Tetzave 5782

Tetzave

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CHANNELS OF LIFE

In this week’s Parsha there is an important principle found in Ohr Hachaim Haka-dosh’s commentary. HaShem instructs Moshe “And you, you shall bring close to you, your brother Aharon and his sons to serve Me as Kohanim…” How are we to understand the redundancy of the word ‘you’. Furthermore, it would have been more simply stated if it would say “And you shall bring your brother Aharon and his sons closer to the Kehuna…” What is the implication of “bring close to you”?

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Mishpatim 5782

Mishpatim

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GOING UP

In this week’s Parsha the Torah instructs us “You shall be men with a holy calling, therefore do not eat non-kosher meat”. The construction of the noun “men” is in the possessive form, indicating that the adjective “holy” is not modifying the noun. Otherwise, it would have stated “You shall be holy men”. Instead, the Torah is saying that we should be a people who strive to be holy, even if we have not yet achieved that state. What is holiness?

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Yisro 5782

Yisro

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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?

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B’shalach 5782

Beshalach

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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.

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Bo 5782

Bo

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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?

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Shemos 5782

Shmos

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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.

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Vayechi 5782

Vayechi

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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.

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