ב"ה
Have you ever closed a deal, celebrated your marriage (or its anniversary),
or simply spent time with a good friend--without eating something together? When
you think of home, is it not in your taste buds that the most elemental memories
reside?Why do our teeth, gullet and stomach figure so prominently in who, how, where and with whom we are?
Leviticus 9:1-11:47 Torah Reading for Week of April 15-21, 2001 
In this week's Parshah: The Eighth Dimension... Death by Divine Kiss... Truth
vs. Peace... What is morality?... plus simple things like what to eat and when not to get drunk.The Parshah in a Nutshell Full Parshah Summary with Commentary More on the Parshah from the Chassidic masters
Once the two coexist side by side in our minds, the world falls into chaos.
Where there is beauty, there is pain, where there is love there is selfishness.
In the most pristine palace of holiness in this world, the closets are filled
with skeletons. And in the deepest cavern of depravity, the most sublime souls
are held captive.In this swamp of confusion, darkness becomes evil, for it entraps the light. When we tug to fissure their bond, an iron resistance opposes us. In the final release, a burst of energy shakes the cosmos.
I stood between the train cars, wind blowing in my hair, watching the Mexican
countryside flash by. In twelve more hours, my wife and two children and I would get off the train, ride a bus
for several hours, and then take a boat to a place where no one knew us. The palm-thatched palapa in which we would
live cost $150 per year. I would live off the land with my hands, my machete,
and a crude, Mexican-made fishing device to supply most of our food.I was free!
They led me to a large chamber in which some fifteen persons sat along both
sides of a long table. At the head of the table sat another two, and I was
seated opposite them at the foot of the table. In addition to the arms which
they all wore on their belts, a revolver lay on the table before each of the
assembled.One of those seated at the head of the table addressed me: "We are the members of the Party's Committee to Investigate Religions, now occupied in investigating the Jewish religion. We have various questions. We have already summoned Rabbi Berman and Rabbi Goldenberg - we asked what we asked and they answered what they answered. Now we have summoned Rabbi Schneerson to resolve certain issues pertaining to Kabbalah and Chassidisim."
Do we? Does G-d? No and yes. We may find, however, when we begin to reveal
ourselves more deeply, that a new "companion" is sitting next to us at one of
those unending committee meetings.
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 The Parshah in a Nutshell
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