יום חמישי, י״ד אלול תשפ״וThursday, August 27, 2026
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Eliyahu shared his own pain. I’m Elyakim’s father, he said. He was a security guard at the Nova festival. He saved lives and was killed doing so. And you, Nachman, you survived. Tell me, why did you survive? Nachman had no answer.
Adhering to a prohibition like sha’atnez which has kept the Jews alive, but makes as little sense to the layman as the chemical-formula of a life-saving medication, earns the respect of the nations because it is a secret formula that neither they nor us could ever have invented.
The baal habayis could not understand why he merited a visit from R’ Avraham and his son. He waited for the Rav to eat from the delicacies that had been prepared, but R’ Avraham just sat and didn’t do anything.
Moshe gave the Shema knowing he would not cross the Jordan. He prepared his people not with possessions, but with patterns. That is the quiet brilliance of leadership: offering rhythm in place of proximity.
If one were to ask: was it worth experiencing a Holocaust which decimated one third of our people in order to attain a State of Israel? – not only would an affirmative answer be blasphemous, but so is the question.
Notwithstanding Moshe’s defense, the common theme running through these incidents is ingratitude. They had so much to be thankful for. Yet they chose to complain.
If Tzion is to be redeemed, will her captives not be freed as well?
I was taught to make a Kiddush Hashem no matter where I stand; in a parking lot among our own, or as the only Jew in town. Space doesn’t define sanctity. Behavior does. Especially when no one’s watching. Especially when they are.
How was Yonasan allowed to rebuke his own father, Shaul?
How contemporary the Gemara rings when it says the destruction of Yerushalayim puzzled and perplexed the sages, prophets, and angels! It shouldn’t cause us any wonder that we are unable to explain the atrocities of the Holocaust when even prophets and angels were confounded by the similar disasters of yesteryear.
Our justice and our morality are the truth. I’m learning Torah now – chassidut, parashat hashavua. How did I not know about this treasure until now? You shouldn’t have to lose a child, or turn 57, to begin asking who you are and why you’re here.
G-d instructs Moshe that before he dies he must wage war against the people of Midian for having enticed the leaders of Israel to behave immorally with the Midianite women. This event led to the plague that killed 24,000 Jews (Bamidbar 25:9).
In every home I’ve lived in, one thing has remained constant, a quiet covenant. It’s a reminder of Hashem’s presence, much like a mezuzah, though not one in form.
The fact that there are 42 journeys is not incidental, it corresponds to the name of HaKadosh Baruch Hu that has 42 letters.
The person who sinned and has now repented had to fight harder to conquer his Evil Inclination than the righteous individual.
Another way to get close to the Shechinah is by visiting the sick. As Rashi teaches us in Parshas Vayechi, The Shechinah always resides by the head of a choleh, an ill person.
When someone makes shalom between rival parties, what does that mean?
Going out before the people and going in before them is one type of leadership. It is the leadership of the humble public servant who bends before the needs of his people.
Not every gut impulse is a moral directive. When we confuse conscience with certainty, we risk mistaking personal anger for sacred missions.
Rabbbeinu Bachye finds it problematic to accept the literal interpretation that Hashem somehow erred, requiring our intercession on His behalf. He explains that the real purpose of this mitzvah of the Chatat on Rosh Chodesh is to give hope to those who have gone astray but wish to return to the faithful service of Hashem.
Striking the right balance between Torah and one’s livelihood is a tricky business. Especially since making a living is a mitzvah in itself.
We live such public and exposed lives today, yet in this week’s parsha we are reminded to seek the blessing of privacy.
In Parshat Balak, Bilaam never saw the people he was meant to curse. He viewed them from a distance; abstractly, impersonally. His words came not from relationship, but rather from obligation, from politics, from agenda. And yet they could have reshaped a people’s destiny.
Balak realized that Midyan and Moav, the erstwhile enemies, would have to make a truce and gang up as allies against Israel. But since G-d was on Israel’s side, there was no way he could prevent the Jews from ultimately taking over the land.
Balak was evil – he did not want to elevate himself to the level of Am Yisrael, he wanted to reduce Am Yisrael down to his level, or even lower.
His father told him: You decide which yeshiva you want to go to. Don’t tell me your decision. When the day comes to leave to yeshiva, take your suitcase, go to the yeshiva, and I don’t want to know where you are going.
Idolatry is insidious and it sneaks into the hearts of the unwary by way of small compromises and prohibited acts that appear insignificant at first.
It is impossible to reach an agreement with Amalek, because the only thing that will satisfy them is our obliteration and…G-d's name in the world can never be complete until Amalek is obliterated.
Because if it is corruption we are worried about, there is no greater corruption and source of impurity than the presence of death itself.
The attitude that one knows that you’ve got my back isn’t born overnight. It’s achieved with a persistent series of small acts and gestures where husband and wife demonstrate that you are first in my book.
When one makes peace in his home, the Torah considers it as if he established peace among the entire Jewish Nation.
Destruction and death come to those who do not serve G-d out joy but out of fear alone.
I’m not sure whether people fully grasp the magnitude of the miracle. Just the day before, the floors of the building that was hit had been cleared. Entire departments had been relocated to reinforced areas.
Someone who understands reality on such a level also begins to see that all of humanity is really bound together as a cohesive whole.
The theological questions from October 7 appear to be answering themselves in a way we can more readily understand.
[Democracy] is contingent on both sides respecting each other and not crossing red lines. When that breaks down, democracy ceases to function and it degenerates into illegitimate anarchy.
Advice is like snow—the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A humble person does not take credit for his power, his riches, or his intelligence, because he knows it is all from Hashem.
I believe that Hashem is sending these unfortunate people to us as a gift to enhance and strengthen our prayers.
It is no coincidence that Israel courageously attacked Iran in the week the Torah portion tells us: “When you are at war in your land against an aggressor who attacks you, you shall sound short blasts on the trumpets, that you may be remembered before your God and be delivered from your enemies.”
The Rogatchover Gaon emphasizes specifically that Eretz Yisrael is only acquired through tribulation (Brachot 5), noting how inappropriate it is for someone to expect to gain the fruits of the labor of another – especially when somebody has to go to war to defend the land and somebody else expects to just sit at home and benefit from this.
Many marriages have been ruined by the well-meaning but poor advice of friends.
The aveirah of the meraglim was their own lack of faith, and their determination to weaken the faith of the Jewish nation.
When the spies returned with a bunch of grapes so big it could only be carried by ten people and one fig which could hardly be carried by one person, instead of praising the land which grew such produce, they became concerned that the price of such opulence was too expensive and that they would not be able to afford to pay for it with mitzvot.
Think about this for a moment. They were just about to enter Eretz Yisrael and Eldad and Meidad's prophecy revealed that Moshe would die and Yehoshua would lead Bnei Yisrael into the land flowing with milk and honey. Did this phase Moshe? Not in the least.
Some 200 years ago, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov wrote a statement that I find amazing: The time will come when being an upright and simple person will be as revolutionary as being the Baal Shem Tov.
If a person ploughs his field when it is time to plow, sows his seeds when it is time to sow, reaps his produce when it is time to reap , thrashes his grain when it is time to thrash and winnows the grain when it is time to winnow, when will he have time to learn Torah? (Berachos 35b).
We cannot totally control our sustenance – not the food we eat, nor the money we earn.
This is Judaism’s unique gift: the slow accumulation of wisdom through repeated encounters with Torah. Not through theoretical lectures, but through real life examples.
Every time we discover a new Torah deMoshe MiSinai, an unprovenanced edict associated colloquially with Moshe, we are reaffirming our connection to that primary source of all Torah and to Moshe who passed it on to us.
Home is not where you live, but where they understand you.— Christian Morgenstern
He leaped off the jeep, shouting that he’d take the next one.
Know Hashem in all your ways – serious or inconsequential – for every ounce of success comes from Hashem.
As we are taught, Ein tzaddik ba’aretz asher yaaseh tov v’lo yecheta – There is no righteous person in this world who does good and doesn’t sin, there is certainly what to worry about.
Wealth can also lead one astray: Wealth hoarded by its owner is to his detriment (Koheles 5:12). Avshalom was blessed with beautiful hair (Sotah 11a) and Shimshon was blessed with strength, but these attributes led them astray.
Parshat Naso, as you know, is the longest single parsha in the Torah. In most years, Naso follows Shavuot, which is appropriate – once we receive the Torah, the next thing is to dive straight in and begin reading the longest parsha in the Torah. There are 176 pesukim in Parshat Naso. An interesting […]
With regard to the Birkas Kohanim, the Zohar comments that actions performed in this earthly world inspire astounding conduct in Heaven. When the Kohanim spread their fingers to bless the Jewish people, it rouses the Divine Presence to dwell upon His people.
Israel is blessed in the merit of the three fathers, also in whose merit the Torah was given.
Our response now must be as it like at Har Sinai, to turn to one another with a sense of oneness, love, and unity and to wish each other chazak
Like in an election, the division of the land among the twelve tribes had to be supervised by officials who made sure that there would be no fraud involved in allocating the land.
Pesach and Shavuot...represent the liberation of the body and the liberation of the mind, respectively.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.— Proverb (widely attributed to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux)
How do Torah scholars make more peace in the world?
R’ Elazar states that all agree, though, that on the holiday of Shavuos, we are obligated to eat and drink because it is the day on which the Torah was given. R’ Shimshon Nachmani, the renowned Zera Shimshon, notes that this conclusion seems paradoxical. We would think that the day commemorating the giving of the Torah would be dedicated solely to spirituality, to Torah study.
The total weight of the shulchan with the lechem hapanim was over 551 pounds.
Indeed the laws of Shemittah were meant to be given at Har Sinai because the original plan was that we would enter the land of Israel a short while later, not forty years later.
Unlike the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land, the return to Zion in modern times has been a natural event within the confines of nature.
One possible explanation that Rashi finds in the Midrash is that all of the general principles were received at Har Sinai; however, many of the specifics were taught by Moshe in the land of Moav immediately before the crossing of the Yarden.
Faith is not certainty. It is the courage to live with uncertainty.— Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Torah does not have a set place. It can be found anywhere. It should be found everywhere.
When a person appears before the Heavenly Court, he is asked whether he properly fulfilled the mitzvah of you shall strengthen him.
Detach yourself from the illusions of this world and focus on the true realities of the world and Who determines them…. Today you do not take care of yourselves, I take care of you.
As we exist in the world and interact with it, we receive input and understand our surroundings by means of the data we collect, chiefly by way of our senses. But because we also have the ability to communicate with one another, we learn much useful information about the world from each another.
When Yosef related his dreams to his brothers and to his father, his brothers became jealous of him. Not his father. His father shamar es ha’davar, kept it in mind and looked forward to the time when Yosef’s dreams would come true (Rashi to Bereishis 37:11).
Joy in Judaism is not hedonic; it is redemptive, cathartic, and spiritual.— Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
Rebbe Akiva. He is the Jewish hero par excellence, which means that, on some level, his life story encapsulates the values and ideals of the Jewish people. And yet, perhaps not coincidentally, he lived in the shadow of death.
Based on one’s Torah stature in the community [one] must conduct himself beyond the measure of the law.
We must know that the mitzvah of kavod haTorah is even greater than learning Torah. As the Gemara in Masechtas Megilla in the first perek states categorically that while learning Torah does not supersede the hearing of the megillah, giving honor to the Torah does.
One might say that the menorah and the ketoret were temidin, while the lechem hapanim was only switched once a week, on Shabbat. However, although it was only switched once a week, the lechem hapanim was on the shulchan every day, a korban in itself, a repeating miracle that occurred each day anew.
Before the Kohen Gadol could come into G-d’s chamber with the blood of the sacrifice, there was a barrier to entry. That barrier is called lashon hara, slander. G-d cannot abide the presence of slanderers (Arachin 15b).
Flour is the most basic ingredient needed to feed the body, but once it is made into bread, it becomes more associated with physical urges and pleasures and thus potentially detrimental to spiritual growth.
I don’t believe in ghosts. But I’m afraid of them.— Edith Wharton
The Talmud states that when a tzaddik does not pray for another person who needs to do teshuva, then the tzaddik becomes partially responsible for the sinner’s actions and liable for punishment.
Sometimes, the yetzer hara pushes us off until the summer – and then in the summer, he tells us that we need to rest in order to recharge our batteries before the coming winter.
The Ramban says that the word se'ir (goat) is also reminiscent of Eisav, who Yaakov describes as sa'ir (hairy).
G-d does not immediately punish us or strike us down with a bolt of lightning if we speak lashon hara. He warns us in stages.
We ate matzah – boom! We received an injection of faith for the entire year. This dose of faith is absorbed into our bodies and souls. It doesn’t matter how we felt. Consciously or unconsciously, we have been transformed by this experience.
Aharon was silent out of pride in his sons.
Why was it preferable, then, for Hashem to penalize Nadav and Avihu for their wrongdoing on this very special day during the chanukas hamishkan when it certainly detracted from the happiness of all the people gathered?
According to one opinion, the second keruv on the parochet was not a lion but had the face of an eagle! This eagle was present in both the first and second Batei Mikdash, until they were destroyed.
When Hashem judges us and confers upon us the things we deserve in this world, our Sages teach, He responds to us middah keneged middah, in a manner befitting the conduct we have exhibited.
It is interesting to note that while everyone assumes that the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea was punishment middah k’neged middah for drowning our children in the Nile, this is really not such a simple explanation.
On the Shabbat before Pesach, Israel risked everything to begin offering the Korban Pesach, and in doing so we made ourselves great, making G-d that much greater in proportion. This manifestation of the Divine light of redemption – in just the moment we most needed to see it – was the greatest thing Hashem could do for us.
Unlike the Olah which was entirely burned on the altar, only a handful of the flour, called the kometz, was burned on the altar (Vayikra 6:5).
Involving our bodies in the holiness of looking for chametz or preparing for Shabbat is something that can become a habit. That is not to say that we shouldn’t use our minds to superimpose even greater meaning on these actions while we perform them. But it does mean that accustoming our bodies to do good things has value unto itself
We are all believers. We believe in Hashem and all the Thirteen Principles of Faith. However, we are a work in progress, growing our emunah every moment of every day.
It is no coincidence that the seder night was when Yitzchak gave the blessings both to Yaakov and to Eisav, thus demonstrating his love for Eisav too!
Fire is something that belongs in Heaven, that is its place. It is therefore not difficult to understand that fire came down from Heaven onto the mizbe'ach. What is difficult to understand is the mitzvah for us to add our own fire.
Sometimes, because of the low spiritual state of Israel going out of bondage, there are intermediate steps in order for growth to be achieved. The Rambam understands the sacrificial rite in this spirit. He sees the korbanot as serving a practical purpose in weaning Israel off of the idolatrous customs of primitive civilizations.
August 21, 2026 
