Bereishis

Hashem cares for all our needs, but He asks us not to eat from just one tree: 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die.' But when...

The Gemara in Chulin (139b) asks, where can we find “Haman” (from the story of Purim) in the Torah? Says Rav Masnah, "from the pasuk after the sin of the Eitz Hadaas when Hashem asks Adam: 'Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?'” In Lashon Kode...

Most of us have so many blessings to be thankful for in our lives, but the Yetzer Hara tries to make us believe that we MUST have that one “forbidden fruit.” He tries to convince us that Hashem is withholding the ONE THING we want most because He really doesn’t have our...

The differences that human beings have, in their separate spiritual journeys, are illustrated to us in the Torah almost at its very beginning, with the story of Kayin and Hevel. It may not have been an innate shortcoming in Kayin. His mother had named him "Kayin" out of...

Mankind has been placed in a literal “Gan Eden” today. Most of us have good wives, beautiful and healthy children, nachas, parnasa, and all the comforts and conveniences of the 21st century. We have bathrooms in our homes, hot and cold running water, heating and air-condi...

"G-d said, 'Let us make man.'" All of creation is done by G-d alone. Only in creation of man does G-d say "Let us make man." G-d created animals and He created angels. Both are created in a state of completion. Now, G-d wanted a different type of being, one that is create...

Sefer ha Brit, Shemirat Eynaim Our Master the Chatam Sofer wrote in The introduction to Parashat Bereshit the following: Our Sages, z'l said (Avodah Zara 20): "The angel of death is full of eyes and when the time for a person to die comes, the angel stands above his head,...

We read in Genesis that after Adam sinned, he tried to hide in the Garden of Eden. Was Adam so foolish to think that he could hide from God? Certainly not! He was hiding from himself, because it was himself that he could no longer confront. God's question to him was very ...