יום רביעי, ח׳ אב תשפ״וWednesday, July 22, 2026
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Why do the Ten Commandments not include the most important of all mitzvos, the study of Torah?
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.
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?
The feeling of making a great decision leads you to another great decision, and the cycle continues.
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.
By Naama Klein
We can generally guesstimate the time for Yizkor with an impressive degree of accuracy, but on Shavuos all bets are definitely off.
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.
Apples and Oranges “Two Menachos Were Mixed but the Handfuls Were Not Taken” (Menachos 23a)
Alexander was a man of integrity and a proud Jew. He loved the Land of Israel and the Jewish people.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
This was measure for measure for the lachatzeinu, intense pressure, that the Egyptian taskmasters inflicted upon Bnei Yisrael nonstop.
One who finds it difficult to daven all the tefillos in the morning – from the berachos through Aleinu – if he can manage to recite the Shema that would be sufficient. If he cannot say all of the Shema, even the recitation of the first paragraph would be good, or at least the first two lines of the Shema could still be powerful.
Chazal mention a few cases of kefitzas ha’derech. One is when Yaakov travels from the house of Yitzchak, narrowly escaping Eisav’s clutches. Another is when Eliezer embarks on a journey to find a wife for Yitzchak. There are several others as well, but what do these cases have in common? Do they share any deeper connection?
Much of our reality is constructed by our personal beliefs. If we believe in forgiveness, we can be forgiving of others as well as ourselves.
When the Gemara in Kiddushin reflects on the value of honoring parents, it presents it not as a narrow religious demand but as a foundational moral duty. Kibbud av va’eim cultivates gratitude, disciplines the ego, and lays the groundwork for a value-driven society, built in layers and carried across generations. To underscore its universal […]
Most Torah scrolls today have 245 columns with 42 lines on each column. The first letter at the top of each column is a Vav (this is not a requirement, but is a common style of Sifrei Torah), with the exception of five columns.
Rabbi Moshe Weinberger notes that although to the uneducated person it seems that a tree’s entire growth is dependent on the nourishment it receives from its roots in the ground, that is actually not the case.
His chavrusa considered this carefully. A pledge to tzedakah is binding, he said. The question is whether placing money in the shul’s box is considered delivery to the shul – or if it’s still your responsibility until the shul’s treasurer actually receives it.
A Jew’s Altar “Or If He… Did Not Salt It…” (Menachos 18a)
Unlike Moshe’s previous meetings with Pharaoh in which he was instructed by G-d to ask Pharaoh to release the Jews and threaten him with plagues in the hope that he would comply, in the opening scene of Parshas Bo, G-d gave Moshe no such instructions.
What has always struck me is that the Torah does not erase the plagues. It does not soften them. It does not pretend that the suffering did not occur. Instead, it asks us to hold the full truth...
Question: The Written Law is there plain to see as it is 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 just like to know and not simply follow blindly. Mark Grosz Via E-mail
The two chapters he dedicates to Parshat HaChodesh, which is found in this week’s parsha, contain profound and beautiful insights into the nature of the Nation of Israel and our unique relationship to the moon.
Rabbi Yeruchom Levovitz (1873–1936) of the Mir Yeshiva in Belarus told his students: Woe to the one who does not know his weaknesses, for he does not know what to fix.
An integral component of the exile from Egypt included an unmatched zeal and enthusiasm to flee, so much so that there was not sufficient time for the dough to rise. So too must eagerness and ardor be essential elements in our fulfillment of Torah and mitzvos.
As we familiarize ourselves with the concept of middah k’neged middah, it should be an incentive for us to adopt certain behaviors and inhibitions to avoid other behaviors.
The mitzvah is to create a Jewish Calendar which is based on sanctifying each month by Sanhedrin’s declaration of kedusha of the first day of each month, and the periodic decision of Sanhedrin to intercalate the year (with an extra Adar) in order to adjust the years so that Pesach will always be in the spring season (and Sukkot in the fall).
The Torah is replete with mention of Eretz Yisrael’s greatness and uniqueness. While we often hear about Eretz Yisrael’s unique kedusha (holiness), we must ask: What is the nature of this holiness, uniqueness, and greatness?
Tum’ah, representing death and the vacuum of G-d’s life-force, brings impurity. But humans have free will, and when it comes to our loss of connection to G-d, we must also reach out and cannot receive blanket dispensation.
When slavery began, we were cast as a threat to society. Pharaoh could only sell his genocidal policy to the broader public of Mitzrayim by turning us into a symbol of danger.
Providing a needy person with employment is considered the highest form of tzedakah because it preserves his self-dignity (Y.D. 249:6; Shach 249:7), replied Rabbi Dayan.
Double Trouble? “Two Handfuls” (Menachos 11b)
Ran went out to confront absolute evil. And it is the same evil we see today, asserting itself in Iran against its own people and elsewhere against anyone who stands for freedom and truth. We pray that this too will fall, that another hateful regime, another Jew-hating empire, will be thrown onto history’s scrap heap, just as others before it.
The plague of hail involved two opposing forces, water and fire. Under normal circumstances these forces cannot coexist peacefully, they are diametric opposites of each other. HaKadosh Baruch Hu miraculously made peace between them and unleashed them upon Egypt.
Experts declared: this should not have happened.
Geulah is not an escape; it is a return. It is the moment when a person remembers who they are and who they were meant to be.
Question: Seemingly the only place in our Torah where the matter of a birthday celebration is mentioned is regarding the birthday of Pharaoh. The only birthday celebration that we as Jews celebrate is a bar mitzvah – a young man’s 13th birthday. Is there greater significance to that day more than to any other? Yitzchak Gutman Via E-mail
But the people were overworked and under pressure and they had no time for seemingly empty promises... It was hard for them to believe in a vacuum. They needed to see some concrete results.
The danger of not listening is not limited to kings, tyrants, or political leaders intoxicated by success. It confronts all of us.
One of the key characteristics we see of Moshe that make him uniquely qualified for prophecy is his attention to detail in the face of the unusual.
In general, Klal Yisrael chooses its great people very differently than does the other nations. Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman, zt”l, zy”a, never ran for office. Rav Pam, zt”l, zy”a, never strutted his credentials. To the contrary, they ran from honor and it was that very humility that knighted them to be the leaders of our people.
A person who can feel the pain of others is more suited to be a leader. For that reason, Hashem first tested Moshe to verify that he had the sensitivity to be able to share in the distress of his brethren.
The idea is not necessarily to add cups at the Seder, nor to take the focus off the Exodus and that special night – but to flesh out the significance of what happened at Har Sinai.
When someone invests in any project, there is a sense of ownership and pride that creates a stronger bond. This is an important principle in chinuch as well, especially in our times where discipline is much less about punishment and more about motivation via “chains of love” (the famous words of the Chazon Ish, Y.D. 2:28).
The transition from Torah She’bichsav to Torah She’baal Peh introduced a number of fundamental shifts in our relationship with Torah. These include the introduction of machlokes and a mode of “hearing” as opposed to “seeing.”
It’s not exactly the advice you might have expected from a leading Torah personality. But the truth is that one immersed in Torah wisdom has a keen and deep understanding of human personality and motivation.
Shimon spoke up. The hammock was fine when we were on it until Dovid joined, he said. He pushed it over the limit – it’s his fault.
Intrinsic, Danger, or Dilution? “From That Allowed to Jews” (Menachos 5a)
The cry of Bnei Yisrael is the first act of geulah. No armies, no influence, and still the world turns. The cry pierces the heavens, awakens, and sets redemption in motion.
The 12 sons of Yaakov did not assimilate into the Egyptian culture. They did not change their Jewish names, shemam, they did not abandon their Hebrew language, leshonam and they did not discard their traditional attire, malbusham – which three Hebrew words form the acronym shalom, peace.
Although in the Torah some people were named directly by HaKadosh Baruch Hu (like Noach for example), in most cases it is the parents who give names to their children. How does a parent choose an appropriate name?
Question: Seemingly the only place in our Torah where the matter of a birthday celebration is mentioned is regarding the birthday of Pharaoh. The only birthday celebration that we as Jews celebrate is a bar mitzvah – a young man’s 13th birthday. Is there greater significance to that day more than to any other? Yitzchak Gutman Via Email
Whereas B’reishit is far from the average among the Five Books – size at one extreme and mitzvot at the other – Sh’mot is very close to average among the Chumashim.
Committing something to writing renders it static and finalized, and writing down the Oral Torah would limit its wisdom to finite fragments of individual statements, causing the shards of truth to remain shattered and broken.
Who could envision the massacre on a serene beach in Australia while lighting the Chanukah menorah? Who could contemplate the vicious mobs shouting to ‘globalize the intifada’, taking over shopping malls, college campuses and city sights? All this while jihadists in suits call out ‘there is only one solution’, for the extermination of our land and people.
The Torah (Vayikra 27:8) states that if a person pledges his erech (age-based value) to the Temple treasury but it is beyond his financial means, the Kohen evaluates how much he can pay, and the person pays only that sum, replied Rabbi Dayan.
A Light Unto the Nations “The Sound Thereof Traveled from One End…To the Other…” (Zevachim 116a)
Of course, Yosef wasn’t planning on Yehudah’s powerful speech bringing him to his knees and forcing him to reveal himself as their long-lost brother. Hence, he had to come up with a new plan.
I had the privilege of speaking on stage, and of speaking with these young people afterward. Their eyes shine as they talk about aliyah, about pro-Israel activism on campus, about a Jewish identity that is awakening.
Decades ago, in an eighth-grade classroom in Miami, Rabbi Sherwin Stauber taught the story of Ephraim and Menashe. Two boys sat in that room: One would become Rav Zev Leff of Moshav Matisyahu, the other Dr. David Luchins, my father-in-law. They listened to the same words, but each carried them forward in a distinct way.
Despite the travails of the past, Yaakov did not regret the hardships he experienced. They were all part of the mosaic called life without which he would never have reached this peaceful destination.
Question: Should the goblet used for havdalah be so filled that wine overflows? Additionally, is doing so not a violation of baal tashchit – deliberate wastefulness? George Nevens Via E-mail
On the surface of the Gemara, it seems that Zevulun was complaining that he did not have enough material wealth in his inheritance to provide a livelihood, as opposed to the other tribes, which required HaKadosh Baruch Hu to placate him by listing the natural resources in his inheritance.
Just as the country began to heal, the unthinkable arrived. October 7, 2023. A day that will be remembered as one of the darkest in Jewish history.
We see that in the end, by hook or by crook, so to speak, Og got his merit. Noach might have sensed this potential via Ruach HaKodesh and wanted to avoid it. By the way, this merit came even though, according to the aggadah, Og had an ulterior motive: He was hoping Avraham would die in battle and he could possess Sarah as a wife.
With Sefer Bereishit concluding with Yosef’s death at age 110, we find that the Book’s timeline spans the first 2,309 years of the world’s existence.
The first stage of history lasted from Creation until the time of Purim and Chanukah. This stage was highlighted by the miracles of yetzias Mitzrayim and Matan Torah and the presence of nevuah. During this period, Hashem’s revelation in this world was apparent and clear. The physical world was naturally seen as an expression of a spiritual reality, and it was easy to source the physical back to the spiritual.
For generations, this posture helped shape a steady religious orientation: we focus on the religious obligations of the here and now – Torah, mitzvot, and moral improvement – while the timing of Mashiach and the ultimate reading of history are left to Hakadosh Baruch Hu – Ha-shamayim shamayim la-Hashem, ve-ha’aretz natan li-vnei adam.
Every pasuk, every Mishna and every line of Gemara; every mitzvah, every chesed, and every word of tefillah – make us part of the royal family.
Question: Should the goblet used for Havdalah be so filled that wine overflows? Additionally, is doing so not a violation of baal tashchit – deliberate wastefulness? George Nevens Via E-mail
Religion often asks us to transcend surroundings and stand before Hashem in solitary submission.
Since Mikeitz is Shabbat Chanukah 90% of the time, Vayigash is the Shabbat right after Chanukah 90% of the time. But, since we read the first aliyah of Vayigash at Mincha on the Shabbat when we read Mikeitz, that means that the first part of Vayigash is actually read on Chanukah 90% of the time.
If a non-kosher substance falls into a pot, it is normally nullified by 60 times a permitted substance. If, at a later time, more non-kosher falls in, the nullification may use the entire mixture as a permitted substance to nullify the new material.
By Moshe Gantz and Joseph Miller
When tefillin are purchased from a reputable source and treated properly, most remain kosher for many years. In the experience of many sofrim, most invalidations come from pairs that were never properly made to begin with.
Question: If the concern is that hostile gentiles might persecute us, isn’t there the same worry if the menorah is placed indoors? After all, the candles will likely be seen through the window... How would one light in such a circumstance? Menachem Via E-mail
Do any years have more than one Three-Torah Shabbat? Yes. In Eretz Yisrael, Shabbat Simchat Torah and Shekalim falling on Rosh Chodesh – possible in only one year-type – occurs 4.33% of the time. But no for Chu”L.
Question: I am contemplating traveling to Israel. My flight will take place during Chanukah, which means that I may miss one night’s candle-lighting. What are my options? Yaakov J. Via E-mail
People move people; ideas alone rarely do. When we face difficult tests, we draw strength not from abstractions but from the flesh-and-blood figures who shaped us.
Yaakov, from birth, was perfect - a tzaddik, who until age 77 never left the walls of the yeshiva. Yaakov was a genetic tzaddik from birth and he remained so his entire life. Eisav was born challenged and he never managed to surpass his handicaps.
Looking at it differently, Shabbat Mevorchim is before Chanukah about 40% of the time and on Shabbat Chanukah (with one sedra or the other), 60% of the time.
There is a noticeable difference in the purpose and destinies of the Avot and the Imahot. The Avot are more "universal" and the Imahot are more focused specifically on "giving birth" to the Twelve Tribes, to Am Yisrael.
There are different methods of calculating numeric value. One such method is called AL-BAM, in which alef corresponds to lamed, bet to mem, gimel to nun, and so on. AL-BAM gematria is based on taking the first 11 letters of the alef-bet and matching them with the second set of 11 letters. The values that result are: Alef = 30, Bet = 40, Gimel = 50, Dalet = 60... Lamed = 1, Mem = 2, Nun = 3, Samach = 4... and so on.
Often someone hosts a guest out of a feeling of obligation to perform a mitzvah, or out of sympathy when they see someone without food or lodging. Therefore, during the meal the guest cannot be totally certain if their host is hosting them with pure joy or because it is out of a feeling of obligation.
A lack of derech eretz or moral clarity in children is frequently a reflection of what they witness, or fail to witness, in their parents.
All told, Vayeitzei is the third largest sedra (of 12) in Bereishit. Yet it has none of the 613 mitzvot.
Welcomed into Lavan’s household, he worked seven disciplined years in order to marry Rachel. The Torah describes these years as passing quickly because of his deep affection for her.
There were righteous men before Avraham, but Avraham was the first to establish a nation by passing his legacy to his descendants through his children.
We weren’t even out of Egypt yet when G-d made us partners with Him in the matter of kedushat z’man, the sanctity of time.
If HaKadosh Baruch Hu was so extreme in His response to this mockery, then it cannot be such a trivial thing and we need to further explore why such drastic steps were necessary.
Though man shares the responsibility to populate the world with all living beings, his responsibility is more significant because only he creates others in G-d’s image.
July 17, 2026 
