Not On Bread Alone

In this epic reunion, you have two multi-billionaires, each with a different life philosophy. Eisav’s is rav, a lot; Yaakov’s is kol, everything. How do they differ?

If you look beneath the surface of the story of the three angels visiting Avraham and the feast he served them, you will see it is a replica of a korban todah.

Why is Lot so important that Avraham took him along and risked his life to save him?

How could it be that the animals did not attack Noach and his family, or kill each other? They comprised all different rungs in the food chain.

Just as the essence of Shavuot is completely different from the essence of Pesach, so too the essence of Shemini Atzeret is completely different from the essence of Sukkot.

Hashem wants us to visit Him every day, to have a loving daily connection with Him and to ask Him for what we need. A relationship that even when we have what we need, we continue to visit the palace.

I just want to ask a simple question. Who said anything about tying Yitzchak up? Hashem certainly didn’t tell Avraham to tie Yitzchak up; He told him to offer Yitzchak as an olah.

Hashem performs a miracle of accounting because if He did not, none of us would survive the coming year.

Actually, happiness is not necessarily the correct English translation for the word simcha.

When a person leaves pe'ah in the corner of his field, he does so knowingly and even willingly, wanting to give to the poor as Hashem commanded. But it is impossible that this mitzvah can be performed 100 percent altruistically.

One would think that the Shulchan, a symbol of royalty and material wealth, is there to serve the Menorah, the light of the Torah. However, this is not what the Torah tells us.

This is the way Hashem wants us to serve Him, not just according to the letter of the law, but beyond that, out of love, and not only because we are obligated and commanded to.

The first to fulfill the mitzvah of Birkat HaMazon, according to our Sages, was Avraham Avinu.

Although men are also obligated to do so, this mitzvah is primarily incumbent on women and they are given preference in performing it. Sarah was the first woman in history to perform this mitzvah.

The Korban Sotah in Marah removed all doubts from the minds of Bnei Yisrael regarding the integrity of their families.

With this in mind, let us contrast two iconic figures in the Torah, both with donkey-related incidents.

Am Yisrael accused Moshe of murdering Korach and his followers by instructing them to offer a Ketoret offering outside the Mishkan, knowing full well what the consequences of such an action would be.

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.

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.

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

The origin of the bagel is older than you think...

If you want to understand the origin of something, search for the first time it is mentioned in the Torah.

Every year, Jews in America join the rest of the nation in celebrating national Thanksgiving, on the last Thursday in November. However, we Jews...

During the seven years of plenty in Egypt and before the seven years of famine, the pasuk says that Yosef divided the land up into Kematzim, which Rashi explains as – stockpiling grains Kometz on Kometz, handful on handful.

Hashem resorted to Plan B, which began by restoring unity within Am Yisrael, and only when that was in place directing the focus to where it was originally intended.

It is possible to teach a child a Divine crash course in metalwork or stone masonry overnight, but you cannot give a crash course in childlike innocence.

The Shulchan symbolizes material wealth, and everything connected with it relates to the morality of wealth and livelihood.

The Torah here does not say anything about what Moshe ate or drank during those forty days and nights.

The commentaries teach us that the Torah is not a book of stories. It only details things that have a profound lesson to teach us.

While the mann was an enormous chesed that Hashem did for Bnei Yisrael in the midbar, its main purpose was to be a lesson in faith.