Weeks of Yearning
Love doesn’t calculate. Love is innocent. Love yearns and it follows. But love does not ask: what will I gain? Could I really get there? The word “love” is used very sparingly in Tanach. In all of Tanach, Avraham Avinu is the only one that Hashem describes as: “the one who loved Me” (Yeshaya 41:8). (It is said of Shlomo Hamelech: “and he loved Hashem” (1 Melachim 3:3), and Dovid Hamelech...
New Moon Tomorrow
When Rosh Chodesh falls on a Sunday we read the haftora of Mochor Chodesh. Aside from the opening phrase of the haftora, it would seem that this selection has nothing to do with the new moon. But when we study the words of Chazal we see the relevance of this passage. The haftora speaks of Dovid Hamelech. The passage is set in the time when Shaul still reigns. Shaul senses...
Real Foundations (Behar/Bechukosai )
The opening possuk of our parsha links the mitzvah of shmita to Har Sinai. Rashi quotes Chazal who explain that the Torah put these two concepts together to teach us that just as the mitzvah of shmita was given at Sinai together with all of her details (that are spelled out in our parsha) so it was with all of the other mitzvos. All of them were given at Sinai together with all of their fine...
The Name (Emor)
In this week’s parsha the Torah presents all of the Yomim Tovim. Then the Torah commands us about the Menorah and the Shulchan. And our parsha closes with the horrifying incident of the megadef, the person who spoke against the name of Hashem. How do these concepts connect with each other? What is the relationship between the Yomim Tovim, the keilim in the Mishkan and the incident with the...
A National Calling (Acharei Kedoshim)
In both of this week’s parshiyos, Acharei Mos and Kedoshim, we read about the various forbidden marriages. And in both of these parshiyos we find that the Torah contrasts the kedusha that Klal Yisroel is charged with over and against the abhorrent actions of the nations (Vayikra 18:3 and 20:23). The question that comes to mind is; why is it important to highlight the fact that the nations were...
Alone (Tazria Metzora)
The Torah tells us that the punishment of the metzora is to sit alone outside the camp (Vayikra 13:46). Chazal compare this to the opening possuk in Eicha, where Yerushalayim sits alone (Pesichta Medrash Eicha). It would seem that it is a punishment to sit alone, both on an individual level and on a national level. However, we find that sitting alone is a good thing. In Parshas V’Zos Ha’Bracha,...
Up and Out (Parshas Shmini)
Towards the end of our parsha, after theTorah describes the animals we are not allowed to eat, Hashem reminds Klal Yisroel that He took them out of Mitzrayim. We should refrain from eating those prohibited animals because Hashem brought us out of Mitzrayim. But instead of the usual expression; “Hamotzi” – “the One who took us out,” the Torah uses the expression; “Hama’aleh” – “the One who lifted...
Victory of Kedusha (Acharon Shel Pesach)
The haftorah we read on Acharon Shel Pesach speaks of the neis that Chizkiyahu and his generation experienced. The army of the greatest superpower of the time, San’cheirv’s Ashur, was destroyed in one night by the walls of Yerushalayim. We read this haftorah read on this day because this neis is compared by the Novi to the neis of kri’as Yam Suf (Yeshaya 10:24 – see Rashi). Just as at kri’as Yam...
Awe and Song (Shvi’i Shel Pesach)
After the wonderful nissim of kri’as Yam Suf and immediately before the Shiras Hayam, the Torah tells us that Klal Yisroel feared Hashem. In Hallel too, we speak of kri’as Yam Suf and we end that second paragraph with the words “chuli aretz” we tell the earth to fear Hashem. Fear and awe of Hashem is intimately related with kri’as Yam Suf. The Ohr Hachaim Hakodosh tells us that this Yir’ah was a...
When He Smote Mitzrayim and Our Houses He Saved
The Yom Tov of Pesach is so called because Hashem passed over (pasach) our houses when He hit the Mitzriyim with Makkas Bechoros and He saved our houses (Shmos 12:27). We all know why Hashem was hitting the Mitzriyim. The Mitzriyim used their strength to take advantage of a nation that did them no harm. They displayed a stunning lack of appreciation for what Yosef had done to them and they went...