Collected Archive of Shoemaker Reports
The Shoemaker Report is Rav Hoshea’s weekly Torah publication. Its focus is on internalizing and living Torah from the heart, not only from the head. The divrei Torah often take the parashah of the week as their point of entry and address central questions of inner avodah — including teshuvah, prayer (tefillah), emunah, bitachon, and related areas of spiritual and personal refinement.
The writing assumes seriousness from the reader and speaks from within Torah life, with meaning emerging organically from honest analysis of our holy Torah and the words of Chazal, rather than from short-lived inspiration or simplified conclusions.
It is a well known principle in the Torah that a Jew must imitate his Creator. The Rambam codifies this in Sefer ha-Mitzvot (Mitzvot Aseh 8): היא שצונו להדמות בו יתעלה כפי היכולת (It is that He commanded us to imitate Him, may He be exalted, according to our ability).
We discovered from our last article entitled Learning to Shoot Straight that perfect, whole tefillah is acquired through personal purity and tzedakah, i.e. the giving of charity.Therefore, if we want to remove the impediments that inhibit or limit our tefillot, we should learn how to purify ourselves and how to
In last week’s article, we explained how tefillah [תפילה, prayer] is Mashiach’s fundamental weapon for defeating the forces of the Sitra Achra. By extension, we learned that this is also the weapon that each and every one of us must use to defeat the forces of evil in our lives.
How does Mashiach fight his wars? And by extension, how should we fight our battles? It is taught (Likutei Moharan 2:1): אִיתָא בְּסִפְרָא דִּצְנִיעוּתָא מִנּוּקְבָא דְּפַרְדַּשְׂקָא מָשַׁךְ רוּחָא דְּחַיֵּי לִמְשִׁיחָא כִּי עִקַּר כְּלֵי זֵינוֹ שֶׁל מָשִׁיחַ הוּא הַתְּפִלָּה שֶׁהוּא בְּחִינַת חֹטֶם כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב וּתְהִלָּתִי אֶחֱטָם לָךְ וּמִשָּׁם עִקַּר חִיּוּתוֹ וְכָל
A couple of weeks ago, we were having a conversation at the Shabbat table that centered on the question, If you had the opportunity to go back in time to when you were 18 years old and live your life over again, but with the advantage that you would be
R' Abahu said (Berachot 34b): מָקוֹם שֶׁבַּעֲלֵי תְשׁוּבָה עוֹמְדִין צַדִּיקִים גְּמוּרִים אֵינָם עוֹמְדִין שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר שָׁלוֹם שָׁלוֹם לָרָחוֹק וְלַקָּרוֹב לָרָחוֹק בְּרֵישָׁא וַהֲדַר לַקָּרוֹב (In the place ba’alei teshuvah stand, complete tzaddikim cannot stand, as it says [Yeshayah 57:19], ‘Shalom, shalom to him who is far away and to him who is
As is known, the first three berachot of the Shemoneh Esreh form a set which relate the praise of Hashem for His three fundamental attributes of chesed (love, giving and kindness), gevurah (justice, strictness and self-restraint) and tiferet (beauty, harmony, truth, mercy and holiness). It is also known that these
The second berachah of the Shemoneh Esreh, the one that praises G‑d for His attribute of gevurah [strictness, judgment, self-restraint, etc.], opens with these words: אַתָּה גִבּוֹר לְעוֹלָם אֲדֹנָ‑י מְחַיֶּה מֵתִים אַתָּה רַב לְהוֹשִׁיעַ…מְכַלְכֵּל חַיִּים בְּחֶסֶד מְחַיֵּה מֵתִים בְּרַחֲמִים רַבִּים (You are always mighty, Adon-ai, You resurrect the dead, abundant
The time was early February 1981. The location was the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, not far from the Cabinet Room. President Ronald Reagan asked William Casey, the newly-appointed Director of the CIA, what he considered was his primary role as head of that agency.
Pesach is just around the corner and all of our thoughts turn to redemption—the ten plagues of deliverance, the exodus from Mitzraim, the splitting of the sea, the annihilation of our oppressors and enemies, arrival at Har Sinai, the unity of the nation encamped at the foot of the mountain,
When writing about the importance of reciting the Shema morning and evening, we often focus on the first verse that declares the oneness of G‑d, i.e. Hashem echad. However, in this article we’re going to focus on a verse in the third paragraph (Bamidbar 15:39): וְהָיָה לָכֶם לְצִיצִת וּרְאִיתֶם אֹתוֹ
On June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy delivered a commencement address at American University in Washington, D.C. that many historians believe helped seal his fate in Dealey Plaza on that infamous day of November 22 later that year. What did he say that was so unacceptable and inappropriate that
