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The Rambam says something absolutely shocking. He claims that everyone is capable of becoming a tzaddik like Moshe Rabbeinu. How is this possible? Not all of us are able to become leaders, let alone become the greatest leader in human history. So what does the Rambam mean?

If we are dealing with the end of days and the knowledge of Hashem is abundantly clear to all, how could each nation think of deceiving Hashem?

We were heartbroken. Beyond the cost, who could deny the holiness and sentimentality of a boy’s tefillin?

How do we know that Yeshurun is Yaakov? One place where the equivalence is clear is a passage recited before the morning prayers.

Should the judge be strict and abide by the law, or make an exception because of the circumstances?

Genesis is not a hymn to the virtue of families. It is a candid, honest, fully worked-through account of what it is to confront some of the main problems within families, even the best.

Falling down had some hope immersed within its meaning. If someone falls down, they can get up.

Ibn Janach writes that produce is called “tevuah” because it comes at certain times of the year.

It is only prohibited to dwell in Mitzrayim while it is under non-Jewish rule. The reason for this is because the actions of the people of Mitzrayim were the most immoral, and thus the Torah did not want individuals to dwell there under their influence.

When it comes to our health, hishtadlut often means going to and listening to a doctor.

Joseph is helping his brothers to revise their memory of the past. In doing so, he is challenging one of our most fundamental assumptions about time, namely its asymmetry. We can change the future. We cannot change the past. But is that entirely true?

If women were given the gift of 9 portions of speech as opposed to the men who were given only one portion, we must realize that Hashem gave us a gift and wants us to use it wisely.

Rabbi Hirsch ties “komer” to the emotional manipulation commonly employed by idolatrous priests.

Parshas Mikeitz always falls out around Chanukah, and Chazal explain that this is not coincidental. In explanation of this phenomenon, the commentaries discuss how Yosef is connected to Chanukah, and how he symbolizes our victory over the Greeks.

The bus driver signaled to the hordes of frustrated people at the various bus stops that he could not stop for them, but some brave/foolhardy souls literally stood in front of the bus trying to block its path in their frenzied determination to get on their way.

How ironic it is then that so many people call this great president, president Trump, an anti-Semite! Why is that so?

Mikketz represents the most sudden and radical transformation in the Torah. Joseph, in a single day, moves from zero to hero, from forgotten, languishing prisoner to viceroy of Egypt, the most powerful man in the land, in control of the nation’s economy.

Not all appearances of “hashlachah” carry a negative connotation. Some connote throwing something deliberately to bring about certain results.

I know of no comparable passage in the Torah: three verses dedicated to an apparently trivial, eminently forgettable detail of someone having to ask directions from a stranger. Who was this unnamed man? And what conceivable message does the episode hold for future generations, for us?

Abe started taking out the money from all of his pockets and passed it onto the two Russian-accented guards, who were wearing pouches. The two men looked bewildered and incredulous.

While it may be that these people pose some level of a threat to us, the vast majority of attacks have not been carried out by White Nationalists.

We get caught up so easily on small matters of who’s right and wrong in an argument. We hold grudges for months, sometimes even years.

Why was Avraham’s name completely changed and Yaakov’s merely added on to?

During the evening or at night, the lack of light makes everything appear mixed up and one cannot discern the differences between them. (“Erev” means both night and mixture.)

If a person relies on human beings, Hashem will remove His hashgachah and leave the person in the hands of those whom he is depending on…

Note, first, that this is not an adjustment of an existing name by the change or addition of a letter, It is an entirely new name, as if to signal that what it represents is a complete change of character. Second, as we have seen, the name change happened not once but twice. Third – and this is the puzzle of puzzles – having said twice that his name will no longer be Yaakov, the Torah continues to call him Yaakov. G-d Himself does so.

She believed in giving people chances in life to be great and to bring out their potential to its maximum.

We learn in this week’s parsha that when Leah realized that she was going to have her seventh son, and her sister Rachel would then only be able to have one of the Shevatim, she davened that her fetus be changed to a girl.

Where were the righteous gentiles – the “Schindlers,” if you will – of Kristallnacht? My quest to answer this question revealed information I had not anticipated.

The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 26a) points out that "yovel" also means ram, and was borrowed to mean a ram’s horn (Joshua 6:4-5), as well the 50th year – the jubilee, an English word derived from the Hebrew "yovel," when such a horn is blown.