Is the Goal Just to be Yotzi a Mitzvah?
Regarding the meaning of the words וּלְחֹשְׁבֵי שְׁמוֹ (and for those who thought about His name) from Malachi 3:16, Rav Ashi taught (Berachot 6a): חָשַׁב אָדָם לַעֲשׂוֹת מִצְוָה וְנֶאֱנַס וְלֹא עֲשָׂאָהּ מַעֲלֶה עָלָיו הַכָּתוּב כְּאִילּוּ עֲשָׂאָהּ (If a person thought … Continued
To Separate or Not to Separate
How One Decision can Become a Turning Point in Life After Avram returned from Mitzraim, we read the following about Lot (Bereshit 13:5): וְגַם־לְלוֹט הַהֹלֵךְ אֶת־אַבְרָם הָיָה צֹאן־וּבָקָר וְאֹהָלִים (And also Lot, who went with Avram, had a flock, cattle … Continued
How to Make Your Obstacles Disappear
The Importance of Desire Born into American slavery in 1856, Booker T. Washington was freed at the age of 9 when U.S. Troops, arriving the area in which he lived, enforced President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Teaching himself to read, he … Continued
A Worm, Drippings of a Honeycomb and Men of Faith
Rosh Hashanah and Breaking the Power of Imagination Good things come in threes: three patriarchs (Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov), three mochin [spiritual brains] (chochmah, binah and da’at), three kinds of seichel [intellect] (potential, actualized and acquired), three lower aspects of … Continued
Lost and Found
The Role of the Tzaddikim in Finding What We Lost R’ Simlai taught the following Baraita about the developing Jewish child in his mother’s womb (Niddah 30b): ונר דלוק לו על ראשו וצופה ומביט מסוף העולם ועד סופו…ואין לך ימים … Continued
Innocent or Guilty? It’s the Jury’s Decision
A Generation that is Entirely Innocent or Entirely Guilty R’ Yochanan taught (Sanhedrin 98a): אין בן דוד בא אלא בדור שכולו זכאי או כולו חייב. בדור שכולו זכאי דכתיב (ישעיהו ס, כא) ועמך כולם צדיקים לעולם יירשו ארץ בדור שכולו … Continued
Justice + Truth = Emunah
The Deep Purpose for Suffering Why is it that when someone begins to do teshuvah and starts walking in Hashem’s ways, he frequently encounters difficulties and experiences suffering? If the purpose of suffering is to motivate a person to do … Continued
Avraham’s Oath and the Conquest of Yerushalayim
Why We Need to Know that Yoav was Buried in the Desert Have you ever paid attention to how one thing leads to another, which leads to another, and so on, and before you know it, you’ve ended- up somewhere … Continued
It All Depends on Your Vessel
How the Torah Can Be an Elixir of Life or a Deadly Poison It is taught in Kiddushin 30b: תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן: ״וְשַׂמְתֶּם״ סַם תָּם, נִמְשְׁלָה תּוֹרָה כְּסַם חַיִּים (The Rabbis taught in a Baraita, “And you shall place [these words … Continued
A Graceful Ibex and the Healing of the Moon
Having Our Prayers and Requests Accepted It is taught (Chullin 60b): רבי שמעון בן פזי רמי כתיב “ויעש אלקים את שני המאורות הגדולים” וכתיב “את המאור הגדול…ואת המאור הקטן” אמרה ירח לפני הקב”ה רבש”ע אפשר לשני מלכים שישתמשו בכתר אחד … Continued