Parsha

It is clear that Tosafos maintains that only someone who lives in a house must light Chanukah candles.

In his merit, and to our benefit, let's try to work on speaking less lashon hara.

Appreciate that Pesach is NOT meant to end on the seventh day, but at Shavuot. With that in mind, we need to work harder to accept making the days of sefirat ha-omer into days akin to chol ha-moed

In our journey to understand the epic legacy of Abraham and Isaac, the stories of their actions and attributes are abruptly cut short by...

This is the time for one-to-one relationships. Life is no longer a matter of quantity, but of quality.

Reflections on "mirror images"

Each prayer, each Shabbat, each festival, each mitzvah, is an opportunity to reconnect to that very different wedding at Sinai

R’ Dancziger points out that our sages tell us that before all else Yaakov Avinu prayed, not that he did teshuva. We would think that repentance would have been the more instinctive response if Yaakov Avinu thought he might have sinned. Why did he engage in prayer?

Firstly, why did Hashem communicate His loving Presence specifically with oil instead of anywhere else along the way?

Other things may change us, but we start and end with family. -Anthony Brandt

The multitude which is not brought to act as a unity, is confusion. That unity which has not its origin in the multitude is tyranny. -Blaise Pascal

After announcements, we say Ein Keilokeinu. This prayer contains a lot of words, and sometimes the chazzan rushes through it all too fast. It is for this reason that I’m fond of those who sing the Ein Keilokeinu with its famous chant since it slows people down from the end of davening rush.

Klal Yisrael was living in the desert. They neither worked for a living nor had any use for money. All their needs were taken care of. They ate mon that was delivered to their tents daily. They drank water from the be’er, the rock that followed them in their journeys. Their clothes were washed by the Clouds of Glory, and their shoes never wore out. They didn’t need money and couldn’t use it. How could it become their downfall?

Of course, the good parent praises and rewards the child for a job well done. But, what about the math teacher who turned your child around?

No matter how hard we work on ourselves, we can never be totally prepared for the challenges ahead. And that is actually a good thing. Not only would life be less interesting, but a great deal of its meaning would otherwise be taken away. As Rebbe Nachman said, “If you are not a better person tomorrow than you are today, what need have you for a tomorrow?”

Is there such a thing as an objective basis of morality? For some time, in secular circles, the idea has seemed absurd. Morality is what we choose it to be. We are free to do what we like so long as we don’t harm others. Moral judgments are not truths but choices. There is no way of getting from “is” to “ought,” from description to prescription, from facts to values, from science to ethics. This was the received wisdom in philosophy for a century after Nietzsche had argued for the abandonment of morality – which he saw as the product of Judaism – in favor of the “will to power.”

The Ishbitzer teaches that everyone comes into this world with Torah in his heart, cloaked in a disguise. We all have some special lesson to impart, some perspective that is uniquely our own, but is the opposite of what is readily apparent in our nature.

­ The condition of an enlightened mind is a surrendered heart. -Alan Redpath

To choose life, you must examine your actions in the period preceding the Days of Awe as an unbiased stranger, and render your decision.

If Pesach is immediately followed by Acharei Mot that focuses on Yom Kippur, there must be a good reason for it.

In this week’s parshah we read about the individuals who were tamei and thus could not bring the korban Pesach. They approached Moshe Rabbeinu and asked him whether there was anything they could do to bring the korban. Ultimately, Hashem told Moshe that they should bring a korban a month after Pesach, on the 14th of Iyar.

Rabbi Fohrman discusses the medrash and suggests we put ourselves into the eyes of Pharaoh's daughter to help us see that when we want to achieve something, God will help us find a way to do it.

History repeats itself: Israel extends the hand of peace to a neighbor and is rebuffed

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

When we make the mental calculation of whether we can improve, we tend to think only about our ability. Then, we might correctly assess that it’s beyond our ability.

It's important to recognize the internal development of the Hebrew tribes from the Exodus from Egypt to the Brit Sinai and consecration of the Mishkan.

The Rambam, therefore, adds a second component: by getting angry, Moshe misled the people as to the nature of God. The masses felt that Moshe's anger was reflective of God's anger.

History teaches us that it is a fatal mistake to become too comfortable in our surroundings and not to believe in an imminent redemption.

As is evident from the Rambam, when one lights Chanukah candles higher than 20 amos it is not considered a ner Chanukah at all.

Higher than the question of our duration is the question of our deserving. Immortality will come to such as are fit for it, and he would be a great soul in future must be a great soul now. -Ralph Waldo Emerson