יום חמישי, י״ז תמוז תשפ״וThursday, July 2, 2026
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Eliezer Meir Saidel (emsaidel@gmail.com) is Managing Director of research institute Machon Lechem Hapanim www.machonlechemhapanim.org and owner of the Jewish Baking Center www.jewishbakingcenter.com which researches and bakes traditional Jewish historical and contemporary bread. His sefer “Meir Panim” is the first book dedicated entirely to the subject of the Lechem Hapanim.
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Unlike the Egyptians, who couldn’t see and couldn’t move, for Am Yisrael there was light in their places of dwelling (Shemot 10:23).
We should try, to the best of our human ability, to grasp the essence of Hashem and emulate it.
According to some opinions (Zohar, Va'eira 25b), Moshe was cured of his speech impediment, along with the rest of Am Yisrael who were cured of their ailments, before Matan Torah.
Our Sages tell us that when Hashem creates something or someone, at the same time He creates their opposite.
What was the difference between Leah’s crying and Rachel’s crying? Leah was weeping for her own misfortune... Did Rachel cry over her own misfortune?
Yosef was a living Shulchan Lechem HaPanim; through him Hashem channeled sustenance and prosperity to the entire world.
From the outset, there was seething sibling rivalry that eventually erupted explosively. The sons of Leah regarded the sons of the maidservants Zilpah and Bilhah with disdain, and they hated Yosef.
In this epic reunion, you have two multi-billionaires, each with a different life philosophy. Eisav’s is rav, a lot; Yaakov’s is kol, everything. How do they differ?
If you look beneath the surface of the story of the three angels visiting Avraham and the feast he served them, you will see it is a replica of a korban todah.
Why is Lot so important that Avraham took him along and risked his life to save him?
How could it be that the animals did not attack Noach and his family, or kill each other? They comprised all different rungs in the food chain.
Just as the essence of Shavuot is completely different from the essence of Pesach, so too the essence of Shemini Atzeret is completely different from the essence of Sukkot.
Hashem wants us to visit Him every day, to have a loving daily connection with Him and to ask Him for what we need. A relationship that even when we have what we need, we continue to visit the palace.
I just want to ask a simple question. Who said anything about tying Yitzchak up? Hashem certainly didn’t tell Avraham to tie Yitzchak up; He told him to offer Yitzchak as an olah.
Hashem performs a miracle of accounting because if He did not, none of us would survive the coming year.
Actually, happiness is not necessarily the correct English translation for the word simcha.
When a person leaves pe'ah in the corner of his field, he does so knowingly and even willingly, wanting to give to the poor as Hashem commanded. But it is impossible that this mitzvah can be performed 100 percent altruistically.
One would think that the Shulchan, a symbol of royalty and material wealth, is there to serve the Menorah, the light of the Torah. However, this is not what the Torah tells us.
This is the way Hashem wants us to serve Him, not just according to the letter of the law, but beyond that, out of love, and not only because we are obligated and commanded to.
The first to fulfill the mitzvah of Birkat HaMazon, according to our Sages, was Avraham Avinu.
Although men are also obligated to do so, this mitzvah is primarily incumbent on women and they are given preference in performing it. Sarah was the first woman in history to perform this mitzvah.
The Korban Sotah in Marah removed all doubts from the minds of Bnei Yisrael regarding the integrity of their families.
With this in mind, let us contrast two iconic figures in the Torah, both with donkey-related incidents.
Am Yisrael accused Moshe of murdering Korach and his followers by instructing them to offer a Ketoret offering outside the Mishkan, knowing full well what the consequences of such an action would be.
As a result of eating from this tree of disparate parts, Adam and Chava themselves became split into disparate parts, the physical and the spiritual, and were no longer the integral unit that Hashem had intended.
According to our Sages there are seven layers in Heaven (this is where the expression seventh heaven comes from). The fifth layer is called Ma'on, and it is from this layer that simcha originates.
The Sages mistakenly interpreted this refusal as an egotistically motivated desire to maintain a monopoly, and they summarily fired the entire Garmu family.
The origin of the bagel is older than you think...
If you want to understand the origin of something, search for the first time it is mentioned in the Torah.
Every year, Jews in America join the rest of the nation in celebrating national Thanksgiving, on the last Thursday in November. However, we Jews have our own “thanksgiving” festival, it is called Pesach! On a regular (non-leap) year, Pesach is always preceded by parshat Tzav, (my bar mitzvah parsha). The Tur says that whenever there […]
During the seven years of plenty in Egypt and before the seven years of famine, the pasuk says that Yosef divided the land up into Kematzim, which Rashi explains as – stockpiling grains Kometz on Kometz, handful on handful.
Hashem resorted to Plan B, which began by restoring unity within Am Yisrael, and only when that was in place directing the focus to where it was originally intended.
It is possible to teach a child a Divine crash course in metalwork or stone masonry overnight, but you cannot give a crash course in childlike innocence.
The Shulchan symbolizes material wealth, and everything connected with it relates to the morality of wealth and livelihood.
The Torah here does not say anything about what Moshe ate or drank during those forty days and nights.
The commentaries teach us that the Torah is not a book of stories. It only details things that have a profound lesson to teach us.
While the mann was an enormous chesed that Hashem did for Bnei Yisrael in the midbar, its main purpose was to be a lesson in faith.
On a chemical level, chametz is a conundrum. The existence of fermentation is not sufficient to define chametz.
Our Sages say that the reason we whisper the above blessing in Hebrew is that we do not want to openly flaunt a blessing we “stole” from the angels.
This fact seems to indicate that we did not build the pyramids, as it is unlikely the Egyptians would have fed enormous amounts of meat to their slaves.
Instinctively, one would think the Torah is more important because it is the reason for the existence of the entire world.
It is clear that Yaakov knew that Yosef was alive and in Egypt. The only question that remains is – did he know that the brothers had sold Yosef into slavery?
Meir Panim notes the principle that the sin of Adam and Chava was comprised of multiple stages, corresponding to the three opinions in the Gemara.
Our Sages say that if you want to understand the heart of a matter, you read the bottom line.
This is not the first Pesach Seder mentioned in the Torah; that was when the three angels visited Avraham and he instructed Sarah to make matzos.
Instead of Avraham donning his “superman cape” and praying to Hashem for help, he defers all responsibility to his wife, Sarah. Avraham seems powerless and totally dependent on Sarah for their salvation.
After preparing the delicacies, Avraham then waited on the guests, serving milk, butter and the three tongues in mustard sauce. The Malbim says that first Yishmael served the milk and butter and after that, Avraham served the meat, to separate milk and meat according to halacha.
Noach was a tzaddik; his generation had sinned, had not repented, and had been wiped out. This caused Noach extreme grief, not because he now had to contend with a post-apocalyptic world but because he felt that perhaps he did not do enough to prevent it.
Unlike a regular celebration where one hires professional performers, the entertainment in Simchat Beit haShoeva was provided by the Gedolei Hador – the tzaddikim and wise men of the generation.
The first place that Am Yisrael traveled to after leaving Raamses in Egypt was Sukkot. If we go with this method, that Sukkot was a place, then what was so special about the place Sukkot that warrants us remembering it and celebrating an entire festival around it (according to R’ Akiva)?
Everything we do on Yom Kippur is for the purpose of elevating us to the status of angels.
We have minhagim to eat various different symbolic foods on the night of Rosh Hashana, somewhat resembling a Pesach Seder. There is one minhag, however, that is universal throughout Am Yisrael and that is eating apple dipped in honey. What is the origin of this minhag?
Everyone willingly and eagerly went to the Beit HaMikdash, even for two olives and two figs, because when they brought the bikkurim, they could ask Hashem for whatever they wanted, and it would be granted.
Bilam’s advice was that Amalek stood no chance against the spiritually strong in Am Yisrael, but they did have a faint possibility to inflict damage on those in Am Yisrael who were spiritually weak.
Since the Tree of Knowledge had sinned and not obeyed Hashem’s directive, by all rights it should have been uprooted and destroyed, but that is not what happened.
A genuine smile is a form of energy, an inner light radiating out from the soul.
When we go shopping, we stock our pantries for a week or more and go to bed in the secure knowledge that at least when we wake up the following morning, there will be food to eat.
Steering clear of hazardous objects and environments are obligations no less than the above in preserving our bodies and souls.
Chava’s sin, born of frustration at her husband’s lack of diligence, was thinking she could create life without involving Adam or even Hashem.
So what then is this business about preceding their infants with the sheep? If the sheep were meaningless to them, why did they mention them first?
The korban hatamid was one of many – what makes it so special?
Even when they part ways because of the tiffs over grazing land, Avraham promises to always be there for Lot in time of need. He makes good on that promise when he takes on the world “superpowers” and rescues Lot from captivity.
Why did Hashem tell Moshe to take the staff if He wanted Moshe to speak to the rock? Why open a possibility for Moshe to sin?
Korach cynically recruited the tribe of Reuven to join his “coup” against Moshe and Aharon, claiming that it was the right of the bechor, Reuven, to work in the Mishkan – not Aharon and the Kohanim.
The mitzvah of hafrashat challah is from the written Torah, and like all the mitzvot related to the Land of Israel, applies only in Eretz Yisrael and only when the majority of Am Yisrael resides there.
Chazal say that the Menorah is a blessing of spirituality. It represents the light of the Torah.
If you have been settled in Eretz Yisrael already for four or more generations and your farm is producing steadily, blessed by Divine abundance, you begin to take it for granted.
It is unclear exactly where everything goes on the shulchan. When the two stacks of breads and two bowls of levonah are arranged on it, there is no place for anything else, let alone baking pans, bowls, pipes, etc.
Statistics seemingly is the human species’ greatest defense mechanism. It allows us to live “normal” lives of stability and security.
If we had Har Sinai today, the contemporary form of the mitzvah of Shemittah would not apply to farmers, but to computer engineers, doctors, graphics artists, lawyers, stockbrokers and businessmen.
Parallel to the technical, scientific research I discovered many realities that are not intuitively apparent, but when you dig deeper, you begin to truly appreciate.
Even more curious is the latter part of the Midrash – to prevent becoming afflicted with the nega’im, what should one do? Eat, drink and be happy! Have a continual party – that is the remedy!
HKB”H created most of the human body with redundancy. We have two eyes, ears, nostrils, arms, legs, hemispheres in the brain, chambers in the heart, lungs, kidneys, reproductive organs, etc., the logic being – “if one fails, we have a spare.”
I know very few who enjoy matzo year round. Most people can’t wait for Pesach to end, to get rid of all their leftover matzo.
If the sin originated with food, then its remedy and atonement must involve food. This is why Purim is so food oriented...
June 26, 2026 
