Parsha

If the malach wouldn’t have struck him, Nevuchadnezzar would have disgraced all of David HaMelech’s praises and songs in Sefer Tehillim.

The Four Questions were composed as a prelude for the father to fulfill his biblical obligation. But what often happens is that a big to-do surrounds the Four Questions while the answers are not given the attention they deserve.

Although there is a strong basis for our propensity to be more stringent on Pesach than we are during the rest of the year, we should not turn that into a blanket attitude in which stringency is always followed, regardless of the other values at stake

The Shechinah is [so to speak] together with the Jewish people when they are in exile, and when they’re redeemed, Almighty G-d has dictated a redemption for Himself as well. He will come out of exile with them.

Hashem seeks people who are willing to subjugate their hearts to Him.

I never thought I would get so excited over a conversation with friends around a dinner table. I never was so enthusiastic about candies thrown at the bridegroom when he received an aliyah to the Torah.

Korbanot, a Once and Future Aspect of Temple Service

How far we are from those distant halachic discussions regarding a public oven for several families...

When the incident was related to R’ Tzvi Pesach Frank, he remarked, “This young girl is destined for greatness.”

The determination of who’s Jewish comes from Almighty G-d. No human being, or body of human beings, can make this determination.

If Dan is the extreme expression of Yosef in the same way that Shimon is of Yehuda, what was the importance of appointing tribesmen of Yehuda and Dan to lead the construction of the Mishkan?

The easiest way out of my problem would be to say that the Mishkan was designed based on people’s need to be impressed

A mistake that nearly had catastrophic results for the entire people of Israel ultimately revealed Moshe's true greatness as a national leader.

We are supposed to prepare for the 14th of Nissan, the day of the Exodus from Egypt. To study the holiday, to go through the Haggadah and, mainly, to go forth into freedom ourselves.

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day. -Abraham Lincoln

You won’t understand the logic of events as they occur because “My face may not be seen.”

Haman has oceans of honor but he’s lacking one drop. Everyone bows down to him, but he needs Mordechai to bow down, too. If not, all the honor he has received means nothing.

The great R’ Elchonon Wasserman noted that children form the foundation of the Jewish nation.

By submerging individual identity into the collective Hebrew nation, the kohanim work to cleanse the children of Israel from all transgressions and to inspire the people with a powerful show of kedusha.

Halacha tells us to obey the law of the land (Nedarim 28a), but this instruction applies only to material matters, not to spiritual matters.

Yet, if Mordechai teaches us that doubt is no reason for inaction, it is Esther that teaches us that it is actually a reason for even more effort

He had the vision to see how his seemingly ordinary activity would create something big and important.

What can the Mishkan teach us about the ways Divine revelation is channeled into our world?

Light is the first of painters. There is no object so foul that intense light will not make it beautiful. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

A Jew’s life is supposed to be governed by deliberation, forethought, mental preparedness, and understanding, not impulsivity or “living for the moment.”

Chabad Chassidus explains that Amalek represents a person who “knows his Master yet intends to rebel against him.” The commandment to remember Amalek calls on us to rid ourselves of any inclination toward this kind of behavior.

Our multicultural world might object to the idea any culture must be completely destroyed; the Torah disagrees

Celebrate what you want to see more of. -Thomas J. Peters

If you honor and esteem the values of your parents, you will merit long life since you will then have created a bridge between the past and the future and they will unite without interruption.

How should we understand the difference between the Written Torah and the Oral Torah within the context of Israel's identity and development?