Thursday, 28 November 2024

Shabbos Tzetl: Toldot & Mevarchim Kislev

6:58pm - Early candle lighting
8:07pm - Candle Lighting, Friday
9:12pm - Havdalah, Saturday
(Melbourne Australia)
Eruv Status: TBA cosv.org.au/eruv/
Good Shabbos!

This Shabbat is Shabbat Mevarchim ("the Shabbat that blesses" the new month): a special prayer is recited blessing the Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the Month") of the upcoming month of Kislev, which falls on Sunday and Monday of next week.

Prior to the blessing, we announce the precise time of the molad, the "birth" of the new moon. See molad times.


Please click here to view the Yeshivah Shule Tzetel for Shabbos Mevorchim Kislev, Parshas Toldos. Please click here to view the PDFs of Weekly Publications.


LAMPLIGHTER

ZICHRON YAAKOV

PARSHAH IN A NUTSHELL
Genesis 25:19–28:9
The name of the Parshah, "Toldot," means "Generations" and it is found in Genesis 25:19.

Isaac and Rebecca endure twenty childless years, until their prayers are answered and Rebecca conceives. She experiences a difficult pregnancy as the "children struggle inside her"; G‑d tells her that "there are two nations in your womb," and that the younger will prevail over the elder.

Esau emerges first; Jacob is born clutching Esau's heel. Esau grows up to be "a cunning hunter, a man of the field"; Jacob is "a wholesome man," a dweller in the tents of learning. Isaac favors Esau; Rebecca loves Jacob. Returning exhausted and hungry from the hunt one day, Esau sells his birthright (his rights as the firstborn) to Jacob for a pot of red lentil stew.

In Gerar, in the land of the Philistines, Isaac presents Rebecca as his sister, out of fear that he will be killed by someone coveting her beauty. He farms the land, reopens the wells dug by his father Abraham, and digs a series of his own wells: over the first two there is strife with the Philistines, but the waters of the third well are enjoyed in tranquility.

Esau marries two Hittite women. Isaac grows old and blind, and expresses his desire to bless Esau before he dies. While Esau goes off to hunt for his father's favorite food, Rebecca dresses Jacob in Esau's clothes, covers his arms and neck with goatskins to simulate the feel of his hairier brother, prepares a similar dish, and sends Jacob to his father. Jacob receives his father's blessings for "the dew of the heaven and the fat of the land" and mastery over his brother. When Esau returns and the deception is revealed, all Isaac can do for his weeping son is to predict that he will live by his sword, and that when Jacob falters, the younger brother will forfeit his supremacy over the elder.

Jacob leaves home for Charan to flee Esau's wrath and to find a wife in the family of his mother's brother, Laban. Esau marries a third wife—Machalath, the daughter of Ishmael.


HAFTORAH IN A NUTSHELL
I Samuel 20:18-42
Special Haftorah for Machar Chodesh

David, King Saul's son-in-law, fears that his father-in-law views him as competition for his throne, and wishes to have him killed. David enlists his dear friend Jonathan, Saul's son, to ascertain whether indeed Saul has such evil designs. Together they devise a plan, according to which David will be absent from the monthly new moon feast hosted by Saul. At this feast, Jonathan will discover Saul's true intentions with regards to David. Jonathan and David will then rendezvous at a predetermined meeting point where Jonathan will convey to David whether he should return to the royal household or flee.

When everyone is seated at the royal feast, the king notices David's absence and asks Jonathan for his whereabouts. When told that he has gone to Bethlehem to be with his family, the king becomes furious, telling Jonathan to fetch David as he is condemned to death. "And Jonathan knew that it had been decided upon by his father to put David to death."

Jonathan leaves the royal table in anger. The next morning he travels to David's hiding place and the two separate amidst an emotional farewell, promising each other eternal devotion and friendship.


SAGES ON THE PARSHAH

There are children who are embarrassed of their parents, and there are parents who are embarrassed by their children. With Abraham and Isaac it wasn't like that: Isaac prided himself in that he was "Isaac the son of Abraham," and Abraham prided himself in that "Abraham fathered Isaac."

(Midrash Tanchuma; Midrash HaGadol)

https://w2.chabad.org/media/pdf/46814.pdf



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