This week’s Torah portion is Noach. This is the perfect time to again publicize the sheva mitzvahs Bnei Noach.

The following 7 commandments (sheva mitzvahs Bnei Noach) were given to Noah by God for all humankind to keep. The Jewish nation was given 613 commandments at the time of the giving of the Torah but the non Jewish nations have the following 7 Noachide laws to keep in order to insure that they will be righteous, moral people:

God created man in His image. This means many things. But we know, as Chassidus teaches, the Kingdom of earth reflects the kingdom of Heaven.   The fact that we have a desire to connect and marry, is because God has the same desire albeit in a somewhat different way. He created us, the Jewish nation, to be His wife. Does God really desire companionship?

Why is it so many of us build our self esteem around food?  Or we tend to build an identity around food? “I am vegan”, “I am vegetarian”, “I eat paleo”, “I am gluten free”, “I am fat so I feel ugly”, or “I am skinny, I feel so beautiful”. 

A major problem in society today is that we lack “kabbolos ol”, meaning accepting the yoke of Torah without questioning and simply because these are the commandments of the Creator. People today try to justify being lax in many areas, somehow imagining that we have the right or option to decide what things we want to observe and what things we do not.  This is because people no longer have that attitude of subservience, humility and kabbolos ol that characterized previous generations.

There is a danger lurking in almost every home these days which is wreaking havoc on families, children, relationships etc.  This danger is social media!  Yes, I know it has many benefits to it and if used correctly, it can certainly be useful . In fact, when Moshiach comes I am sure it will get announced around the world in about two seconds due to social media!

Feeling like you are nothing can be either positive or negative.

The negative concept is when you feel you are good for nothing and basically useless.  Nobody wants to feel like they are nothing or worth nothing.

Yesterday I saw an interview with an orthodox Rabbi and a woman who was from the conservative/reform movement. She was literally shouting because the Rabbi (and in general the orthodox Jews) were trying to stand up for Torah and implement proper conduct at the hoy western wall (the Kotel).

We can never attempt to find a reason for a tragedy. Reasons are known only to the Creator of the world.

Does anything change with a new Prime Minister in Israel?  The political dynamics might….but our goal to bring Moshiach does not change.   We are not impressed with politics. We are not impressed with the formation of a new government in Israel (especially a far left leaning govt which capitulates on matters of importance for security).

On a subconscious level, everyone senses that something is not right in the world. This is not the world that the Creator envisioned when He created it.  This is not the perfection of the world.  We all know that when Moshiach comes the world will reach its true level of perfection. The fact that Moshiach is not here yet creates anxiety, but in reality, that anxiety is the only healthy form of anxiety to have.