In Parshas Va’eira, God sends Moshe and Aaron to warn Pharaoh in advance of each of the first seven plagues to free Bnei Yisroel from Mitzraim. Since Pharaoh refused to send out the Jewish people after each of the first five plagues, God then withdrew Pharaoh’s free will and sent the
Why did G-d command Noach to build the Teiva? At first glance, this is certainly a trick question. The Chumash itself informs us of the obvious answer that the Teiva will save Noach, his immediately family, animals and birds from the
One can often hear a rebbe, educator or mekarev ask, “Does anyone in the chaburah have a written summary of every Parsha in the Torah, or know where I can access something like this?” As a busy rabbi and educator, it can be difficult to find time to read over the parsha and come up with your own organized
Four year-old Ethan Coleman will be forever grateful to Alexandre Jorge for saving him from Hurricane Harvey. Ethan was one of over three thousand people threatened by the rising floodwaters of Hurricane Harvey who surely expressed heartfelt appreciation to their rescuers. In some cases the rescuers themselves overcame dangerous situations to succeed in their missions. The organized and
What a summer! Violent protests in Charlottesville and now the terrorism in Barcelona is being displayed across televesion screens and mobile devices around the world. Do these violent scenes contribute to the very real terror the world is experiencing? Indeed, in 2016,
Throughout world history, the Jewish people have endured severe ongoing hate, persecution, exile, violence and genocide. Although in recent decades American Jews have not experienced much anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. increased more than one-third in 2016 reflected by assaults, vandalism, and
It was in the first month of the second year on the first of the month that the Mishkan was erected. (Shemos 40:17) As we culminate the construction of the Mishkan in this week’s Parshas Vayakhel / Pekudei, and launch into Sefer Vayikra next week, we are again challenged by a methodology to teach beginners... Read more »
As the Kuzari explains, Judaism introduced the world to the universally accepted seven-day week. The culmination of the week for the Jewish people is the Sabbath – a day of rest, connection to God, and rejuvenation. Subsequently, other religions adopted the Shabbat principle by taking a weekly day off from
The Chinuch tells us a great principle: our actions affect and condition our internal, spiritual reality. G-d therefore commanded us to make a place that would be perfectly pure and holy where, both by going there and doing the things we do there, we could purify our own thoughts. For example, the
We will shortly begin the Parshios of the Mishkan. This year, we have the unprecedented opportunity to bring the Mishkan to life, thanks to a stunning model build by Rabbi Hallel Newman. The model is at the scale of 1 inch for every amah, and took over a year to produce. Every component, from the Bazichin of
