In loving memory of our beloved father

Isaac ben Moshe – יצחק בן משה ז״ל

29 Av 5744 • כ״ט אב תשמ״ד

Every nation has its capital—a centre of government, a seat of power, the place where its history, identity and aspirations converge.

Yet Jerusalem was never intended to be merely Israel’s capital.

Long before Jerusalem became Israel’s royal city, it had already been chosen for something far greater—the meeting place of Heaven and earth, where an entire nation would discover that true joy is found not in what we possess, but in standing together before Hashem.

Throughout Parashat Re’eh, one phrase echoes with remarkable insistence:

הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר ה׳ The place that Hashem will choose. (Deuteronomy 12)

Not many places, but one place. Nowhere else in the Torah does a parashah return to a single phrase so often.

The Sifrei explains that before Israel entered the Land, private altars (bamot) were permitted. But from the time Hashem chose His dwelling place, every tribe, wherever it dwelt, turned towards the one place He had chosen.

This........

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