Letter to the Editor: A Wise And Helpful Parshah

The Jewish Advocate

July 18, 2008

By Stan Fleischman, Boston Chapter

I found Grand Rabbi Korff’s dvar Torah on Parashat Chukas in your July 4 issue, which he titled “Talking to a rock,” extremely enlightening.

This parshah relates that Moshe wasn’t allowed to enter the promised land because he struck the rock to obtain water for the people of Israel wandering through the desert rather than speaking to it, as God had commanded him. Rabbi Korff concludes with the following lesson: “Even when we feel as if we would be speaking to a rock, that does not excuse us from doing so in the first instance” (before possibly striking it).

It would be wonderful if the authors of the numerous opinion pieces and letters that regularly appear in the pages of The Jewish Advocate asserting that it is a waste of time for Israelis to talk peace with Palestinians would take to heart this wise message from the Rebbe.