How Come Esav Didn’t Do Teshuvah? Ya’akov Avinu had finally extricated himself from Lavan’s control. He had crossed the Yarden, entered Eretz Cana’an and was preparing to meet his brother Esav. He sent messengers ahead of himself, whom Rashi tells us, based on Bereshit Rabbah 75:4, were מַלְאָכִים מַמָּשׁ (literally ‘angels’), instructing them with these…
What Was So Wrong With Lavan? It is written (Bereshit 3:1): וְהַנָּחָשׁ הָיָה עָרוּם מִכֹּל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְיָ אֱלֹקִים (And the Nachash was more arum than all the animals of the field which Hashem G-d had made). What is the meaning of עָרוּם [arum]? The Bechor Shor says it means that he spoke…
The Brothers Ate Eiver Min ha-Chai? When beginning the story of Yosef, the Torah tells us (Bereshit 37:2): וַיָּבֵא יוֹסֵף אֶת־דִּבָּתָם רָעָה אֶל־אֲבִיהֶם (And Yosef brought their defamation to their father). Much has been written about how the brothers defamed Yosef, but what was at the root of their disagreement with him? Rashi lists three…
The Secret of Eiver Min ha-Chai We know the story. Yitzchak Avinu called for his eldest son to come to him (Bereshit 27:1). After he arrived, Yitzchak told Esav that he was approaching the day of his death (27:2), although he didn’t know exactly when it would come, and that he wanted him to go…
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 devoured every book he could get his hands on. He supported himself and paid for…
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 the Jewish soul (nefesh, ruach and neshamah), three ‘garments’, i.e. manifestations, of the soul (machshavah…
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 שאדם שרוי בטובה יותר מאותן הימים…ומלמדין אותו כל התורה כולה…וכיון שבא לאויר העולם בא מלאך…
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 teshuvah, why should he have to suffer at all? After all, he’s already doing teshuvah….
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 of Mine upon your heart and upon your soul]” [Devarim 11:18], a perfect elixir. The…
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 אמר לה לכי ומעטי את עצמך (R’ Shimon ben Pazi raised a contradiction. It is…
Why Yehoshua Told the Sun to be Quiet In last week’s study entitled Be Quiet, Sun!, we learned that Yehoshua bin Nun merited to silence the Sun in the Valley of Ayalon and defeat the army of the five kings because he had remained silent in the face of the insults and accusations that were…
Making One’s Prayers a Delight to Hashem In Chullin 60b, Rav Asi reconciles an apparent contradiction in the account of creation regarding when the grasses grew from the ground (see Bereshit 1:12 and Bereshit 2:5 for specifics). He answered as follows: שיצאו דשאים ועמדו על פתח קרקע עד שבא אדם הראשון ובקש עליהם רחמים וירדו…