. The bigger issue was the beak. The mites have gotten onto the beak as well and therefore Spunky had stopped trimming and filing his beak. (Remarkably, birds and most animals take care of themselves). Since he wasn’t filing it down it kept growing like our nails do. One major problem was that birds use their beaks to climb and swoop up their food and in combined action with their lower beak, crack the seeds and grab the food with their tongue and discard the shells. I now have to wait and see if he can still eat despite the beak being overgrown and out of shape. If he cannot eat, then the question will be do we take the bird for some expensive treatment or just let it be. Finally, the sound of his chirping is altered due to the over growth of his beak.

I now began to realize the importance of how perfect Hashem makes something and how easy it is to mess it up. We are also blessed with our own type of beaks and that is our mouth. This week’s Torah portion begins with “Eileh HaDevarim asher Deeber Moshe…” These are the words that Moshe spoke. The coincidence of the birds mouth problem and Moshe “speaking” to the Jewish people and reminding them of all their sins that they committed in the desert by not mentioning the sins themselves but rather the places they occurred. Moshe wanted to be careful not to speak in such a harsh way and embarrass the people, and therefore chose a more delicate method of rebuke. Parshas Devorim is almost always read the Shabbos before Tisha B’Av the ninth day of Av. We are all aware that the second temple was destroyed because of sinas chinam, unwarranted hatred amongst the Jews. Sinas chinam is fueled by lashon hara, evil speech.

Unfortunately, we don’t realize that as we speak negatively against our fellow Jew, our beaks start to become deformed. Our mouth piece starts to lose its original beauty and shape. We need to constantly trim and refine our lips, tongue and even clean our teeth in order that only nice things about others are said. If we don’t take care of it and work on it then we forget about how it is even supposed to look and what its function ought to be.

When the Torah says about Moshe Rabbeinu “These are the Words that Moshe spoke” it is not only directed to the context of his rebuke, but also to the actual WORDS. These words are a reflection of the entire Torah, the words of the Torah must be spoken in a special holy manner.

Remember when we speak what it can do to our mouths and face. If we speak evil then the parasites affix themselves to our mouths and face and disfigure it and it forces us to continually speak evil. We must rather clean it, sharpen it and keep it healthy so that only Lashon Tov, good speech is formed and not Lashon Hara. Of all the days of the year to take care of our beaks, oops I meant our mouths it should be during these nine days and hopefully our words will be able to build the temple one brick at a time and be able to rejoice in the building of the third Temple speedily in our day.

Ah Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky
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