Parsha

When we are alone, when we have a chance at peace and quiet, we can take in the world, organize it, organize our minds, experience the lovely and reassuring peace of being in control. But when someone else enters the scene, all of that comes to an end.

As a result of eating from this tree of disparate parts, Adam and Chava themselves became split into disparate parts, the physical and the spiritual, and were no longer the integral unit that Hashem had intended.

Moshe begs Yitro to not leave Am Yisrael.

The Zera Shimshon elaborates that Aharon and Miriam reckoned that Moshe Rabbeinu was deemed worthy of ascending to Heaven because of the collective merit of all of the Jewish People – it was not necessarily because of his own personal merit.

The spies that led Israel to national catastrophe mistakenly thought that the value of preserving life overrides the commandment to free Eretz Yisrael.

We cap off this request by pleading that Hashem should do it lema’an Sh’mecha, for the sake of Your Name. This refers to His Name of Shalom, Peace. Please Hashem, for the sake of Peace, remove the friction between me and others.

This is not to say that there is no such thing as a wrong turn. Though we can even learn from a mistaken path, we have good reason to want to avoid it.

The more you depend on forces outside yourself, the more you are dominated by them. -Harold Sherman

The author of the essay asserts that David HaMelech had this mizmor in the shape of a menorah inscribed on his shield that he carried into war, and his enemies fled before him.

No doubt every one of us would follow the details of a Divine command directed specifically at us – does Aharon deserve to be singled out for this?

The minhag of washing the Cohen's hands for Birkat Kohanim is not arbitrary.

Through Israel's returns home and national rebirth, we have already seen sparks of prophecy return.

Each of the leaders of the tribes brings a gift which is identical to the gifts of every other one. The Torah relates the gift of each and every tribe in detail, in spite of the fact that they are all the same.

A person should walk in the ways of Hashem and accord mercy and kindness to people and other members of Creation.

It would seem to me that the controversy centers on why we should say ‘please’ or ‘now’ just by this blessing and not by the other requests in our Shemone Esrei, such as to forgive us, or to cure us.

When we think of people who, in a healthy state, go through radical changes and stages, we know of whom we think, and it is not the middle aged or retirees.

According to our Sages there are seven layers in Heaven (this is where the expression seventh heaven comes from). The fifth layer is called Ma'on, and it is from this layer that simcha originates.

Throughout life, a Jew is to always stand strong in the face of challenges and to choose to climb the mountain of Hashem.

We are asked to make Kiddush over wine and we are told that wine can make one wise (Yoma 76b). But enjoying anything in moderation requires self-control and sometimes, when that becomes too difficult, the only way out is to deny oneself the pleasure altogether.

That HaShem forgoes His Honor for the sake of making peace between man and wife comes to teach us the importance of humbling our own egos for the sake of making our relationships work.

R’ David opens his remarks on Shavuot by examining the word Anochi that he identifies with the essence of truth – the secret code revealing His G-dliness, the nexus of His inscrutable justice.

Why do some many people behave in such a paradoxical way? The answer is simple. When a spouse or a parent compliments their mate or their child, the act is about the other person.

A people's army is necessary for Israel to fulfill the Divine commandment of sovereignty over our land.

It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living. -Jean Jacques Rousseau

There is no question that the nations of the world can trace their lineage; rather, their association with it is tenuous. They are not especially proud of their ancestors, and each succeeding generation believes they are wiser and more progressive than those who preceded them.

One school of thought is that Shavuos is the yahrzeit of Dovid HaMelech. Therefore, we lein Megillas Rus which reveals to us the wonderful beginnings of Dovid HaMelech.

Indeed, we are sympathetic to the creative, original, strong, rebellious heroes who did not accept the status quo, who followed the rebellious artists Delacroix and Courbet, and forged their own path forward. We benefit from them to this day, as a visit to art museums in cities around the world will demonstrate.

The Sages mistakenly interpreted this refusal as an egotistically motivated desire to maintain a monopoly, and they summarily fired the entire Garmu family.

Indeed, the only way to be convinced that our existence depends on G-d's help and not solely on our own efforts, is to try it out.

Peace with whom?