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Be Fruitful and Multiply

Practical Parshah—Bereishit

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Be Fruitful and Multiply: Practical Parshah—Bereishit

In the first portion of the Torah, Adam and Eve receive the commandment to “be fruitful and multiply.” What are the parameters of this mitzvah today?
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Topics: Parshah, Peru U'revu, Bereishit
By Mendel Kaplan
Rabbi Mendel Kaplan is the Spiritual Leader and Executive Director of Chabad Flamingo in Thornhill, Ontario, serving one of Canada’s most dynamic Jewish communities. He also serves as Chaplain of the York Regional Police Service. He is an active member of Toronto’s Vaad HaRabbanim (Council of Orthodox Rabbis), and a voting member of the COR Kashruth Council of Canada’s executive rabbinical board. Rabbi Kaplan is featured regularly on many local television and radio shows. He is a sought after speaker, with hundreds of lectures on Chabad.org. He and his wife, Faygie, are blessed with eight children. Artistically endowed, the rabbi enjoys drawing, sketching and creating charcoal portraits.
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Shimon Israel January 19, 2025

When Judah's sons refused to do this mitzvah Gd made Tamar and Judah do something out of character just to make sure the line continued. She tried to keep the mitzvah and wasn’t allowed because her husband wanted to keep her beautiful. Gd killed her husbandsfor that evil toward her and His commands. Reply

Michael Ben Tzvi Buenos Aires August 9, 2014

What if What if the man asks the woman to marry him but she refuses? The man could say he tried to make the mitzvah but he couldn't... is he exempt from the precept when he is rejected? Reply

ruth housman marshfield hills, ma October 16, 2012

thank you izzY Hi, I appreciate what you wrote (above).

it's funny about Living Proof, which I see I wrote in the October 11 comment. Why? because strangely, this morning I got a message from a company called Living Proof, based in Cambridge MA saying Jennifer Anniston has joined the company... the actress.

I had written to them, without response, that long ago, I had dipped in the Dead Sea in Israel, and for the first and only time in my entire life, my hair, which dried on the spot, was straight! We're talking about a frizzy lizzy, who has always been teased about her hair. So I would remember. I told these folks to investigate the products of the Dead Sea. I mean, it worked, for me! That was, the "mane" thing.

Maybe, bottle this. Then add Sun for instant dry. You never know. Ahava, meaning LOVE, deals with products from The Dead Sea. Israel has amazing resources!!! Reply

izzY October 12, 2012

thanks rabbi and nice comments ruth ruth you write very poetically. Reply

Anonymous October 11, 2012

Great Shiur - thanks Is the mitzva fulfilled if one only has boys?

Thanks Reply

ruth housman marshfield hills, ma October 11, 2012

sequel to comment They are intelligent but none of them has ever written a thesis.

The "hidden" face of G_d is just this, because what I am seeing, hearing, learning has to do with the thesis of a unity to all Creation, and that the heart of poetry itself is deeply drawn from the metaphoric, beautiful and ongoing connectivity with Nature, with the ANIMA, the soul, that permeates the world of sensate life, the animals, the fish, the mammals, Earth itself.

As ruth is to urth, in the deconstruction of the letters, so it is, a story G_d wrote, that deeply goes back to The Book of Ruth, and it's a story that does involve the deepest interpretation of text, as in The Orchard, as in PARDES. Reply

ruth housman marshfield hills, ma October 11, 2012

the first mitzvah there are many intelligences! must then be very important. Since I look at words, and am gifted a deep and ongoing story about LOVE, then we must in all ways, pay attention to these words. I wrote to Chabad about giving, and this does relate in deep ways to this particular mitzvah. Be fruitful and multiply.

this story is very much, about LOVE and must be.

How do you give a command to birds?

I communicate with them, and they come to me, and I can say, that G_d is in the wings, in every possible way. We need to take a jump, into a new way of seeing, and I am saying the keys are in the words.

The Divine image of G_d is within ALL CREATION. How do I know? It could be, Divine Providence has gifted me, one of the most amazing stories ever told, and I did not write this story.

It's what we call, Living Proof.

We are moving into a new state of consciousness.

The ARK is about this, as in Noah, the animals coming two by two, and the ARC of story, the architecture of soul itself.

PARDES: to pull the veils! Reply

The Practical Parshah
Each week, Rabbi Mendel Kaplan will delve into that week's Torah reading to bring out a practical lesson for life and explain the Biblical sources for the customs, laws, practices and ethics of our people.
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