My Mother
Someone called my mother, the oak tree. If you needed someone to lean on, my mother was there for you. She knew that people were different, and she accepted them as they were.
Multiple Commitments
The wedding was beautiful, baruch Hashem, and the pictures came out nicely. Still, when the dust settled, the added expense lingered in Mr. Simcha’s mind.
Daf Yomi
A Sefer Torah That Fell
“As Though Bitten by a Snake”
(Menachos 32b)
The First Baruch Hashem
The Jewish people did thank Hashem, but they waited. They waited for the sea to split, for the danger to pass, for the story to reach its resolution. And only then, in a powerful, collective, composed moment, they sang. It was magnificent. It was holy. It was exactly right.
A New Language of Am Yisrael
It is an important call for individuals and humanity as a whole to exercise self-control, restrain impulses, and manage a world that has boundaries and red lines.
Parshas Yisro: The Healing Work of Sinai
The Israelites have survived slavery, survived the plagues, survived the waters closing behind them. But survival is not the same as readiness. Freedom does not erase the patterns that oppression carves into the mind and heart. The Torah does not rush past this truth; it lingers in it.
The Daf and the Search for Remains of Last Hostage
The massive armada of vehicles and people to personally search for the remains of the last Israeli hostage – police officer Ran Gvili – will be forever etched into the minds and hearts not just of Jews but of people of good will throughout the world.
Coercive and Voluntary
Yisro saw that the Jews were attacked by Amalek from behind, when they were weak and exhausted. The natural course of events should have resulted in their total defeat. But he witnessed G-d’s prescription for salvation.
Q & A: What Constitutes Sheimot (Part I)
Question: I am the gabbai in a large synagogue. Many people bring Divrei Torah handouts to distribute. As such, I am faced with disposing of the constantly growing accumulation of sheimot. How do I deal with these papers that include the names of Hashem in many substitute forms, mostly in English?
No name please
Via e-mail
Eliezer My Son – Yitro
I would like to explore the character that was R' Eliezer ben Horkenos, also known as R' Eliezer HaGadol, because of the important lessons we learn from him about Matan Torah.
What’s a Father For?
Fathers must consider that beyond their financial inheritance, there is a spiritual yerusha that is their true inheritance. A life occupied with hours spent in the office or making deals but at the cost of family life is not a yerusha after all.
Before the Fire
Would it not have been more striking to open the section of Yitro with the thunder and fire of revelation itself? More iconic, more symbolic, to move directly into the moment when Hashem speaks?
What Did Yitro Hear?
Until Israel had accepted our collective purpose and come to embody the Will of the Creator to have a nation among nations to perform His commandments and act on His behalf, there were only tribes and families.
The Ten Commandments
Why do the Ten Commandments not include the most important of all mitzvos, the study of Torah?
Nobility
Yerushalayim was destroyed because the people of that generation disparaged its Torah scholars.
Smoke Signals from Sodom
I will add a comparison between the altar and this stone. The altar represented service to G-d. In serving G-d, one goes gradually up and ascends a ramp. There can be no rush-jobs in approaching G-d – at least from our side of the relationship.
Parshat Yitro and the Big Ten: More Than Meets the Eye
Let me break down the sedra into neat sections. We start with Yitro himself, identified as a Midianite priest and father-in-law of Moshe (a very odd combination of titles), coming to join Moshe and Bnei Yisrael. When did he come? What did he hear that motivated him to join our nation?
Willpower: Generating Momentum for Our Return
The feeling of making a great decision leads you to another great decision, and the cycle continues.
Staum’s Brother
I have noted in this column that it’s a beautiful feeling to have nachas from one’s parents. I should add that the same is true about having nachas from one’s siblings.
Soul Searching
We can generally guesstimate the time for Yizkor with an impressive degree of accuracy, but on Shavuos all bets are definitely off.
Recognizable Hat
If I saw the hat, I could probably identify it, suggested David Baruch. I’m able to recognize it on the coatrack even though there are many similar hats.
Daf Yomi
Apples and Oranges
“Two Menachos Were Mixed but the Handfuls Were Not Taken”
(Menachos 23a)
Alexander’s Story
Alexander was a man of integrity and a proud Jew. He loved the Land of Israel and the Jewish people.
Shabbos Shira and the Quieter Music that Follows
There’s a reason the man arrives before the Aseres HaDibros. A people who have only known extraction cannot receive law until they first learn sufficiency.
Natural Miracles
They needed another forty years during which time G-d would show them more indisputable miracles like splitting the sea, extracting water from a rock and raining manna from heaven.
Q & A: Halacha & the Oral Law (Part II)
Question: The Written Law is there plain to see as it’s found in the five Books of Moses. However, from whence does the Oral Law come? I’m not asking as one who doubts its veracity – rather, I would simply like to know and not just follow blindly.
Mark Grosz
Via E-mail
From Up or Down – Beshalach
There are different streams in the Torah world today regarding the Beit HaMikdash. The common denominator between them all is that they all want the third Beit HaMikdash to be rebuilt. The only question is how and when.
Why Does Amalek Want to Destroy Israel?
At the splitting of the sea, we learn that Hashem is willing and able to overturn the laws of nature as He sees fit to intervene on behalf of His chosen people.
We Did Not Leave Him Behind
His return was neither simple nor swift. It was not the result of chance, but of determination – quiet, disciplined, and relentless. Israeli Defense Forces soldiers, together with doctors, forensic specialists, and dentists, entered the heart of Gaza on a mission unlike any other.