A Congregation Toras Chaim Shabbaton with Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Poupko of Jerusalem, Shabbos Parshas Pinchas, July 14, 2012. All adults are welcome.
Friday Night
- 7:00 PM Davening/15 min speech: T’shuva: Reparations or Relationship? Moshe’s audacious attempt to secure a privileged position for the Jewish People in the immediate aftermath of the Golden Calf disaster reconciles seemingly contradictory Halachos in the Rambam’s Hilchos T’shuva.
Shabbos Day
- 8:30 AM Shabbos Morning Davening/Kiddush/Speech: A Tiny Book from the Great Beyond. Two psukim, Vy’hi Binso’a Ha’Aron & uVenucho Yomar , (Bamidbar 10, 35-36) , stand apart from the other Books of the Torah & constitute a book unto itself. This talk addresses the distinctiveness of those eighty-five letters in context of the transition  from the era of Moshe’s leadership to the era Yehoshua’s and offers a fresh view of the puzzling tragedy of the spies (M’raglim).
- 6:50 PM  Speech: Learning Lishma & Living with Lavan. With the help of R’ Tzadok of Lublin we can understand the Talmudic dictum to avoid perfectionist paralysis and do the right thing without waiting to achieve purity of motivation. One of the greatest Chassidic thinkers of recent times teaches us to achieve that purity by renouncing self-absorption and choosing self-elevation.
- 7:50 PM Mincha/Shalosh Seudos/Speech: End of the Year & the End of Days. Our holidays include days of  judgement & times of jubilation. This talk considers the confluence of the two, starting with Yaakov Avinu’s Succos and culminating with Zecharia’s.
Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Poupko
Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Poupko was ordained by Yeshivath Ner Israel where he earned his Master’s Degree in Talmudic Law in 1969. He continued his post-semicha studies in the famed “Kodshim Chabura†of Beth Midrash Govoha of Lakewood where he held a select graduate instructorship in Jewish philosophy. He founded the Talmudic College of Florida and served as its associate dean until his aliya in 1977. In Israel he served as dean of Yeshivat Ohr Torah in Efrat. In 1986 Rabbi Poupko founded Kneseth Beth Eliezer , a yeshiva training students with a backround in public and organizational life for the rabbinate and offering programs for laymen as well.
As a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces Rabbi Poupko served as a non-commissioned Officer in Lebanon, Gaza and the Golan Heights. He lectured for over seven years in the IDF Officers’ Institute and has been cited for excellence in this capacity. He has also taught in various programs offered to students at the Overseas Program at the Hebrew University and at the Bnai Brith Hillel House on Mount Scopus at the University. In Israel, Rabbi Poupko’s weekly Biblical commentary is broadcast on Israel National Radio. A lecture of his , delivered at the Van Leer Institute, was included in an anthology of contemporary Israeli thought published by Yediot Achronot. Articles of his on Talmud and Jewish philosophy have also appeared in the Hadarom scholarly journal.
He has served as scholar-in-residence at the Marble Arch Synagogue of London, the Cape Town Hebrew Synagogue (S.A.) and the Young Israel Congregations of Woodmere, West Hempstead, Edison N.J. and the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue of Manhattan, Shevet Achim of Seattle , as well as at other synagogues in America and the U.K. Rabbi Poupko also represented the Orthodox Union in its debate with the leadership of Israel’s Reform movement and was twice selected by the Supreme Court of Queens (N.Y.) to lecture the judges’ weekly study group.
Rabbi Poupko currently lectures on Jewish Philosophy at the Orthodox Union’s Israel Center, where he serves as a rabbinic consultant. He continues to serve communities in Great Britain as a scholar-in-residence and lectures Christian clergymen at the Ami Jerusalem Center of Biblical Studies.
Allen Hoffman author of the best selling “Small Worlds†novels offers this description of his lectures:
“Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Poupko defines both the nature of man and the ethical challenge to the Jew through his literary, philosophical, and halachic inquiries into Biblical narratives and midrashic commentaries. He dramatically engages his listener as he skillfully applies the rich, classical interpretive tradition to examine the most mythic and mystifying Biblical and Talmudic texts. In the timeless encounter between man and his Creator, between talmid and text, imagination complements knowledge to provide interpretive solutions that are sensible, psychologically satisfying, and profound.â€