Carrying the Light Forward
Some 200 years ago, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov wrote a statement that I find amazing: The time will come when being an upright and simple person will be as revolutionary as being the Baal Shem Tov.
The Ner Tamid
If a person ploughs his field when it is time to plow, sows his seeds when it is time to sow, reaps his produce when it is time to reap , thrashes his grain when it is time to thrash and winnows the grain when it is time to winnow, when will he have time to learn Torah? (Berachos 35b).
Mann Power
We cannot totally control our sustenance – not the food we eat, nor the money we earn.
Parshat Beha’alotecha: Lighting the Flame of Moral Clarity
This is Judaism’s unique gift: the slow accumulation of wisdom through repeated encounters with Torah. Not through theoretical lectures, but through real life examples.
Elevating The Light Of Israel
Every time we discover a new Torah deMoshe MiSinai, an unprovenanced edict associated colloquially with Moshe, we are reaffirming our connection to that primary source of all Torah and to Moshe who passed it on to us.
TORAH SHORTS: Parshat Behaalotcha: Aliyah and Age
Home is not where you live, but where they understand you.— Christian Morgenstern
The Significance of a Minhag
He leaped off the jeep, shouting that he’d take the next one.
A Matter of Faith
Know Hashem in all your ways – serious or inconsequential – for every ounce of success comes from Hashem.
Investing in “Hell Insurance”
As we are taught, Ein tzaddik ba’aretz asher yaaseh tov v’lo yecheta – There is no righteous person in this world who does good and doesn’t sin, there is certainly what to worry about.
With All One’s Heart
Wealth can also lead one astray: Wealth hoarded by its owner is to his detriment (Koheles 5:12). Avshalom was blessed with beautiful hair (Sotah 11a) and Shimshon was blessed with strength, but these attributes led them astray.
The Longest Chapter, the Deepest Exile
Parshat Naso, as you know, is the longest single parsha in the Torah. In most years, Naso follows Shavuot, which is appropriate – once...
A Vision
With regard to the Birkas Kohanim, the Zohar comments that actions performed in this earthly world inspire astounding conduct in Heaven. When the Kohanim spread their fingers to bless the Jewish people, it rouses the Divine Presence to dwell upon His people.
Blessing Israel
Israel is blessed in the merit of the three fathers, also in whose merit the Torah was given.
What They’ll Never Understand About the Jews
Our response now must be as it like at Har Sinai, to turn to one another with a sense of oneness, love, and unity and to wish each other chazak
Tuning In
Like in an election, the division of the land among the twelve tribes had to be supervised by officials who made sure that there would be no fraud involved in allocating the land.
Shavuot – Why Is This Night Different?
Pesach and Shavuot...represent the liberation of the body and the liberation of the mind, respectively.
TORAH SHORTS: Parshat Bamidbar: The Discipline of Sanctity
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.— Proverb (widely attributed to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux)
A Central Theme of Shavuos
How do Torah scholars make more peace in the world?
The Spiritual Human Being
R’ Elazar states that all agree, though, that on the holiday of Shavuos, we are obligated to eat and drink because it is the day on which the Torah was given. R’ Shimshon Nachmani, the renowned Zera Shimshon, notes that this conclusion seems paradoxical. We would think that the day commemorating the giving of the Torah would be dedicated solely to spirituality, to Torah study.
Gravity Defying Bread – Bamidbar
The total weight of the shulchan with the lechem hapanim was over 551 pounds.
50 Years – The Productive Life of Man
Indeed the laws of Shemittah were meant to be given at Har Sinai because the original plan was that we would enter the land of Israel a short while later, not forty years later.
The Good News: Parashat Bechukotai
Unlike the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land, the return to Zion in modern times has been a natural event within the confines of nature.
The Land Wants Its Shabbat
One possible explanation that Rashi finds in the Midrash is that all of the general principles were received at Har Sinai; however, many of the specifics were taught by Moshe in the land of Moav immediately before the crossing of the Yarden.
TORAH SHORTS: Parshat Behar – Bechukotai: Faith, Famine, Feast, Food
Faith is not certainty. It is the courage to live with uncertainty.— Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Why Is Shavuos Different
Torah does not have a set place. It can be found anywhere. It should be found everywhere.
He is Your Brother
When a person appears before the Heavenly Court, he is asked whether he properly fulfilled the mitzvah of you shall strengthen him.
Heightened Awareness
Detach yourself from the illusions of this world and focus on the true realities of the world and Who determines them…. Today you do not take care of yourselves, I take care of you.
To Live Is To Know
As we exist in the world and interact with it, we receive input and understand our surroundings by means of the data we collect, chiefly by way of our senses. But because we also have the ability to communicate with one another, we learn much useful information about the world from each another.
By Appointment of the King
When Yosef related his dreams to his brothers and to his father, his brothers became jealous of him. Not his father. His father shamar es ha’davar, kept it in mind and looked forward to the time when Yosef’s dreams would come true (Rashi to Bereishis 37:11).
TORAH SHORTS: Parshat Emor: Meat, Wine and Divine Intentions
Joy in Judaism is not hedonic; it is redemptive, cathartic, and spiritual.— Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
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