How to Have Holy, Righteous Children: One of the vital steps necessary to sanctify Aharon and his sons for the kehunah is described in Parashat Tetzaveh (Shemot 29:20): וְשָׁחַטְתָּ אֶת־הָאַיִל וְלָקַחְתָּ מִדָּמוֹ וְנָתַתָּה עַל־תְּנוּךְ אֹזֶן אַהֲרֹן וְעַל־תְּנוּךְ אֹזֶן בָּנָיו הַיְמָנִית וְעַל־בֹּהֶן יָדָם הַיְמָנִית וְעַל־בֹּהֶן רַגְלָם הַיְמָנִית וְזָרַקְתָּ אֶת־הַדָּם עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ סָבִיב (And you shall slaughter the...
The Importance of Being Generous: Parashat Terumah opens with these words (Shemot 25:1-2): וַיְדַבֵּר יְיָ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר׃ דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְיִקְחוּ־לִי תְּרוּמָה מֵאֵת כׇּל־אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר יִדְּבֶנּוּ לִבּוֹ תִּקְחוּ אֶת־תְּרוּמָתִי׃ (And Hashem spoke to Moshe saying, Speak to B'nei Yisrael, and they should take a terumah [contribution, donation] for Me, from every man whose is generous...
![Blood [is] Money](https://www.theshoemakerreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/doctor.healer-768x429.jpeg)
The Important Role of a Pidyon Nefesh in the Healing Process: The Torah teaches us that when someone injures a fellow Jew, he is responsible for paying the doctors' bills (Shemot 21:19): אִם־יָקוּם וְהִתְהַלֵּךְ בַּחוּץ עַל־מִשְׁעַנְתּוֹ וְנִקָּה הַמַּכֶּה רַק שִׁבְתּוֹ יִתֵּן וְרַפֹּא יְרַפֵּא (If he gets up and is able to walk outside with his...
How to Fulfill the Mitzvah of 'You Shall Love Your Fellow as Yourself': Commenting on the fact that Shemot 19:2 describes Am Yisrael using the plural וַיַּחֲנוּ (and they encamped) and then just two words later describes it using the singular וַיִּחַן (and it encamped), Rashi famously writes that they had achieved a level of...
How to Erase the Memory of Amalek from Under Heaven: After B'nei Yisrael left the immediate environs of the Yam Suf, Moshe Rabbeinu told everybody to travel to the Shur Desert (Shemot 15:22). After going three days without finding water, they finally came upon a source of water. The wonderful news quickly spread throughout the...
How to Come Out from Under the Control of the Sitra Achra: Imagine a prison, a fairly standard prison – at least standard in the way that many prisons used to be. From sunrise to sunset, the prisoners are forced into hard labor. They don't get much time to rest and they're not allowed to...
What the War of Gog and Magog is Really All About: "Moshe ben Amram! Why do you keep letting up and giving the Egyptians one respite after another? That just hardens their hearts and emboldens them even more. Don't you understand that? Just finish them off already! Enough is enough. Haven't we been in galut...
A Deeper Look into the Weeks of Shovavim: Shimon ha-Tzaddik, one of the last surviving members of the Anshei Knesset ha-Gedolah – 120 elders of B'nei Yisrael, including a number of prophets, which instituted many of our customary practices in Judaism, such as the wording of the Shemoneh Esreh – used to teach the following...
A Deeper Reason Why Ya'akov Adopted Yosef's Two Sons: If we're not careful, the Torah can appear to us as a collection of unrelated events with no connectivity between them – this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened, and so on. Further compounding the problem is that the Torah rarely explains what...
The Day the Viceroy Became Yosef – Insights from the Midrash: For twenty-two long years, Ya'akov Avinu sat on the ground, covered in sackcloth and ashes, inconsolably grieving the death of Yosef. And throughout all those years, no one said a word. Why not? The brothers had bound themselves by an oath not to reveal...
The Job of a Shoemaker: It is written (Amos 2:6): כֹּה אָמַר יְיָ עַל־שְׁלֹשָׁה פִּשְׁעֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְעַל־אַרְבָּעָה לֹא אֲשִׁיבֶנּוּ עַל־מִכְרָם בַּכֶּסֶף צַדִּיק וְאֶבְיוֹן בַּעֲבוּר נַעֲלָיִם׃ (So said Hashem, For three crimes of Yisrael, and for four, I will not turn away, for their sale of a tzaddik and a pauper for a pair of shoes)....
A Point of Contention Between Yosef and His Brothers: The sale of Yosef. If we had a truly sensitive soul, those words would send shivers down our spine. Not only did that one action set into motion a chain of events that led to the brutal enslavement of the whole Jewish nation, but perhaps more...