Blog Archive

About Me

Rabbi Chaim Coffman
Rabbi Coffman has helped people from all across the spectrum to prepare themselves properly for Orthodox Conversion to Judaism. His students admire his vast knowledge and appreciate his warm, personal attention and endearing sense of humor.
View my complete profile

Followers

Welcome to Rabbi Chaim Coffman's Blog!

I would like to thank you for visiting my blog, Beyond Orthodox Conversion to Judaism.

The conversion process can be a lengthy and daunting one to say the least and I want you to know that I am here to help you through it.

I have been teaching newcomers to Judaism for over a decade and over the last few years I have seen that conversion candidates really lack the support and knowledge they need to navigate the conversion process and successfully integrate into the Orthodox Jewish community.

I created my mentorship program in order to help make this whole experience as smooth and as painless as possible! (Can't do much about the growing pains, though ;)

Feel free to get to know me a little through the posts on my blog and visit the mentorship and syllabus page if you are interested in possible joining us.

I sincerely wish you all the best in your search for truth and spiritual growth.

Looking forward to meeting you,
Chaim Coffman

My Rebbe, Rav Moshe Sternbuch

In case you were wondering why I have all of these articles written by Rav Moshe Sternbuch, he is my Rebbe, and one of the gedolei hador (greatest Rabbis of our generation).

Rav Sternbuch fully endorses me and supports my mentorship program.

He is the address for all of my halachic or hashkafic (practical and philosophical) questions that I or my students may have.

The articles are based on his weekly talks on the Torah portion that the Rav gives in Jerusalem in his kollel. As a member of the kollel I get first dibbs on the photocopies and I type them up for my blog so you can all benefit from the Rav's erudition and insight.
Thursday, October 29, 2015

Parshas Vaera: This is where the Messiah Comes from?

"And the first born said to younger: "Our father is old, and thee is not a an in the earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth: come let us make our fahter drink wine and we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father". (Genesis 19:31-32).

After the destruction of Sedom the daughters of Lot thought that everything was destroyed and there were no men left. Knowing that neither of them had children, they decide to sleep with their father so that the world would continue. We could ask, why didn't they just travel and see if there were other inhabitants? Not only that but one of the children is called Moav whereby Ruth comes out from him many generations later and she is the harbinger of king David five generations later! This absolutely boggles the mind that this is where kingship and the future messiah will come from!

The lack of foresight and understanding of the daughters is incredible. It seems from here that instead of traveling and seeing what the truth of the matter was they would rather get their father drunk, sleep with him and have kids that way. We could look at it though that they truly thought that the world had been destroyed and it was their obligation to have children so the world would be populated even if that meant that they had to sleep with their father.

It could be for this selfless act they merited that the future king of the Jewish people and the messiah who would redeem the Jewish people from their exile! Normally we would think that any discussion of a future king or redeemer would come from the best stock, richest family...but lo and behold he is descended from an incestuous relationship. How can we understand this better?

When the Torah speaks about the people who helped form the Jewish people, it makes clear that even at their high spiritual level, they are somewhat flawed and not perfect. We do see how a person certainly can raise themselves to a higher spiritual level regardless of who their family is!


At the same time time, the ways of G-d are hidden and we humans cannot fathom how He runs the world. It does not mean we have to sit back and just take things as they are but we have to delve into them and try and understand them to the best of our ability.

This can lead us to a tremendous amount of humility knowing that there are things that are beyond our comprehension. At the same time there is an obligation to believe in Him, not just with a leap of faith but through knowledge. This is a major thing that distinguishes the Jewish people from other so called religions!

The difficult part is seeing the chaos in the world and trying to make sense of it. As my rebbe told me if you are happy with the way G-d runs the world 95% of the time the 5% you don't understand you won't understand in 10 lifetimes. You still have an obligation to serve Him even if we don't understand His ways.

In these days before the messiah comes, let us work on our belief in Him and let Him run the world the way He needs to while we serve Him still!

Shabbat Shalom

0 comments: