Here’s a thought:
It all goes back to the very first Friday of history when Adam and Eve were created in the afternoon. On that first day, they were commanded that until nightfall they were not to eat from the fruit of one tree, the Tree of Knowledge. The mystics teach that the fruit of this tree were grapes, a fruit that contains the potential for great good and great evil. Over a glass of wine relationships are made and lost, lives are enhanced and destroyed, hopes are created and dashed. It is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eating from the tree was only prohibited until nightfall that day. Once Shabbos came in, they were allowed to eat from the fruit. But they did not wait. We correct this mistake each Friday night by making Kiddush over wine or grape juice. It reminds us that we can only truly enjoy the pleasures of this world if we can also defer our enjoyment. If you can wait, then you are the master of your desires. However, if you can't, then you are slave to them. The key to being a worthy person is the ability to control yourself. It starts with the way we eat, and extends to every choice we make. It lifts us above our base desires and empowers us to be masters over ourselves and reach for a higher calling. Menachem Mendel Bluming and Rabbi Moss taken from Shach al Hatorah, quoted in Likkutei Torah Kedoshim 29a
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AuthorRabbi Mendel Bluming also dedicated six years to serving on the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, where he received the Matthew H. Simon Rabbinical Award for exceptional communal leadership. Archives
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