יום שישי, י״ט חשוון תשפ״זFriday, October 30, 2026
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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?
Most of you never heard of Kurt Rothschild who passed away last week at the age of 101, but it is reasonable to assume that most of you benefited from him in some way.
By waging war on Israel, even if not consciously aware of its inner motivation, a person or group is declaring war against the Source of all Creation.
One thing worthy of note in our haftara is that the entirety of the first chapter is read, but the haftara continues three verses into the second.
The korban hatamid was one of many – what makes it so special?
Take all that is given whether wealth, love or language, nothing comes by mistake and with good digestion all can be turned to health. -George Herbert
When we gather in the batei medrash to daven and study Torah, and we perform acts of chesed to exalt the Name of Hashem . . . we are righteous and praiseworthy like those who actually gave up their lives sanctifying the Name of Hashem.
The Three Weeks is not simply a time to ponder our loss. The Yerushalmi Tractate Peah (chapter 1) teaches us -Any generation in which the Temple was not rebuilt in its day, it is considered as if it were destroyed again in that era.
Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor. -Theodore Roosevelt
Without a regular lesson, without a study partner (because of the schedule in the unit that changes constantly), Noam looked for a slot of free time every day.
The most outstanding Torah scholar may not be the greatest mentor and visa-versa. It is wonderful (and convenient) when we can find someone, who is “one-stop shopping.” Yet the story of Rav Kahana shows us that life is not always so tidy.
A true pursuer of peace/completeness is one who identifies the obstacles to HaShem’s Ideal for this world and works passionately to remove them.
One who does not have that fervor and passion within him should nevertheless act with great enthusiasm and zeal to do the mitzvos, because the external arouses the internal.
I would like to conjecture that in this fervent prayer where we beseech Hashem to listen and to understand, to learn and to teach His Torah, we remember the fact that each of us already learned the entire Torah from a malach during the nine months that we were in the womb.
The salient point of the navi Micha – in contrast to the message of Bilaam – is that when the time comes for Hashem to redeem His people, all of the historical forces and all of the races and cultures of humanity will fall into line as part of the divine plan.
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.
While Moav & Midian championed a separation of 'religion' & state, Israel’s mission demands that spiritual ideals be materialized on a national level so that our Torah’s values be fully expressed on earth.
Just as an advocate is created for each mitzvah, so too a prosecuting angel is created with the performance of every aveirah.
It would seem that the problem was not in the stream but in the people. The Children of Israel disparaged the Land of Israel through the negative report of the spies and they had still not rectified this sin.
When we bentch, one of the people we should have in mind to bless and to thank, besides Hashem of course, is our wife. She is the one who prepares our repast, cleans up after us, and creates the aura that makes the meal pleasant.
Procrastination is opportunity's natural assassin. -Victor Kiam
Unfortunately, Yiftach would become a key participant in perhaps the bloodiest and most infamous civil war in Israel: that between Menashe and Ephraim.
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?
In the Torah portions that we are currently reading, it is noted time and again that as soon as the people arrived at a new place, they immediately erected the Mishkan, the people's spiritual center and beating heart.
Communicating the Jewish people's deepest aspirations can often serve to raise morale & strengthen Israel’s position on the battlefield.
Any positive steps taken in matters of spirituality result in success – perhaps even in a different place or at a different time.
It is worth understanding why Korach’s argument against Moshe was found to be utterly without merit while Shmuel’s is held up as the apogee of righteousness.
The Rokei’ach teaches us that the author of Aleinu is none other than our great leader Yehoshua.
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.
We are acknowledging that Hashem is our Boss, not just when we’re in the synagogue but when we leave shul and go to our workplaces or to our homes.
Rust consumes iron and envy consumes itself. -Danish proverb
After all, summer vacation is not a vacation from values or from anything that is important to us. It's a vacation from school alone.
Our equality doesn't result from being created identical but rather from the fact that we each have equally crucial functions and important roles to play as part of Israel's greater historic mission.
The problem with the Meraglim was not having doubts, being concerned, or having insecurities.
Just as a slave would have a seal on his clothing identifying him as such, the tzitzis distinguish us as servants of Hashem (Tosfos).
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.
Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. -Charles Caleb Colton
The spies that led Israel to national catastrophe mistakenly thought that the value of preserving life overrides the commandment to free Eretz Yisrael.
Anger, says Rashi, causes a person to err. It causes a person to forget their learning. It is extremely harmful to the body and it also causes the brain to be put on ‘pause.’
The most important question in life is how do we manage time, particularly the two months of vacation.
Some suggest “cholent” comes from the French chaud ("hot") and lent ("slow"). The opposite of cholent is “nonchalant,” which means cold and disinterested.
For the first time since making his decision to keep Shabbos, Uri became a little ambivalent. Yet, when it was time for him to close the shop for Shabbos, he resolutely requested all the shoppers to finish up and check out their purchases so he could go home.
Chazal say that the Menorah is a blessing of spirituality. It represents the light of the Torah.
Shimshon is a tragic, and ultimately tragically flawed, character.
Rav Avidgor Miller points out that the Hebrew word for anger, kaas, contains the same letters as the Hebrew word ‘eches,’ which means poison.
Through Israel's returns home and national rebirth, we have already seen sparks of prophecy return.
Old age has a great sense of calm and freedom. When the passions have relaxed their hold and have escaped, not from one master, but from many. -Plato
We need to pay attention to our bodies. We speak about values and Torah but ignore the fact that the body is the tool upon which values and Torah depend.
Rabbeinu Yonah (Gerondi), most famously known for his Sefer Shaarei Teshuvah, writes how worthy is the individual who observes the protective restraints that were instituted to guard the fulfillment of the mitzvos, over and above his actual performance of the mitzvah itself.
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.
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach
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.
Once they asked a wise man to talk about his greatest dream. He answered that he had many dreams and professional aspirations, but above all he wanted to be a better father, a better husband, a better son, and a better grandson. At the end of his life, a person can leave many achievements behind, […]
You must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. -Andrew Jackson
Abarbanel says that the Children of Israel are not compared to grains of sand simply because they are so many. Lots of things occur in great numbers but Israel isn’t compared to them.
Our Sages expound that granting merit to the many (zikui harabbim) is inherently infinitely beneficial.
When we think this Shavuos about the revelation at Sinai, let’s remember that the Torah was given surprisingly in the midst of billowing smoke and blackness.
That HaShem forgoes His Honor for the sake of making peace between man and wife comes to teach us the importance of humbling our own egos for the sake of making our relationships work.
Even within large groups, or even within an entire nation, each individual has a special place and a unique mission. Each person is important.
The multitude which is not brought to act as a unity, is confusion. That unity which has not its origin in the multitude is tyranny. -Blaise Pascal
Every mitzvah you perform heals some spiritual malaise that you might not even know you were suffering from.
It is every individual’s obligation to toil in Torah so that he can soar even higher than the angels.
We should train ourselves to look forward to doing our mitzvos. The premier example of this attitude is the mitzvah of sefira. That on a national level we demonstrate in unison an excited countdown towards Torah.
A people's army is necessary for Israel to fulfill the Divine commandment of sovereignty over our land.
Rabbi Greenblatt remembers that the rav stood in tallit and tefillin, looked him in the eyes, and gave him a blessing that he should become a talmid chacham and merit to live a long life. The second blessing materialized, he smiled, I hope the first did, too.
Statistics seemingly is the human species’ greatest defense mechanism. It allows us to live “normal” lives of stability and security.
Yirmiyahu knows that Hashem is all-powerful and that He is not limited by geopolitical and military realities. If Hashem wishes to reverse the process of conquest and cancel the exile, it is within His power to do so.
It is the first of all problems for a man to find out what kind of work he is to do in this universe. -Thomas Carlyle
The Doresh Tzion explains that Eretz Yisrael is acquired by the Jewish nation only in the merit of the Torah that was given at Har Sinai. If they abandon the ways of the Torah, then their entitlement to Eretz Yisrael is withdrawn as well.
You have two people who spent their Sunday night from 8 to 9 p.m. One administered the Heimlich maneuver and saved a person from choking and another person attended the Daf Yomi. In the scales of merit, it is the latter person who comes out on top.
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.
Man is a synthesis of his nefesh habahamis (the animal soul), which has physical needs, and his G-dly soul (nefesh haElokis). Man’s mission is to elevate his nefesh habahamis to function in the realm of his nefesh haElokis.
We are accustomed to transitioning from the sadness of Memorial Day to the joy of Independence Day, but how do we transition in the opposite direction, from independence to mourning?
The Arizal teaches that the firstborn ought to have had the priesthood by right, except that Kayin abused this privilege and it was revoked from him as a result of his grave transgression.
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.
The pernicious difficulty of keeping self-love in check and not having it warp the way in which we see others is brought to our attention in the story of R. Elazar
Rabbi Weiss: The Hebrew word ‘leitz’ is made up of a lamed and a tzadik which means ‘learned’ and righteous’ for the scoffer thinks that he knows better and that he is really in the right.
During those years, many who came to America had no interest in continuing the sacred Torah traditions. R’ Yaakov Yosef dedicated his life to bringing back many who had fallen into a life of sin.
The fifth of Iyar marks not only Israel's victory against England but also the day we fulfilled the collective mitzvah of sovereignty over our homeland for the first time in nearly 2,000 years.
Again and again Yechezkel recounts all of the miracles Hashem has performed throughout history for His people and all of the ways in which they betrayed Him.
Don't say the holiday is over and done, but that the holiday has given us something more.
If someone can overcome and surpass their natural inclinations in their interactions with their fellow man, they will have less trouble observing the mitzvot בין אדם למקום.
The Segula is Israel's inner Divine light planted within the collective Hebrew soul and revealed in human history through the Jewish people.
What we learn only through the ears makes less impression upon our minds than what is presented to the trustworthy eye. -Horace
Dovid HaMelech was able to perceive the precariousness of routine and habitual activity that could tarnish the awesomeness, inspiration, and majesty of a special moment.
Rabbeinu Bechaye points out there that there are a few instances in Tanach where chodesh, the month, is synonymous with the new moon at the beginning of the month.
...the only pasuk in the Torah that has the same gematria as the two words Eretz Yisroel, is the verse, Hashem Ish milchomah, Hashem Shemo – G-d is the Master of war, Hashem is His Name.
Yehoshua was one of Israel's greatest leaders because he represented the ideal expression of the Yosef force - one consciously rooted in, guided by and completely subordinate to the Hebrew mission.
If Pesach is immediately followed by Acharei Mot that focuses on Yom Kippur, there must be a good reason for it.
One is obligated to make a blessing on bad news, just as he makes a blessing on good tidings.
What interests me however is why the Midrash chose to emphasize two specific types of fruit – apples and pomegranates. It could just as easily have said grapes, figs, dates, etc. Why not choose fruit of the Shiv’at Haminim?
It is incumbent upon every parent to prepare a “lesson plan” of meaningful Torah directions to give over to their family on this most meaningful night.
It is often asked what the first step should be in order to come closer to Hashem. Should one first purify himself by abandoning his evil ways, or should he engage in acts of holiness?
Even had Egypt’s dominance on the world stage declined later in history due to natural circumstances, the Pharaonic worldview would have continued to dominate the thinking of man.
One of the major messages of the Lubavitcher Rebbe was to utilize every situation in which we find ourselves for good.
This is the true meaning of Pesach – to restore the unique relationship between ourselves and our Creator, as individuals and as a collective.
Let us begin with the facts. We were poor slaves in Egypt – fact! We ate matzos when we left Egypt – fact! We eat matzos to remind us of our poverty of slavery in Egypt – fact????
Indeed, the very name for Heaven, shamayim, is a composition of aish and mayim, fire and water, which though usually in opposition are fused together peacefully in the Heavens.
Don't be humble, you're not that great. -Golda Meir
October 30, 2026 
