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…
How to Acquire the Attribute of Yosef ha-Tzaddik In last week’s article Ya’akov’s Fear in Going Down to Egypt, we learned that through the strength of his character, specifically his shemirat einayim, Yosef was able to break the tumah of immorality that filled the land of Egypt. As a result of his unprecedented strength of…
The Power of One Man’s Personal Kedushah After Ya’akov learned that Yosef was alive and well in Egypt, he knew that he needed to go and see him. He set out from his home with his family and all of his possessions and came to Be’er Sheva where he offered sacrifices to the G-d of…
The Secret Kavanah of Brit Milah (Part 1) We accept the mitzvah of brit milah without question. Even some of the outwardly less-observant members of our nation, for example, those who desecrate the kedushah of Shabbat without even the slightest pang of conscience, would never imagine not performing brit milah on behalf of their eight-day…
How One Man’s Sin Led to the Death of 36 Soldiers We are living through the greatest time of trouble experienced by Yaakov in over 75 years (and in certain respects, the most dangerous time that we have ever experienced on a global level), as it is written (Yirmeyahu 30:7): הוֹי כִּי גָדוֹל הַיּוֹם הַהוּא…
Why the Body Should be a Source of Shame Tangentially to the main thrust of last week’s article which focused on the necessity of modesty, we cited an interesting statement in the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (3:1): וְהַצְּנִיעוּת וְהַבֹּשֶׁת מְבִיאוֹת אֶת הָאָדָם לִידֵי הַכְנָעָה לְפָנָיו יִתְבָּרַךְ שְׁמוֹ (Modesty [tzniut] and shame bring a person to know…
The Essence of Kedushah and Swords of Iron In the past few articles, we explained the fundamental distinction between good and bad and the importance of having emunah. We also learned that we have the power to create angels by learning Torah, observing mitzvot and doing acts of kindness. These angels are our allies. They…
Likutei Moharan 20 and Swords of Iron After Yaakov Avinu left Lavan, he went, as the expression goes, from the frying pan into the fire. His destiny was to come face to face with his brother Esav. Knowing that this was his destiny, he sent messengers to Esav (Bereshit 32:4): וַיִּשְׁלַח יַעֲקֹב מַלְאָכִים לְפָנָיו אֶל־עֵשָׂו…
In last week’s article, The Danger of Breathing in Poisoned Air, we learned that the transgression that led to the Jewish men leaving their holy encampment and going to the Midianite market was because they were not breathing in the pure air that emanated from the mouth of Moshe Rabbeinu. In this week’s essay, we…
Balak’s and Bilaam’s attempts to curse the Jewish People span three parashiot in Sefer Bemidbar: Balak, Pinchas, and Mattot. That fact alone should give us some idea of its monumental importance. Let’s explore the story together. After Bilaam realized that Hashem wasn’t going to give him an opening to curse the Jewish Nation directly, he…
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. We ended that article by…
Part 3: The Lights of the Supernal Aleph (Likutei Moharan 6:5) This is the third article in our series focused on finding one’s zivug in today’s world. To recap, the first article explained that the root of the problem is related to the widespread difficulty that [young] men today have in being shomer brit. When…