יום שני, ג׳ תשרי תשפ״זMonday, September 14, 2026
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It appears that our mission this Shabbat is to bring the holiness of the synagogue - now standing empty - into the living room and the kitchen.
As he struggled to continue, the mountain climber feared that he would succumb to the elements and be buried in the snow.
Leaders must have the courage to try new things, build new edifices and achieve new heights.
Rebbi suffered terrible stomach pains for 13 years for his lack of pity on a calf.
To counteract increasing secularization, he campaigned to create an association of Torah-observant Jews throughout Eastern and Central Europe, which later crystallized into Agudath Israel.
Perhaps in the midst of the great uncertainties created by the Coronavirus pandemic, it is all too easy to remember that we are not God. But the temptation to think otherwise still exists. And once the pandemic will be over and man will continue to build better and better tools to control his fate and his environment, that temptation will regain its strength
The Alter of Navardok writes that the merit of the multitudes is so great that if three chassidim from Rasyen claimed they could fly, he would believe them.
“All of us are presently learning a course in ‘How to live with uncertainty.’ From my experience, to succeed in this course you need to open your heart to embrace the unexpected.
He also encouraged rabbinic leaders and those who wrote English well to disseminate knowledge of taharas mishpacha and other practical mitzvos.
The greatest of leaders are those who are able, not only to lead by example, but also to lead through experience.
I suggest we begin to realize we know less about what it means to be Gdly, in the halakhically important sense of fulfilling this mitzvah, than we think. Ordinary compassion or mercy may be good and laudable, but few of the commentators pointed to it as what it means to emulate Hashem’s being rahum
A primary lesson of Purim, then, is to relive the vital awareness that Hashem is protecting His people in exile, “scattered among the nations.”
There is actually an obligation to be joyous.
So who had it better, Moshe or Aharon?
Whatever the case may be: Why would the goblets have been upside down?
The real contribution is intense love and fervor for Hashem with which we give.
Humanity today has received an abundance of life and health as an incredible gift. But does it properly take advantage of this blessing?
Ideas we feel compelled to share, insights we're desperate to impart, powerful experiences we reveal are all contagious, Torah conversations that are contagious build a Home for the Divine Presence.
A society needs laws to function, while at the same time it needs to provide opportunities within the structure for the human spirit to blossom.
Often he strove to aid Jews materially even before working to elevate them spiritually because an improved material life allows one’s spiritual life to thrive.
“We cannot keep the thunder and lightning of Sinai with us, but we can take the spirit of Sinai and incorporate it into mitzvoth – whether we are at the market, at home, in the bank or the car.
Mitzvos that seemed rational in earlier generations may seem irrational today.
The traditional understanding – that the Torah is referring to the monetary value of an eye – is not without its difficulties either
Torah is to be taught as healing, as a relationship, as nurturing. It is this Torah I love and that gives me life.
The challenge is finding the delicate balance between knowing our calling and not burning ourselves out.
Only Yisro went deeper into what this all meant to him. He didn’t just hear – he changed.
Angels don’t anticipate a reward when they do Hashem’s bidding and therefore the mitzvos they perform are absolute and perfect.
These Ten Sayings weren’t about specific commandments, they were foundational ideas for the Jewish people, were said at that momentous event to capture what we were becoming by accepting the Torah. What mattered were Ten Sayings, however many commandments they reflected.
Many don’t realize that standards of Orthodox Jewry here before 1940 were incomparably lower than today.
Moshe was leading them, and I suspect that he knew exactly where to go. The cloud was not a GPS, it was a reminder of the benefit of having our heads in the clouds: The cloud was an invitation to extend their reach, to remind them that each time they
The Rebbe Rayatz treated everyone with the utmost respect, even doing material favors for many non-observant Jews.
If the great Galanter Rebbe had troubled himself to appear to him, there was no doubt that his decision to remain in the wine business would be to his advantage.
To what extent is a prophet of God allowed to improvise?
“The Torah, though, is not just telling us about Pharaoh; it’s also telling us about ourselves. In every one of us, a little Pharaoh is hiding who knows exactly what needs to be done but doesn’t do it.
Pity Netanyahu and Gantz weren’t “tough” like Moshe and Aaron, telling Trump, lay off our land, and watch us apply sovereignty to all of it, in front of the eyes of the whole world. And, you’re going to recognize it. There’s no such thing as “Palestinians,” and there will never be a “Palestinian State.”
Less than five years earlier, World War II had ended, which consumed a third of world Jewry, including most Torah-observant Jews. Almost all great Torah centers were destroyed.
One Minchah recited properly can change everything for the better.
Only one-fifth of the Jews left Egypt during the Exodus. Every Jew who left Egypt all presumably knew one or many relatives and friends who had not gotten out.
Among Custer's character flaws was his inability to look inward. When a problem arose he blamed others.
From the Rebbe’s absolute devotion to his father-in-law, chassidim have learned what the measure of their own devotion – what chassidim call hiskashrus – to their Rebbe should be.
"Moshe's life is inspiring and reassuring to children with learning disabilities and to their parents
Their assumption was predicated on the theory that Hashem operates based on middas hadin.
Though they share parents and ancestors, once the two lines diverge, the Torah tells us exclusively about Aharon’s descendants
The most dangerous thing in the world is to try to leap a chasm in two jumps. -David Lloyd George
We do not expect those elected to be Moshe Rabbeinu. Still, the parshi’ot that will accompany the election campaign in the weeks ahead should remind us of how, ideally, those in leadership roles should conduct themselves.
Was R’ Simcha Bunim justified in not bringing Moshiach because of the distress of one individual?
We don’t seek out faults in people to tell them off, but we should always look for ways to help set people on the right path while we ourselves serve as shining personal examples.
There are times when wrongdoing around us needs to be challenged, opposed, and resisted, and there are times when the wiser reaction is to hunker down and let it pass.
The greatest feelings of accomplishment result from when one invests the most effort in its attainment.
The fire of truth burned brightly before Esav, but he was headstrong.
Yaakov’s service of G-d, at his high spiritual level, required him to be buried with his father Yitzchak and grandfather Avraham in Me’aras HaMachpeilah, a place of openly revealed holiness.
By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l
Genesis is not a hymn to the virtue of families. It is a candid, honest, fully worked-through account of what it is to confront some of the main problems within families, even the best.
It’s difficult to describe an event of this magnitude in words. But I’ll share a few highlights...
Ya’akov’s mistake instructs us to understand that even if something appears to be good, that does not mean there isn’t a different way that might be even better
Is it better to complain, seek revenge, and hold a grudge? Or is it better to find a blessing within the curse?
Yosef, on the other hand, was involved in worldly affairs. He was on such a high spiritual level that this involvement didn’t disturb his service of G-d.
The Gemara says that when a guest is escorted out of a city, he is protected from harm along his journey.
Joseph hinted to his brothers, based on his dreams, what would happen to them, but he did not converse with them.
In overcoming our impatience on the road, we perform a truly heroic act.
The Zohar tells us that Moshe Rabbeinu visits Bisya every day in Gan Eden to inquire after her well being.
In order to prove that the oil was undefiled, wouldn’t it have been sufficient if its seal remained unbroken, even without the kohen gadol’s personal seal?
The man before whom the brothers bowed was no longer the youthful dreamer. The reinterpreted Joseph dreampt no longer about himself, the dreams were now about something beyond the dreamer
Is this the only question we should ask?
Even according to the Rambam, if an exceptionally pious and G-d-fearing man sees that his generation is degenerate in a certain matter, he may sanctify G-d’s name and sacrifice himself even to avoid a minor mitzvah so that people learn from his example.
Leaders need to pay special attention to the law of unintended consequences.
Here are three crucial truths from Tanya, the fundamental text that Chabad chassidim study in its entirety every year, concluding it on the 19th of Kislev:
The redemption and salvation are commensurate with the distress and challenges of galus.
If we look like an ancestor, smile like them, wrinkle our eyebrows in the way they did, we already carry on more of them than others
It is Judah's honesty that triggers Joseph's decision to reveal his identity.
She probably gave no conscious thought to the message that she broadcast. She did not mean to deliberately offend anyone; it just seemed like a cute thing to do.
“I came here to get a mask so…Moshiach won’t see my aveiros.”
Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz emphasized again and again when he taught this parshah that Yaakov moving the massive stone from the well was not a miracle. Yet, it was not a matter of physical strength either. It was a matter of heart and faith.
Halacha mandates that the anniversary of a miracle be celebrated, not only by its subject, but by his descendants and disciples in later generations.
In one of the most mysterious verses in the Torah (Bereshit 35:8), we read about the death of Devorah the nursemaid, a character so minor that we have never really heard of her before
Rachel only related to one purpose, that of giving birth, and ignored the second purpose – to learn, to become worldly wise and pious and, in the process, to bring more goodness into the world.
Rabbi Salanter said we must all act like poor men when it comes to matters of ruchniyus.
Immediately upon becoming Rebbe, he embarked upon the most ambitious chassidic publication program until recent times.
We are a people bound by law as much or more than any other, our legacy also tells us there are times when those laws and norms are appropriately breached.
Rabbeinu Yonah, who passed away 756 years ago this week, wrote prolifically from the city of Girona, in medieval Spain, about repentance and self-improvement.
The challenges presented by the yetzer hara differ every day. Today the yetzer hara may be dormant; tomorrow it may wage war.
Speaking to his chassidim actually improved his health, much to his doctors amazement!
On the face of it, a conventional exchange between father and son, we see it nowhere else in Tanakh. Moreover both discussions take place at pivotal points in which the respective father-son relationships are tested to their limits.
The Rashbash advised the couple to name the boy Yonah, citing the Talmud’s statement that before a tzaddik dies, another tzaddik rises.
A leader must aim to change the culture and not just temporarily affect behaviors.
As the end of their forty-year sojourns in the desert approached, Moshe Rabbeinu, knowing that he would not lead the nation into Eretz Yisroel, requested that Hashem help him appoint a worthy successor.
Throughout our history, great leaders have given their disciples and others special tasks to spiritually elevate the world.
Avraham, saw a world where people can acknowledge a huge and intractable gap between them, know it will not go away, and also build a strong and trusting friendship across tbe gap.
More than his guests enjoy the meal, Avraham enjoys fulfilling the mission for which he was created – to help others.
Chazal say (Menachos 53b) that just like an olive tree does not ever shed its leaves, so too Klal Yisrael will never be destroyed, not in this world or in the next.
After the tailor left, Rebbetzin Rivka told off her son for embarrassing the tailor. Realizing what he had done, young Sholom Ber burst into tears.
They believe that if they inundate me with beautiful gifts, it will be difficult for me to be angry with them.
Who are these beings? Men to Avraham; Angels to Lot. Why do they play such important roles in Genesis? Why are the stories of the beginnings of humanity so rich with unfamiliar characters?
Do we have the courage to swim against the stream? To be in the minority? To be different?
we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars,
September 11, 2026 
