<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">The dove returns with an olive leaf.</span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">This (olive branch) has become the symbolism of hope and peace.</span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif">Interestingly, the dollar bill has 13 olive leaves on the back: this corresponded to the original 13 colonies.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif">However, in Judaism, 13 is a significant and positive number: God's 13 attributes of mercy; Rambam's 13 principles of faith;</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif">Bar Mitzvah age; 13 months in a Jewish leap year; Purim victory took place on the 13th day of Adar, etc.</font></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><a rel="attachment wp-att-638" href="http://www.stcukids.org/the-buck-stops-here/one-dollar-eagle/"><img class="size-medium wp-image-638 alignleft" title="Bald eagle on the $1 note" alt="" height="300" width="294" id="b8d60546-25c8-46b3-91fe-057a085474f6" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:B0224B6D-3A6F-4300-A20B-FBF2A94D1027@Belkin"></a></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">In this week's Torah portion, our commentators teach that the olive leaf which the dove returns with has a very bitter taste. </span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif">Rashi writes (8:11) "Better that my food be bitter but from God's hand, than sweet as honey but dependent on mortal man." </font></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">R' Hirsch elaborates. For a full year, the dove could not earn its own food: hunger forced it to rely on Noah's kindness. Then</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">it found a bitter leaf that it would ordinarily not eat </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px; ">– and carried it back to Noah, preaching the lesson of the Sages,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px; ">that even the bitterest food eaten in freedom is better than the sweetest food given in servitude. </span></div>
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<div><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">"Better eight years of hard work in Yale, then eight days of hard work in Jail" rw </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif"><br></font></p><div><br></div></div><div><br></div></body></html>