יום רביעי, א׳ כסלו תשפ״זWednesday, November 11, 2026
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ven with all the news stories about “the best teacher I had” or “the teacher who changed my life,” there is no doubt that the teachers who influence us the most are our parents.
Our Divine soul’s life-force, which enlivens our body, is intended to be utilized solely for fulfilling G-d’s will.
The primary quality of anyone judging another is that the judge first know how to judge himself. If he cannot honestly examine his own behavior, how can he possibly judge someone else's?
Before our matriarch Rivkah gave birth to Yaakov and Eisav, a Heavenly message told her they represented two opposing nations, “and one nation will struggle to overcome the other nation” (Bereishis 28:23).
If a person leads a meritorious life, the good is revealed. If he doesn’t, the good is camouflaged and appears to be bad.
How does contemporary Judaism deal with the great challenge of Torah laws no longer practiced?
Leaders on all levels must pay careful attention to the commander's intent as a misunderstanding can result in terrible consequences.
What makes someone great, really great? Many commentators say the answer to this question is hidden in the following verses from this week's parshah
As urgent as this call was at the beginning of the 20th century, it is even more urgent in this era when Jewish communities are more exposed than ever to the influences of the secular world.
The Chofetz Chaim says that if one has the power to correct a situation among Klal Yisrael and fails to do so, he is culpable for any blood spilled among them.
Sins woven into the fabric of a society have a weight individuals’ sins do not. Communities must set standards, make sure people do not forget the nature of right and wrong, however far from it they may stray.
I wish all of us, parents and teachers, would listen to everything our children ask and say. I dream of our hearing them so well that we can begin to visualize and relate to them as who they can be when they fulfill all their potential.
Why should we rejoice on Shabbos like those who received the Torah?
Not only is a person capable of saying Shema while being tortured and killed; he must do so.
In the modern era, many nations introduced compulsory education and in the process tried compelling Jews to change their curricula.
" Nachamu, Nachamu, is not a repetition, but a Song of Act Two--uf new beginnings and of hope.
“Man reached the moon. But man to man he has yet to reach.”
Originally, the brothers condemned Yosef for being a rodef, but in the end they were haggling over his clothing and extra shoes.
It is the easiest to only praise, to be "all smiles and hearts," but if you truly care about someone, you do not flatter him. You help him become better.
The astronauts, too, had to follow every detail of their instructions, utterly negating their own desires.
The word eichah is a word we heard from Moshe Rabbenu, calling us to realize we weren’t aiming as high as we could. We could have heeded it then, and put ourselves on a better path. We heard it centuries later, a call to see how we were setting ourselves up for destruction. Two calls we unfortunately ignored, leading to the third eichah, which continues to ring in our hardened ears.
The Jewish people’s affairs are connected with, and depend on, the Torah in its entirety...
The Baal Shem Tov told his disciples that all the dozens of journeys detailed in this parshah exist also in each person's life – from the day of his birth to the day he leaves this world. In every journey, one has to move upwards and learn something new.
Flattery is such a grievous avairah that Tosafos even discusses whether flattery is permissible in an emergency.
One of the more fruitless political debates in the United States is whether strict restriction of gun permits would add to public safety. One of the reasons it is fruitless is that both sides muster flawed analogies to other societies.
Ben-Gurion understood both the strategic and symbolic value of Yerushalayim.
He then called out, “Zechariah, Zechariah, I have killed the best. Do you want me to kill them all?”
"Starting today, every child to us is like one thousand children." These words were said by Rabbi Herzog to the Pope after the Holocaust when he went out on a journey to find Jewish children who were transferred to convents and monasteries to avoid deportation to Nazi concentration camps, and were baptized to Christianity there. Rav Herzog wound up returning many children to their faith, people, and homeland.
Hashem gave us the Torah and we forged a connection with Him. The bond that existed after Har Sinai wasn't temporary, it was tamid, constant.
Moshiach, when he comes, will reveal the deeper reasons for every detail of Torah observance – why it is necessary to perform particular mitzvos in specific ways and what each detail accomplishes in the spiritual realm.
Location, Location, Location
Having a good eye means one is able to view others positively on an intellectual level.
The next time we face a rainy day, let's not feel down.
Higher than the question of our duration is the question of our deserving. Immortality will come to such as are fit for it, and he would be a great soul in future must be a great soul now. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
During the Three Weeks, the Rebbe recommended learning more Torah, giving more tzedakah, and increasing activities of ahavas Yisrael.
R’ Yisroel Salanter noted that some people are very careful to observe rabbinic mitzvos…but do not take seriously a Torah prohibition like lashon hara.
In Judaism, since sin is not a foregone conclusion, we hold ourselves fully accountable for it. Likewise do we hold others accountable – if not to us, then certainly to God. And so the daughters of Tzelophad put this out about their father – and about everyone else.
Hashem doesn’t ask a person, “What did you do?” He asks, “What are you able to do?”
The Rebbe Rayatz, however, refused to leave. He considered it his duty to uphold Torah study and observance even under such trying conditions.
This coming Shabbat will be the 25th Yahrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The mission and legacy he left for us is more relevant than ever
Bilam describes himself as yode’a da’at ‘Elyon, knows the mind of the most-High. Mockingly, the Gemara says “the mind of his own donkey he does not know, he knows the mind of the most-High?” [A line mori ve-rabi R. Lichtenstein zt”l used to invoke frequently, to warn us against glibly asserting we know why Hashem acts in various ways].
Most of Rashi’s comments derive from the Talmud or Midrash. But he almost always changes the wording or quotes specifically one of several versions.
Parshat Korach reminds us that seeing the good we have, and not coveting the good others have, is more urgent than almost anything else.
She argued that Moshe was fabricating his own laws until Korach finally became convinced…and organized a revolt.
In contrast to the previous generation – and as we will soon see more clearly – this generation was really saying, “Let’s get to our land already.”
We assume we know as well as our leaders less because they have failed to prove themselves or have shown deficiencies than because of our attachment to seeing ourselves a certain way. And, as was true of Korach and his group, we do so to our detriment.
They considered themselves like grasshoppers, and did not believe they had the zechusim to conquer the land.
This week's parshah teaches us that there is almost no such thing as objectivity. We are all subjective. All of us speak from our own world of values.
Chassidus explains that the spies weren’t afraid they couldn’t defeat the Canaanites. They didn’t wish to enter the Land because they knew they would be forced to become involved in the material world as a result.
The Maharsham adds that only when we acknowledge that we are unable to triumph over the enemy will we be able to be unafraid and will Hashem bring about our salvation.
No seeing anything improper is crucial to retaining one's kedushah.
Never to old to be a Bar Mitzvah.
When encouraging Jews to fulfill mitzvos they didn’t grow up observing, we take into account the difficulties they may experience.
There are two more positive lessons that can be learned. The first is to always second-guess ourselves. The second lesson is that no matter how devastating events may be, we must muster the courage and strength to keep going.
The great mussar giants often said: It is not the hand that has to strike the heart; it is the heart that has to hit the hand.
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."
November 6, 2026 
