Welcome to the short, practical Lelamed Weekly Dvar and Daily Aliyah. As we all struggle to process the evil around us, let us focus on the blessing of having each other to get through these times, and please reach out if you need help or just someone to talk to. As always, you can Order The Daily Aliyah <https://mosaicapress.com/product/the-daily-aliyah/> and receive your hard copy of these daily practical and relevant Torah thoughts, or join this Whatsapp group <https://chat.whatsapp.com/DnAFialrvmy6hNahBkU61F> to receive one per day. I hope you connect with this relevant thought... _______________________________________________ Welcome to the short, practical Lelamed Weekly Dvar (and Daily Aliyah). I share with you the following two links: 1) Order The Daily Aliyah <https://mosaicapress.com/product/the-daily-aliyah/> and receive your hard copy of these daily practical and relevant Torah thoughts (full and pocket-size versions will eventually be available)!! All proceeds will go to Daily Giving. Speaking of Daily Giving... 2) Join Daily Giving <https://beadailygiver.com/22016>, donate $1/day, and join a community of givers who collectively make a HUGE impact on so many worthy Jewish causes. _______________________________________________ As we begin Bereishit, after recounting creation and Adam and Chava’s sin of eating from the forbidden tree, life seemingly settles down for Adam and Chava. Adam goes off to work, they have two children, and after a mere six pessukim (verses), their world is rocked by one child’s (Cain) killing the other (Abel) (4:8). How do Adam and Chava make sense of what happened, and how do they (and we) move forward after tragedy? The Midrash relates that Adam and Chava wept by Abel’s body, not knowing what to do until they saw a raven burying its dead in the ground, which they decided to mimic. The irony was that the raven is typically cruel to its young, yet it buried a dead bird, an act of absolute kindness that cannot be repaid. Rabbi Menachem Feldman (www.chabad.org) explains that this loving kindness is the proper response to senseless evil. The appropriate response to cruelty is love, something that comforted Adam and Chava and can bring us closer to G-d, and each other, today. We all have within us the greatest power there is: the power to be kind. Shlomo Ressler _____________________________________________ Quotation of the week: "Wear your tragedies as armor, not shackles."