Parsha

“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.

Most of us don’t understand the Torah of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai at all, but we understand that there is something there, that there is a greater unseen depth to life.

He never sat in the Rebbe’s presence – he always stood – almost without movement, listening intently to the Rebbe’s every word and watching him for the slightest indication that he might need something.

Hishtadlus is proper; worry and concern are not.

Rashi had thought the blessings the parasha details before the tokhaha also started with consistent Torah study. We can initiate a virtuous cycle, consistent Torah study aimed at discovering the best ways to act on Gd’s word, and reap remarkable blessings.

All things are artificial, for nature is the art of God. -Sir Thomas Browne

We don't seek leaders who transcend human struggle and temptation, sit on mountaintops meditating on their naval. Our leaders are individuals who embrace the physical, uplift it, and connect it to the infinite.

People who are challenged in extraordinary times are often able, not only to survive, but to flourish.

None of us, of course, can be so presumptuous as to compare ourselves with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.

Our children have learned how to maintain a connection with grandma and grandpa without hugs, how to manage with their brothers and sisters when cooped up in isolation, and how to follow new rules that changed their lives.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the teacher of the Zohar who we honor on Lag B'Omer, plants seeds of infinite growth in our minds so each of us can begin our time travel with Torah with a taste of her eternally expanding wisdom embedded in our souls

Why may Kohanim not attend to the dead?

It follows that particularly in Iyar, Hashem supernaturally heals, removing sickness as if it never existed.

Taking revenge on another individual is like taking revenge on oneself.

It is an old habit with theologians to beat the living with the bones of the dead. -Robert G. Ingersoll

The high priest is alone. It is forbidden for anyone to be with him, but it is precisely because of this restriction that his power is so great.

As I read Aharei Mot-Kedoshim each year, I wonder about what it does to us as Jews to live in a world whose morality is so clearly at odds with the Torah’s.

Great is charity, for it brings closer the Geulah.

This is the gift of speech. Speech is the mechanism that enables us to connect with other people, to overcome the barrier between us, so let us respect and not abuse it.

The Chofetz Chaim notes that despite the severe sins of individuals, if we wouldn’t speak lashon hara, the Satan would be completely powerless.

In this week's portion, the man, having been officially declared impure, is now ready for the end of his nightmare beginning his process of purification--on the sidelines.

A man of courage is also full of faith. -Marcus Tullius Cicero

The Be’er HaChaim says that during moments of stress, a person’s focus should always be on the good in his life.

So what are we getting out of Pesach this year? Pesach itself. In this strange and difficult time, we are left with Pesach itself. With the festival of freedom.

“They will laugh the first day. The second day there will be less laughter. After a few days, no one will laugh anymore.”

Considering how morally depraved Egypt was, for the Jews to leave this country, rise up to true freedom, and then receive G-d’s holy Torah just seven weeks later required a tremendous “leap” on their part.

Our sages who tell us that causing a chassan and kallah to rejoice is like rebuilding one of the ruins of Yerushalayim.

The lecturer said he understood her message to him – that in her classes the objective was not to demonstrate how much she knew (and she knew a lot), but to teach the public.