GOOD MORNING! This past week and a half I accompanied 800 of my closest friends on the Greater Miami Jewish Federation “Mission” to Israel. The GMJF has always taken a leadership role in supporting the State of Israel, and this year managed to organize the world’s largest delegation attending the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of Israel. I was asked to come as one of the rabbinical representatives.

As I walked with my good friend David Smith towards the opening event on Thursday, he related one of the more unique ideas that had been discussed at his family’s Passover Seder. “One of the questions of the ma nishtana is; why do we dip twice on this night while on all other nights we don’t even dip once?” We dip the karpas (traditionally, parsley, celery, or potato) into salt water – representing the tears of the slaves in Egypt – and we dip the bitter herb in charoset (traditionally, apples, walnuts, cinnamon, and sweet wine) – representing the mortar the slaves were forced to make.

David pointed out that it’s not technically true that on other nights we don’t dip. In fact, on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, we also dip twice (we dip the challah into honey and then later we dip the apple into honey – both representing that we are requesting from the Almighty a sweet new year). So why is it that we ask this question on Passover but not on Rosh Hashanah?

While there are several probable answers to his question, I absolutely loved his approach. David answered that on Passover the salt water (representing tears) and the charoset (representing the mortar of the bitter slavery) are both items that are naturally going to bother someone. When things aren’t going well or we are suffering we all ask; why is this happening to me?

On the other hand, when things are well and life is sweet and full of blessings nobody bothers to ask the question, “Why are all these wonderful things happening to me?” In other words, we all feel that we deserve good things, thus we never question why God is sending us such amazing blessings. That’s why no one asks the question as to why we dip twice on Rosh Hashanah.

Everything that occurs to us is a message from the Almighty. We just need to internalize what is being communicated and make the effort to understand the message. Rabbi Kalman Packouz, of blessed memory, was a paragon of this ideal; seldom did anything transpire in his life that he didn’t ask, “What is the Almighty trying to tell me?” But with our busy and distracted lives this concept is often ignored.

There is no word in Hebrew for coincidence. The reason for this is that we don’t believe in coincidences. The very definition of coincidence (“a remarkable concurrence of events that have no apparent causal connection with one another”) seems to imply that things happen by chance. This is antithetical to Judaism, because living in a theocentric universe means understanding that there is intelligent design and that everything has meaning for us and that nothing happens by chance. In Hebrew, this is known as hashgocha pratis – specific divine providence.

Israel is such a special place on so many levels; things regularly happen there that reinforce the feeling that the Almighty is manifest in our lives. In truth, the universe is always speaking to us – but we need to be tuned in to the right channel and paying attention. However, being in Israel seems to naturally attune us to this reality and this special connection, which is so palpable in Israel, making it seem as if the universe is speaking directly to you. It is hard to ignore.

I had a unique experience there; though, to be perfectly honest, I have not yet totally discerned the meaning of it.

A couple of weeks before the “mission” I received a call from another good friend, Chaim “Jimmy” Saka. Growing up together in Miami Beach we went to different schools but we got to know one another through our Sunday morning basketball games at Muss park. As we got older we bonded through our mutual interest in praying early in the day, and for many years we prayed together daily at my school’s sunrise service.

Jimmy wanted to know what I thought about him joining the “mission” and whether it was too late to join. I told him that he might find it really meaningful and that it was not too late, as well as who he should contact to make arrangements. Jimmy called me back to tell me that he was joining and he and I made plans to go together every day and pray at the sunrise service in the old city.

On Friday – our first outing together – during the cab ride back to our hotel, he told me that on his plane to Israel he met Rabbi Efrem Goldberg who had come to pay a shiva call (visit to those in mourning) to the bereaved Dee family. The Dee family had suffered the nearly incomprehensible loss of a mother and two daughters in a calamitous terrorist attack a week and a half prior. The details of the attack are too heartbreaking to recount, but they are readily available online for anyone who wants to get a glimpse into the horrors and pure evil that caused the shattering of a family.

Jimmy told me that Rabbi Efrem Goldberg had heard the father – Rabbi Leo Dee – mention that he was an avid listener of Rabbi Goldberg’s classes (they are available on YouTube and via his podcast; “Behind the Bima,” and I highly recommend them) and that Rabbi Goldberg’s classes on emunah (“faith”) were helping him get through this tragedy. It was for this reason that Rabbi Goldberg felt compelled to pay a shiva visit and offer his condolences, sympathies, and try to comfort the bereaved.

The next day, on Shabbat, I went to the afternoon Mincha prayer service at my hotel. It was an early afternoon service and there were only a handful of people there. I was one of the first to arrive and shortly thereafter a grandfather, father, and son came to join the service. As we sat there waiting for a quorum the father turned to me and asked where I was from. I mentioned I was from South Florida.

“Do you know Rabbi Efrem Goldberg?” He asked. I told him that I did. He then came over and relayed his conversation with Rabbi Goldberg. He told me that he had asked Rabbi Goldberg when he was moving to Israel and that Rabbi Goldberg told him that he was planning on it eventually and the he was hoping to get some families to come with him. He told me that he shared with Rabbi Goldberg that he felt that America is in a terrible downward spiral and that everyone needs to move to Israel as soon as possible.

It was at this point that I realized that the person I was talking to was none other than Rabbi Leo Dee himself. Of course I had heard of the Dee family tragedy, but I had not seen any of the pictures accompanying the news articles and I had therefore failed to recognize him right away. This realization was confirmed shortly thereafter when both he and his son began reciting the kaddish memorial prayer at the end of the afternoon prayers.

As I began to turn over the events in my mind I was thunderstruck by the fact that even though this remarkable man had suffered the most incomprehensible loss of his wife and two daughters in the last week and a half, he mentioned nothing other than his admonition to Rabbi Goldberg that people need to move to Israel immediately. There was no mention of his terrible loss or any of the surrounding circumstances, nor how he came to meet Rabbi Goldberg.

In fact, he didn’t even introduce himself. Anyone who read the many news stories related to this incident should be humbled by the absolute piety of this man. His illuminating perspective on the killings, the murderers, and the situation in Israel in general, are almost not to be believed. If you have not seen any of his interviews, you really should; it will absolutely restore your faith in humanity.

He had moved his family to Israel from the U.K. about ten years ago and had just endured the worst possible nightmare and consequence of that action. Yet his only words to me and Rabbi Goldberg were not of sadness and regret; quite the opposite – he was passionately trying to convince others of the importance of living in the land of Israel!

I then marveled at the seemingly unrelated chain of events that had to have occurred to put this remarkable “chance” meeting of Rabbi Dee into context. My friend Jimmy had belatedly decided to join the mission; on the plane he “happened” to meet Rabbi Goldberg who explained why he was traveling to Israel; we had decided to pray together at the sunrise service and share a cab back in which he told me of his chance encounter with Rabbi Goldberg and his reason for traveling to Israel.

All of these occurrences had to have taken place in that specific order for me to understand the significance of who I was speaking with on that Shabbat afternoon. But knowing that you are receiving a message and understanding what the message really means is not the same thing. Still, the realization that you need to work on understanding the message is what’s most important.

Like my friend David Smith pointed out, we have to look at everything that happens to us – whether we see it as a blessing or not – and appreciate that we are getting exactly what the Almighty wants us to have at this moment. Messages from above work the same way.

Emor, Leviticus 21:1 – 24:24

This week's portion sets forth the standards of purity and perfection for a Cohen; specifies the physical requirements of sacrifices and what is to be done with blemished offerings; proclaims as holidays the Shabbat, Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot.

It reminds the Jewish people to provide pure olive oil for the Menorah and designates the details of the Showbread (two stacks of 6 loaves each, which were placed on the table in the portable sanctuary and later in the Temple once a week upon Shabbat).

The portion ends with the interesting story of a man who blasphemed God’s name with a curse. What should be the penalty for this transgression? Curious? Leviticus 24:14