יום ראשון, ו׳ תמוז תשפ״וSunday, June 21, 2026
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The Choshen Mishpat atoned for miscarriages of justice. It was fastened so tightly that it would never stray from the Ephod (28:28).
Joy is not a fleeting pleasure that fades as quickly as it appears. Real joy connects us to something eternal. It is grounded in simple, practical actions: mitzvot and good deeds that anchor us in purpose.
Chazal say that Achashveirosh hated Am Yisrael even more than Haman. Achashveirosh was told by his soothsayers that he would eventually be succeeded by a Jew. Since he wasn’t particularly fond of Am Yisrael to begin with, he incorrectly assumed that the only way this could possibly come about was if the Jews staged a coup and overthrew him.
Individual humans upset the balance on their own, Rashi is saying, and thereby provide an opening for the enemy.
When I think of polarity, I think of a wife who wears a shmata when her husband comes home but gets dressed to the nines when she goes out with her lady-friends!
The Chofetz Chaim compares the rebuker to a merchant who is trying to sell his goods. Would the shopkeeper ever think that if he is hostile to the customers they would more readily agree to make a purchase?
The Chofetz Chaim compares the rebuker to a merchant who is trying to sell his goods. Would the shopkeeper ever think that if he is hostile to the customers they would more readily agree to make a purchase?
What personifies G-d’s presence in the Mishkan most of all? It is the Torah, in the form of Tablets of the Law. The Torah is G-d’s representative on earth. We communicate with Him by studying His words.
The Mishkan gives Bnei Yisrael predictability through clear instructions, agency through voluntary offerings, collaboration through shared labor, embodiment through materials and craft, and containment through a defined sacred space. It is the Torah’s first blueprint for communal healing.
A Guinness World Record has recently been broken in Israel. It’s a record of generosity and kindness. Last week, 2,000 kidney donors posed for a group photo at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, forming the largest gathering of organ donors in history.
The reality of the Beit HaMikdash is very much alive and pulsating in our modern Jewish lives, we just don't acknowledge it as such. To us, it is just the normal Jewish routine.
Human nature is fragile, and our avodat Hashem can falter. Living a commanded life does not mean that we always succeed. It means that we accept all of Hashem’s mitzvot, without selectively embracing those we prefer and discarding those we resist.
On the evidence of his writings, Philo was almost certainly a Torah-observant Jew who believed in the Divinity of the Torah and the uniqueness of Moshe’s prophecy.
We can make the startling conclusion that the entire event of Purim, the intended genocide of the Jewish people and the miraculous reversal that led to the downfall of Haman and the Amalekis, all hinged on the slander and the snitching of the noblemen at the king’s gate.
In assessing the potential of every Jew, Rabbeinu Yonah writes that even an individual who does not show great promise can achieve exalted heights and become a tzaddik. The simplest and most humble person can merit the Divine presence.
He rarely left the apartment; his only outings were to visit his wife’s gravesite and recite the traditional Kaddish on the anniversary of her death.
The message of the Aron’s inclusion of three half-measures is that on its own, it is incomplete. We, the Jewish People partner with it (so to speak) and become whole.
We are also told that when we lend money, we may not charge interest. What? The whole banking system and world economy runs on interest. Why should someone else profit from my money free of charge?
The Torah’s language about the ger, the yatom, and the almanah is not sentimental; it is structural. These identities are not about eliciting pity but about embedding protection into the very framework of halacha.
In addition to all the riches that each member of Am Yisrael carried out of Egypt on 90 Libyan donkeys, Am Yisrael started adding another layer of loot on the donkeys from the spoils from the Red Sea. The purpose of all this material wealth was to develop a lust for money within Am Yisrael, which they would later redirect into a lust to study Torah.
It’s overwhelming, in the best sense. How do you even sum it up? And what does it mean for ordinary people like us, who aren’t heading out this morning to rescue Israeli backpackers lost somewhere in the Far East, but are simply trying to manage the morning rush at home and at work?
Because Mishpatim is the Torah code designed for living in the Land of Israel. Courts, damages, property law, social responsibility – these are not abstract ethics. They assume land, sovereignty, and society
The Torah deliberately places civil law alongside the drama of revelation. At the very moment when heaven meets earth – amid thunder, lightning, and awe – the Torah turns our attention toward human responsibility: how society is ordered, how power is restrained, and how justice is preserved.
Mystical Insights into the Redemptive Powers of the Half-Shekel.
The Medrash says that water is unique among beverages in that it is only beneficial if one is thirsty. With other drinks, we might enjoy them even if we’re not thirsty, such as a soda or juice. But water only has value when we are thirsty.
I know that when we see potential, when we see beauty and possibilities, we tell ourselves that we can figure this out. We convince ourselves that we need to look beyond the logistics and the minutiae to focus on the bigger picture, and the chance for long-term happiness.
When a person is belittled and disparaged, his spirit is broken. He loses any hope of being able to atone for his wrongdoings.
When the United States entered World War I, the Army lacked an official cryptographic service, and Riverbank’s Department of Codes and Ciphers, where the Friedmans worked, became the de facto center for American codebreaking.
Mishpatim-Sh’kalim-M’vorchim occurs in five of the seven Shana P’shuta year-types, with a frequency of 55.53% – by far, the most common situation for Parshat Mishpatim and Parshat Sh’kalim.
By Anonymous
I still believed that if I sat with her long enough, in the right way, she would open up. That I just hadn’t found the right approach yet. I know now that this was wishful thinking.
When we have watched one marriage unravel, especially that of our own child, the heart and amygdala become hyper-alert. What once might have registered as background noise now sounds like an alarm.
It is an important call for individuals and humanity as a whole to exercise self-control, restrain impulses, and manage a world that has boundaries and red lines.
The Israelites have survived slavery, survived the plagues, survived the waters closing behind them. But survival is not the same as readiness. Freedom does not erase the patterns that oppression carves into the mind and heart. The Torah does not rush past this truth; it lingers in it.
Yisro saw that the Jews were attacked by Amalek from behind, when they were weak and exhausted. The natural course of events should have resulted in their total defeat. But he witnessed G-d’s prescription for salvation.
I would like to explore the character that was R' Eliezer ben Horkenos, also known as R' Eliezer HaGadol, because of the important lessons we learn from him about Matan Torah.
Would it not have been more striking to open the section of Yitro with the thunder and fire of revelation itself? More iconic, more symbolic, to move directly into the moment when Hashem speaks?
To your credit, you were not planning for this to happen. But you truly believe that this is something real and right and you have made a commitment to each other.
Until Israel had accepted our collective purpose and come to embody the Will of the Creator to have a nation among nations to perform His commandments and act on His behalf, there were only tribes and families.
Why do the Ten Commandments not include the most important of all mitzvos, the study of Torah?
Perhaps the most enduring aspect of the Shadal’s legacy is his personal integrity.
By Anonymous
Looking back, all I remember was thinking about how thirsty I was. Crazy, right? But I was so thirsty, and I remember seeing all of the water bottles that they kept in the back and I was too shy to ask for a drink.
Anxiety becomes something serious when your child is unable to function or takes an inordinate amount of time to perform normal every day activities.
Your husband’s parenting style is not just about kindness; it is about fear. He is afraid that if he sets limits, he will lose his children’s love.
Alexander was a man of integrity and a proud Jew. He loved the Land of Israel and the Jewish people.
There’s a reason the man arrives before the Aseres HaDibros. A people who have only known extraction cannot receive law until they first learn sufficiency.
They needed another forty years during which time G-d would show them more indisputable miracles like splitting the sea, extracting water from a rock and raining manna from heaven.
There are different streams in the Torah world today regarding the Beit HaMikdash. The common denominator between them all is that they all want the third Beit HaMikdash to be rebuilt. The only question is how and when.
At the splitting of the sea, we learn that Hashem is willing and able to overturn the laws of nature as He sees fit to intervene on behalf of His chosen people.
There are inequitable and unfair judgments made by those with sons in the dating world. For reasons never fully understood, boys have an advantage in dating.
This was measure for measure for the lachatzeinu, intense pressure, that the Egyptian taskmasters inflicted upon Bnei Yisrael nonstop.
One who finds it difficult to daven all the tefillos in the morning – from the berachos through Aleinu – if he can manage to recite the Shema that would be sufficient. If he cannot say all of the Shema, even the recitation of the first paragraph would be good, or at least the first two lines of the Shema could still be powerful.
By Anonymous
Yes, it had been a bump in the road – bigger and higher than we expected – but we were past it. But that was not so true. Reality slapped me in the face so badly that I still feel the remains of the whiplash today.
Your parents were once the center of your world; however, now your husband is meant to become that center. This does not take your parents out of the picture. Having kibud av v’em (respect for your mother and father) is still very important, but your tafkid (job) is now to honor your husband.
Unlike Moshe’s previous meetings with Pharaoh in which he was instructed by G-d to ask Pharaoh to release the Jews and threaten him with plagues in the hope that he would comply, in the opening scene of Parshas Bo, G-d gave Moshe no such instructions.
What has always struck me is that the Torah does not erase the plagues. It does not soften them. It does not pretend that the suffering did not occur. Instead, it asks us to hold the full truth...
Question: The Written Law is there plain to see as it is found in the five Books of Moses. However, from whence does the Oral Law come? I’m not asking as one who doubts its veracity – rather, I would just like to know and not simply follow blindly. Mark Grosz Via E-mail
I know you are coming from a good place. I know that you just want what your friends got. It’s not your fault that you live in an Instagram world filled with photo ops instead of memories. And I want you to have a special proposal. I really do. Just not the one you are picturing.
The two chapters he dedicates to Parshat HaChodesh, which is found in this week’s parsha, contain profound and beautiful insights into the nature of the Nation of Israel and our unique relationship to the moon.
Rabbi Yeruchom Levovitz (1873–1936) of the Mir Yeshiva in Belarus told his students: Woe to the one who does not know his weaknesses, for he does not know what to fix.
An integral component of the exile from Egypt included an unmatched zeal and enthusiasm to flee, so much so that there was not sufficient time for the dough to rise. So too must eagerness and ardor be essential elements in our fulfillment of Torah and mitzvos.
As we familiarize ourselves with the concept of middah k’neged middah, it should be an incentive for us to adopt certain behaviors and inhibitions to avoid other behaviors.
The Birmingham Muslim community lobbied hard to have the match cancelled and all Israelis banned from the city. The police sought the input and opinion of the Muslim community and claimed to have pursued the same process with the Jewish community. This last point too was a complete lie. The Jews were never consulted.
When slavery began, we were cast as a threat to society. Pharaoh could only sell his genocidal policy to the broader public of Mitzrayim by turning us into a symbol of danger.
Do you live like that? Constantly imagining danger around the corner? Are you suffering from low-grade anxiety on a constant basis?
By Anonymous
Over time, I realized that my resentment of Chana stemmed from jealousy – jealousy that she had been given the space and permission to feel throughout her childhood. I had never sent a child to their room or shamed them for their feelings, so how could she get so sick in my house? What had I done wrong? Where had I failed her?
Help your daughter understand that this girl is not better than her; rather, she likely has low self-esteem and needs to hurt others to feel better.
Ran went out to confront absolute evil. And it is the same evil we see today, asserting itself in Iran against its own people and elsewhere against anyone who stands for freedom and truth. We pray that this too will fall, that another hateful regime, another Jew-hating empire, will be thrown onto history’s scrap heap, just as others before it.
The plague of hail involved two opposing forces, water and fire. Under normal circumstances these forces cannot coexist peacefully, they are diametric opposites of each other. HaKadosh Baruch Hu miraculously made peace between them and unleashed them upon Egypt.
But the people were overworked and under pressure and they had no time for seemingly empty promises... It was hard for them to believe in a vacuum. They needed to see some concrete results.
The danger of not listening is not limited to kings, tyrants, or political leaders intoxicated by success. It confronts all of us.
You know that part of forging an authentic connection is sharing, but you are scared. Because, of course, it’s scary to share.
One of the key characteristics we see of Moshe that make him uniquely qualified for prophecy is his attention to detail in the face of the unusual.
In general, Klal Yisrael chooses its great people very differently than does the other nations. Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman, zt”l, zy”a, never ran for office. Rav Pam, zt”l, zy”a, never strutted his credentials. To the contrary, they ran from honor and it was that very humility that knighted them to be the leaders of our people.
A person who can feel the pain of others is more suited to be a leader. For that reason, Hashem first tested Moshe to verify that he had the sensitivity to be able to share in the distress of his brethren.
It is interesting that Duckwitz was required to forward a simple autograph request up the chain of command and to obtain formal approval from the Reich Foreign Minister in Berlin to provide the signature.
A lot of this unique and personal language that you develop with your child happens until around the time your child starts sixth or seventh grade.
By Anonymous
We go to a local café to decompress. I watch people walk by, absorbed in their own lives. And in that moment, I realize that I have become one of the other people.
It is important to understand that your compliments and reminders of all of your blessings will not cure your wife’s insecurities or comparisons. This is because insecurity is an internal struggle.
The cry of Bnei Yisrael is the first act of geulah. No armies, no influence, and still the world turns. The cry pierces the heavens, awakens, and sets redemption in motion.
According to Kabbalistic teachings, there are four levels in Creation: mineral, vegetable, animal and human. In one of our Mitchadshot workshops, Rabbi Michi Yosefi applied these four categories to the dynamics in a marriage.
The 12 sons of Yaakov did not assimilate into the Egyptian culture. They did not change their Jewish names, shemam, they did not abandon their Hebrew language, leshonam and they did not discard their traditional attire, malbusham – which three Hebrew words form the acronym shalom, peace.
Although in the Torah some people were named directly by HaKadosh Baruch Hu (like Noach for example), in most cases it is the parents who give names to their children. How does a parent choose an appropriate name?
He was not a child crying about his own pain; he was crying for the pain of his nation.
Thinking (and reason) is inexorably bound up with our free choice and the determinations we make in our lives that shape the past, present, and future.
The image of a bush aflame yet not consumed also conveys separation. Hashem is not part of the physical system He created. The laws that govern nature – energy, decay, and limitation – do not bind Him. He transcends the world even as He governs it.
He is not changing. This is who he has been for a long time, and will likely be for the foreseeable future. Of course, we are all capable of growth, but he is who he is, and that will not be different in three weeks or three months.
It is interesting to note that the structure of the book does not lend itself to the idea that gaining our freedom or leaving Egypt is the main point. We leave Egypt at the end of Parshat Bo, in just three weeks, at what would have been a reasonable conclusion to the book.
The Medrash teaches that if one falls off a roof and breaks every bone in his body, he will need many casts and bandages in order to be repaired. But, if one sins spiritually, and thereby injures his entire body, Hashem fashions one bandage that can cure him through and through.
Rav Nissenbaum’s published oeuvre and editorial work give the best available access to his substantive positions on Jewish law, social practice, and the national question, as he was a prolific writer of derashot (sermons), pamphlets, articles, and at least one substantial autobiography/memoir.
Choosing to judge others favorably and to refrain from unnecessary conflict is not weakness; rather it is an avodah and reflects real inner work. In a world that rewards sharp words and quick comebacks, self-control requires strength.
Of course, Yosef wasn’t planning on Yehudah’s powerful speech bringing him to his knees and forcing him to reveal himself as their long-lost brother. Hence, he had to come up with a new plan.
I had the privilege of speaking on stage, and of speaking with these young people afterward. Their eyes shine as they talk about aliyah, about pro-Israel activism on campus, about a Jewish identity that is awakening.
Decades ago, in an eighth-grade classroom in Miami, Rabbi Sherwin Stauber taught the story of Ephraim and Menashe. Two boys sat in that room: One would become Rav Zev Leff of Moshav Matisyahu, the other Dr. David Luchins, my father-in-law. They listened to the same words, but each carried them forward in a distinct way.
Despite the travails of the past, Yaakov did not regret the hardships he experienced. They were all part of the mosaic called life without which he would never have reached this peaceful destination.
