Yisro 5782

Yisro

Click for this TableTalk

MIND THE GAP

Our Sages teach us that the reason HaShem chose Mount Sinai to be the location where He gave the Torah to His people was because it was smaller than the other more significant mountains. The Sages go on to teach us that Torah is given to those who are humble. Throughout our holy books there is tremendous emphasis placed on the importance of humility. There are many other fine qualities that we should adopt, why is humility placed ahead of those other qualities?

It must be clarified that humility should in no way be confused with poor self-worth or low self-esteem. The latter is detrimental to the health of a person and certainly of the Jew. HaShem is not interested in having a nation of people who do not believe in themselves. Quite to the contrary; He wants a nation whose people are driven to be-come great and to make a difference in the world. This can only be accomplished by people who believe in themselves. So then what is humility?

Continue reading Yisro 5782 →

B’shalach 5782

Beshalach

Click for this TableTalk

ONE OF MANY GOLD NUGGETS

The splitting of the Red Sea was a seminal event in the development of Klal Yisroel. Our Sages teach us that even those who were least initiated in the realm of spirituality were exposed to revelations that even our prophet Yechezkel could not see. The Shira that was sung by our ancestors on the banks of the Sea was incorporated into the words of Torah. One cannot properly comprehend what great revelations were seen. We do know that there is much to learn and much to gain.

Continue reading B’shalach 5782 →

Bo 5782

Bo

Click for this TableTalk

THE JEWS; THE PEOPLE WITH THE BIGGEST HEART

Our Parsha opens with Pharaoh granting Moshe permission to leave. “You may go serve your G.D, who is planning on going?” Moshe responds “With our young and with our old, with our son’s and with our daughters, with our sheep and with our cattle we shall go for it is a Holiday of HaShem” Pharaoh responds “Not so! Only the men shall go for that is what you are interested in!”

Pharaoh is suggesting that Moshe is lying by saying that his interest is to serve HaShem. His argument is that if your interest is to serve HaShem why must women and children go? The implication is that Pharaoh does not understand that serving HaShem is a family event. Pharaoh is a man of religion, albeit idolatry, why does he not understand?

Continue reading Bo 5782 →

Shemos 5782

Shmos

Click for this TableTalk

THE MEN AND THE BOYS

The Baltimore community has been blessed with the good fortune of having the thoughts of Rav Tzvi Einstadter on Chumash recently published and available to all. The following was culled from Rav Tzvi’s second volume on Sefer Shemos.

In our Parsha the Torah states “And Moshe grew up and he went out to his brothers to share in their difficulties”. This verse indicates a direct correlation between Moshe becoming ‘grown up’ and his sense of responsibility to his brothers. To appreciate this connection let us consider the following.

Continue reading Shemos 5782 →

Vayechi 5782

Vayechi

Click for this TableTalk

ONE IS HE IS ONE FOR ME

The Midrash in our Parsha shares the following story. As the shevatim surrounded Yaakov’s bed before his leaving this world, Yaakov wanted to reveal the time when they would reach their destiny; the coming of Moshiach. To appreciate the scene we must recognize that with Yaakov on his bed surrounded by the 12 shevatim he was carrying the Shechina, the Presence of HaShem, similar to the Mishkan surrounded by the 12 tribes in the desert. As he lay there with the Shechina on him, he intended to reveal the ultimate time of Moshiach. However, the moment before he was to reveal it, the Shechina suddenly left him.

Continue reading Vayechi 5782 →

Vayigash 5782

Vayigosh

Click for this TableTalk

WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT LIFT

In this week’s Parsha the brothers discover that Yosef is the viceroy in Egypt. When they tell their father, Yaakov, of the news he refuses to believe them. Only after seeing the wagons Yosef sent “did Yaakov’s spirit become alive.” What did Yaakov see in those wagons? Our Sages teach us that those wagons were sent by Yosef to remind Yaakov that the last verses of Torah they studied together before he left the house 22 years earlier were the laws of egla arufa. Therefore, when Yaakov saw those wagons he realized that it must have been Yosef who sent them and that he still remembers the Torah he learnt.

Continue reading Vayigash 5782 →

Mikeitz 5782

Mikeitz

Click for this TableTalk

OUT FROM OPEN JAWS

As a child growing up in the 1960’s every Shabbos I thought of the Jews of the Soviet Union. Our family always sang the Shabbos zemer of Ko Ribon Olam. The third stanza forms a prayer to HaShem in which we plead with Him to please save the sheep from the mouth of the lion, and take out Your nation from their exile.

What a picture! The lion’s jaws are already open and the sheep is in his mouth. Once the lion closes his mouth there will be no more sheep. That is the illustration of HaShem’s people in this exile. This picture was certainly not an accurate description of the exile I was experiencing in Baltimore. It was, however, a perfect illustration of the plight of the Jews of the Soviet Union.

Continue reading Mikeitz 5782 →

Vayeishev 5782

Vayeishev

Click for this TableTalk

ASTRONOMICAL PROPORTIONS

This week’s Parsha Vayeishev begins the drama of Yosef and the brothers that will continue through the next several Parshios. The drama is extreme and there is cause for great concern that the reader will project his own set of life experiences on the players of this drama. For example, when reading that the brothers were jealous when Yaakov gave Yosef the special jacket we tend to project our own sense of petty jealousy. We extend that sense of jealousy to the point that they actually wanted to kill Yosef.

Continue reading Vayeishev 5782 →