Torah Thoughts, Stories, and Inspiration on the weekly Parsha
As Chief Rabbi of the city of Tzvas and a proficient mohel (circumciser), Rav Shmuel Heller zt”l was constantly in demand to perform circumcision on the baby boys in his city. However, he always begged off attending the festive meal afterward, claiming that he had many important needs to attend to. In truth, R’ Shmuel…
The Number Eight It is interesting that the root of the word shemen, oil, is the same as shemonah, eight. Is it a coincidence, then, that we celebrate eight days of Chanukah due to the oil that lasted eight days? Of course not! The number eight has great significance. It is considered I’ma’alah min hateva,…
“And so it was – just as she coaxed Yosef day after day…” (39:10) The Torah says that Yosef Hatzadik was tested Yom Yom, each and every day, by Potiphar’s wife. It was a daily challenge that Yosef confronted. Yosef was able to conquer his Yetzer Hara (Evil inclination). Yosef was awarded with a unique…
And the children struggled within her…” (25:22) Rashi cites the sages who say that when Rivkah passed by the Torah study halls of Shaim, and Aiver, Yaakov tried to come out. When she passed by places of idol worship Eisav tried to get out. The question arises: We can understand why Eisav tried to go to…
“Hashem appeared to him in the plains of Mamre…” (18:1) Rashi cites the Medrash that Hashem appeared to Avraham on the territory of Mamre because Mamre gave Avraham the advice to perform the circumcision. Rav Yeruchim Levovitz zt”l stated that from here we see the great merit of giving people good advice. When Hashem commanded Avraham to…
מן הבהמה “Of the pure animal, and of the animal that is not pure.” (7:8) The Gemara (Pesachim 3) learns from this passuk that the Torah is particular to choose only untainted words. When Noach was commanded to take two of each type of non-clean animal into the ark, Hashem used five words, “u’min habeheimah…
בראשית ברא… “In the beginning of Hashem’s creating the heavens and earth …” (1:1) I heard from Rav Yitzchok Fingerer that the first letters in the opening Pasuk stress the fact that the building blocks for the creation of the universe were the twenty-two letters of the Aleph Beis. The first letters of each word,…
Dwelling in the SukkahThe Gemara (Sukkah 26a) derives from the passuk, …בסוכות תשבו that a person should dwell in his sukkah for the seven days of Yom Tov just as one dwells in his house all year – but it goes both ways, writes the Satmar Rebbe, Rav Yoel Teitelbaum: A person must always remember…
יערף כמטר… “My teaching shall drop as the rain, my speech shall drip as the dew…” (32:2) In the song of Ha’azinu, the Torah is compared to rain and dew. Rain is formed by con-densation that evaporates from the ground. When there is enough condensation, rain falls. Dew, however, appears every morning, regardless of the…
The Meal on Erev Yom Kippur The Sfas Emes brings down the Gemara in Tannis (26b) that says, “There never was a greater Yom Tov than Yom Kippur,” for that was the day on which Moshe brought the second Luchos (Tablet) down from Heaven. Since we cannot make a festive meal on Yom Kippur, we…
