יום ראשון, ב׳ תשרי תשפ״זSunday, September 13, 2026
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It is clear that when we drink wine on Shabbos, we are enjoying a small taste of the World to Come.
Instead of being on fire over our virtual identity, let the true fire from our neshama burn brightest.
Hashem gives us another chance, each year, in the hopes we will find our way back.
Learning Torah and perforning mitzvos are not only something we do, it becomes part of who we are.
The Torah was given to us, not to rise above the world to the realm of souls divested from physicality, but to make the physical world itself holy.
It is actually in the merit of our struggle with the Evil Inclination that we are worthy of accepting the Torah.
Simjon Rosenfeld, 96 years old, was the last survivor of the Sobibor death camp. In a camp in which 150,000 Jews were murdered, he and his friend managed to kill 11 SS people and escape. Most of the rebels were caught and murdered. Simjon survived, until yesterday.
In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us. -Flora Edwards
The priestly blessing in this week’s parsha begins with the famous request that God bless and keep/guard (shomer) the Jews. While the meaning of blessing is reasonably straightforward, the meaning of keeping or guarding is less clear.
A person sometimes becomes spiritually dispirited because he believes his sins are too many and that he has forfeited his G-d-given inheritance.
For an organization to move forward there needs to be internal agreement and alignment with respect to the organization’s goals and the plans to achieve them. Without this unity of purpose things will likely get derailed at some point.
To fathom how great Hillel Butman (ZT"L) was, Natan Scharansky looked up to him.
One of life's greatest mysteries is how the boy who wasn't good enough to marry your daughter can be the father of the smartest grandchild in the world. -Yiddish Proverb
Jewish children, particularly before the age of bar mitzvah, are effected for life when they immerse themselves in Torah study.
Watching the Jews spend forty years traveling by families, patriarchal clans, and tribes, the same units which governed the division of the Land, we can remember, Jews have multiple identities, ideally harmoniously combined.
A message both particular and universal...
Our life is what our thoughts make it. A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him. -James Allen
But what happens if we actually become partners? As the Rabbis well understood, that should be a game changer.
Yes, things change, sometimes too quickly to comprehend, unless we realize that all the Sh'vilei Emunah, Paths of Faith, offer opportunities to explore new paths and discover how each can take us back to Sinai.
What is the source of true happiness and success in life?
Like a grandmother who blesses her grandchildren, she blessed us all. Marie Nachmias raised her hands and eyes to the sky, and the crowd, including the prime minister, rose spontaneously and applauded her.
“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all inhabitants thereof.” However, Rashi, Ramban, and Meshech Chochmah show tradition understood the key word, deror, as indicating a version of liberty surprising to the Western mind.
It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors. -Plutarch
Long before the Danites’ penchant for connection with gentiles would reach its climax in the days of Shimshon, the Torah warns them of its great dangers
Since he was saved,the Kaliver Rebbe said Shema Yisrael thousands of times in front of wide, varied audiences. In the prayer book that he published, he added this verse at the end of the prayer in memory of those who died in the Holocaust.
Currently, Jews live in a world which denies many of the Torah’s views about what constitutes proper sexuality. I suspect it has been true more often than we stop to notice—
The story of the Exodus from Egypt teaches us to be alert and attentive to “windows of opportunity” that appear in our lives – so seize them.
Wishing you a Happy Passover and a Good Shabbos...
The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason. -Benjamin Franklin
“Once, when I was a child in Jerusalem, I couldn’t restrain myself and asked him: ‘Is it true that you are one of the lamedvav (36) tzadikim?’... R’ Aryeh smiled and replied with one word: ‘Sometimes.’
Rav Eliyahu Dessler understands that this statement of losing one’s mitzvos for speaking lashon hara is one of those statements that is not meant to be taken literally.
“After 2,000 or more years of exile, you could say that from the six days of Creation until this day, we have not merited to see a day like this, that we are holding elections in a Jewish state. Shehechiyanu! Blessed is the One that kept us alive and sustained us and brought us to this day!" When Torah meets democracy.
According to Chassidus, the general redemption needed to be preceded by personal redemptions from every single person. That is, every person should prepare himself to be redeemed from all the elements that hinder his life
Time is Too slow for those who wait, Too swift for those who fear, Too long for those who grieve, Too short for those who rejoice. But for those who love, time is not. -Henry Van Dyke
When the Torah constantly asks that its words "Be new in our eyes, as if we are receiving the Torah today," it is not simply asking that we are open to a new reading of a verse, or application of a law. The Torah is asking us to live in a state of Paradigm Shift, a life in which our approach to prayer changes each day, as should our approach to all the commandments and texts.
The ethics of each new birth represents a microcosm of that debate. We have good reason to hope that the education and upbringing we provide our children will ensure that they bring more good to the world than evil. But there is not a single one of us who can bring up even the best of our children to never do evil. And given that this is the case, giving birth is also an act of responsibility for the evil that one thereby adds to the world.
Based on my historical research of leadership I believe there is what I refer to as the leadership paradox. In essence it claims that we should have more confidence in leaders who possess self-doubt.
To be silent isn't passive. On the contrary, you don't need any strength to talk. The words just roll out of your mouth, no problem. To be silent, though, requires strength. Aharon chooses silence.
We stand everyday as did Nadav and Avihu, searching to elevate our actions into meaning, desperate to 'make a difference," trying to get the heavens into our heads
Events that took place after the sin of Nadav and Avihu elucidate the real issue behind whatever sin or sins they actually committed: They challenged the traditional hierarchy of children following their parents and juniors following their seniors. It is presumably this issue more than any individual sin that the Torah wants to bring to our attention.
When there is cause for celebration our complete focus should be on that celebration.
Rebbetzin Yemima Mizrachi: "We live in a joy-challenged society. Today, joy must be learned. It is precisely joy, which everyone treats lightly, that requires serious consideration on our part."
For an interpretation to qualify as a good drash, it must present an insightful idea that is somehow enhanced by the original text.
Cynical people always try to point out the negative.
27 years ago, on the 4th day of Adar Sheni, Menachem Begin passed away. Here are 3 enduring messages from his legacy.
Because sefer Vayikra is more difficult, we tend to look at it less. But because we look at it less, we also understand it less, which – in turn – keeps it difficult and less appealing. In a nutshell, that is what I call Vayikra Avoidance Syndrome.
“Also, you should know, that this rejection, as painful as it is for you today, upgrades you. It transforms you into people who know how to believe in themselves even when others don’t always believe in them." Encouragement to students applying to HS. Words of wisdom: Believe in Yourself!
So what is melakhah, and how is it different than avodah? And why is that only Moshe sees it that way. Finally, why is blessing something that seems to flow directly out of it?
Moses was stuck outside the Tabernacle with the people who built it. He understood at that moment the message of the Half Shekel, or, my fifty cents. He was not standing as the great Moses or the awesome Moses who could meet with God in Heaven. He stood outside as one of the people who all contributed a Half Shekel, fifty cents. It was at that moment that Moses became the most humble of men. I can almost hear the coins jingling in his pocket.
“The boy from Russia who was not accepted to study physics because he was a Jew is now part of a team that is sending off a spacecraft containing a disk with the entire Hebrew Bible scanned onto it and an Israeli flag.”
It is not enough to assemble one's people in one place. There must be a unifying mission.
The Mishkan we eventually had could have become the place where the Jews connected with Hashem more fully or strongly even than at Sinai, perhaps. After the sin of the Golden Calf, it could never be the place of innocent joy it was meant to be.
"The Lord settles lonely individuals into the House (Psalms 68:7)." His House that "dwells in the heart of each individual" is meant to provide a place for the lonely; those disconnected from themselves
The soul must be saved from panic, for panic can destroy it.
The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning. -Ivy Baker
Directing us in the right direction like a compass, teachings on the Parshat Ki Tisa from Rabbi Weinberg
Paradoxically, putting on the veil would help Moshe connect with spirituality but when he was actually speaking with God, Moshe would nevertheless remove it.
The notion that we have wings and can fly, but fall to access them is genuinely spot-on.
Moshe was a stutterer and did not look for a leadership role, but he proved that one can lead even without charisma – through the power of faith, prayer, and a sense of mission.
I love and, am energized by, wrapping myself in my Tallit (Prayer Shawl), and tying on my Tefillin (Phylacteries) because of their message. I focused this morning on whether I had the ability to energize them, whether I could wear them as a celebration of my growth, and found myself vibrating with their energy.
The Urim ve-Tumim, introduced in this week's parsha, remind us Hashem never meant the Jewish people to make their way in the world based only on traditions of what we were once told.
To avoid misery, read the 6-steps to misery--and completely side-step these landmines
I can see how much I have and celebrate my plenty by bringing a small slice of heaven to others who have even less.
For most of us, sacred spaces help us to focus, whereas we would otherwise not focus at all. Hence they are worth the opportunity cost they create. But we are well advised to keep that cost in mind. The fact that we are able to focus on God in the synagogue does not mean we should forget God outside!
Long before social media posts and tweets, the Kotzker delivered messages in short, bite-size form. Here are just a few of his gems
Absolute truth is dangerous in the hands of people who do not realize how much they do not know. Just as I cringe when someone declares that he knows the reason for the Holocaust, I shudder when people authoritatively declare people they don't know to be heretics and sinners. Knowing that I don't know opens the door to listening and learning, an opportunity to discover more about God, people, and me.
What we spend time on says as much or more about what we truly value than what we might occasionally mention
If there is a great Creator performing these awesome miracles then I, Yitro, must serve Him and devote my life to that service.
Tu B'Shevat is a reminder once a year of the most important commodities: patience, continued labor, investment, devotion.
I finished reading that the Israeli chief rabbinate invalidating numerous conversions, opened the weekly portion, and enjoyed a hearty chuckle when I remembered that the portion of Revelation and the Ten Statements is named for a convert, a failed one, Yitro. Things sure have changed.
Without the excuse of not being completely sure about the truth of God and His commandments, there is still a doubt whether people will do what they know to be right and to their advantage.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to be passionate about our Yiddishkeit.
I am desperately searching for a filter that purifies the twisted Lishon haRah we use to speak of God: the positive attributes in which we unhesitatingly express our belief.
Miriam and the women who followed her recognized that Israel would be unable to move forward until they forgave God for their suffering and their fear. So they sang of God desiring to share His power with them so that they too would be able to "hurl horse with rider into the sea," as Israel does to Amalek in the closing scene of the portion.
Rashi might be reminding us Jews in almost every generation had to deal with non-Jews who challenged their faith, making it our job to hold fast to Torah, the Torah we already understand and the Torah we continue to work to understand.
It is in moments of illness that we are compelled to recognize that we live not alone but chained to a creature of a different kingdom, whole worlds apart, who has no knowledge of us and by whom it is impossible to make ourselves understood: our body. -Marcel Proust
It seems very likely that when the Jews put the blood on the doorposts, it was meant as a strong statement of protest against Egypt and about the holiness of life. In other words, whereas the Egyptians made even human life a commodity, the Jews were bidden to sanctify the essence of life even in animals.
Where is our Exodus? If the question is about miraculous salvation and the punishment of our enemies, I have no answer. If the question is a quest for experiencing greatness, the answer is the Mitzvot
Of course, we do not expect our elected leaders to be Moshe Rabbeinu---but wouldn't it be great if just one were great.
The Torah is teaching us a very important lesson regarding how to criticize and rebuke people.
Great loss to Israel and the Yemenite community.
God hears, and responds. God hears our prayers, and in so doing, gives voice to a powerful message of love. Can you hear it?
How would Jewish history have looked if the Jews had been able to hear Moshe, had fought through their shortness of spirit and harshness of work to be enthusiastic about the news?
The women believed that Hashem would free the Jewish people and they showed their belief by having children.
BH Baruch HaShem: B&H is a real Kiddush Hashem
We are sorely lacking signs from God today. They are lacking, since our courage and resourcefulness often end when we have no indication of what God wants from us. This is the tragic situation of God’s hiding Himself
The Tzadik, whenever he reaches some higher level, some spiritual accomplishment, doesn't want to forget for a moment that there's more, that he's incomplete, that there are infinite levels of progress that remain to a human being.
Yaakov's blessings conveyed to his children the characteristic at the epicenter of their being.
Each prayer, Shabbat, Torah study and Mitzvah offer us, in our imperfections, to connect with the Eternal. Jacob insists that we first reject the shame we've carried since Adam and Eve, and understand that there is a place in Paradise even for the imperfect.
This year, on the 10th of Tevet, on this sad day, we received news of the passing of Rona Ramon z"l, wife of Ilan Ramon, z"l, and mother of Asaf Ramon, z"l.
Much ink has been spilled on what Rambam meant and how he interpreted aggadic stories, and I have nothing of substance to add here. I instead want to point out he also sometimes takes as historical fact stories we might dismiss as homiletical.
Besides for heat and light there is a deeper understanding of fire we need to discover.
In Vayigash, Yehudah teaches us what attitude we should have in life: Sincerity
The quarks, atoms and molecules that make up our reality are constantly given life and existence by God. It is that divine aspect that also allows us to absorb these elements into our being and in some fashion that we have trouble comprehending, elevate the spiritual sparks of these items by consuming them.
Earlier commentators may well have still shuddered in awe when they thought of Ya’akov’s daughters – how could it be that they would exist and that we would not know about them?
Could Judah REALLY expect the Viceroy to grasp his subtle threats and insults when translated? He didn't.
It has been one year since the passing of Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman at the age of 104, on Chanukah Eve. Many stories were published about his wisdom, Torah learning, sensitivity and perseverance, but the most resounding message he left for us is embodied by the way in which he chose to leave this world: […]
September 11, 2026 
