Parsha

A birthday marks the day one’s soul descended to earth to fulfill its unique Divine mission. It therefore is an opportunity to take stock of how well one is accomplishing one’s mission.

Each day of a person’s life in this world is a gift, borrowed time, to learn more Torah and do more mitzvos.

So I ask you, who’s stronger HaShem, or Trump, Johnson, the EU and UN?

Each tent faced a different direction so that no one could see into the tent of anyone else.

a different leader of the next generation steps up and takes action. That leader was Pinchas...True leaders like Pinchas don’t come out of leadership schools. When the time is ripe, they simply emerge. 

Must there be a reason for everything?

Korach was the hero of the hour. His ratings and the spirit of the times were on his side.

Tefillah is only m’drabbanan, but the avoidance of machlokes is m’doraysa.

By expressing, in terms they could comprehend, the Torah’s profound mystical secrets, he provided his disciples a window into his own overarching perspective and exalted vision.

With Moshe at the rock, I wonder whether the Gemara implies Moshe had trouble believing words alone could do the trick.

The nation had nothing to do. There was no mission to accomplish, no sense of urgency, and about this our sages wrote: "Idleness leads to boredeom and boredom leads to sin."

Today, the challenge is to bring the Torah’s teachings, including its deepest mystical concepts, to Jews far from Torah as a means of drawing them back to Yiddishkeit.

Because the Jewish people lacked emunah, they became troubled and confused.

Many of the commentators find a disturbingly strong rationale in the Jews’ complaint mentioned above. The complainers were essentially blaming Moshe for setting up a murderous trap for the two hundred and fifty men that contested the choice of Aharon and his sons as priests.

When R’ Menachem regained consciousness, he…cried bitterly because he had not worn tefillin that day.

Despite decades of intense communist persecution, they had steadfastly remained faithful to the Torah.

In a world devoid of prophecy, it becomes exceedingly difficult to understand or even relate to the propehcy

Sometimes we set up camp for a short period of time and other times for a much longer period.

R. Lichtenstein saw how the spies could have turned the event around for the better, and I find his logic shows us many other candidates as well.

Until he got sick, Yudi, of course, had never missed a day of wearing tefillin since his bar mitzvah.

The Torah offers us something new: learning for the sake of learning. In the world of competition this is something exceptional.

Discord and divide in government has trickled down to the everyday man.

In this week's parsha, there is an unusually insightful process of how a little complaint can undermine a gigantic and noble enterprise:

By observing a mitzvah, we rise and become united with, and absorbed in, Hashem’s holiness and infinitude.

We did not huddle together because of Pharaoh or the Egyptians or the Nazis or any other threat.

It is man’s triumph over his yetzer hara that brings true honor to Hashem.

Chag Sameach!

“Mi laHashem eilei!” is a charge to every person in every generation to step up to the plate.

Each individual felt less responsibility for completing the minyan, felt someone else would take his place, and simply excused himself from showing up.

The family fled on the last train out, embarking on a long trip to Central Asia. German airplanes strafed the train, and they survived only by miracles, said Rabbi Schwei in recalling the fright all his life.