The Library

"Come I shall advise you what this people will do to your people" (Bamidbar 24:14). What advice is Bilaam referring to? Rashi explains that he's informing Balak that the G-d of Israel hates licentiousness, therefore if you want to succeed then cause them to stumble in thi...

Bilaam said: "He perceived no iniquity in Yaakov, and saw no perversity in Israel" (Bamidbar 23:21) - even if a Jew acts improperly, Hashem will not see any wrong - He will, so to speak, "look the other way", and therefore not see, because, as Bilaam explains, "Hashem his...

Parshas Shelach describes a Jew's inability of breaking out from victim - aka Egyptian (*1) Slave Mentality - into survivor - aka Freedom Mentality - when they accepted the report of the spies negatively. This sealed their fate in the desert. In contrast, the Haftara rela...

*Venishmarta mikol davar ra, mikan shelo yeharhar adam bayom veyavo lidei tumah balailah. Why does the Torah tell us the prohibition of being motzei zera levatala in a roundabout way, venishmarta etc.? why doesn't it say it in a direct fashion, exactly what is assur? The ...

Yaakov personified the כח of קדושה. Thus, Yaakov told Reuvain "Kochi v'reishis oni" - complete שמירת הברית. This could also explain why Yaakov had Yosef swear with his yerech. Rashi says why with respect to Avrohom but not Yaakov. Perhaps it was the chavivos for shemiras ...

PARSHAS MIKETZ SHABBOS CHANUKKA This week's Parsha has a terrific lesson that we can apply to our struggle and to our lives. Here Goes: We find that when Yosef Hatzaddik speaks to Pharo He speaks with tremendous humility Pharo tells him "I hear you can decipher dreams" Yo...

Disaster One afternoon a man came home from work to find total mayhem in his house. His three children were outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open, as was...

Vayehav Yitzchok ess Eisav .... v'Rivkah oheves ess Yaakov.Rivkah was not as great as Yitzchok. She was not able to love Eisav. Therefore, she only loved Yaakov. Yitzchok loved Eisav! [He also loved Yaakov, but that is not a chiddush!]What?! Why would Yitzchok love a Rash...

Rashi says that Yaakov was entitled to the bechorah because, if you put two balls in a narrow tube, the one going in first will come out last. One could wonder whether this is accurate since babies move around in the womb. Moreover, Rashi already commented that there had ...

'Vayizak za'akah, gedoloh ad me'od', 'vayistom eisov es yaakov'. I think that perhaps the initial pain and scream are understandable, he was human after all, and it was an immense shock and disappointment. However, here is an amazing example of how our resentments can ca...

Even after Rivkah told Eliezer that there is room for him to spend the nights in their home, he still stayed standing at the spring until Lavan came running out to great him. Vatakam Rivkah.... vateilachnu acharei ha'ish (24:61) Rivkah went behind Eliezer. The gemoro sa...

I once heard this powerful idea from R’ Mattisyahu Salamon Shlita. Most Rishonim say that the last Nisayon of Avraham Avinu was the Akeida. However, Rabeinu Yona says that the last Nisayon was the burial of Sara. The question is obvious. After having been through the Akei...

Yitzchak is a lashon of simcha/laughter. Lasuach can be understood as a lashon of hachna'a, like ma tishtochachi nafshi. Generally, when a person humbles himself and bends to the authority of another that brings sadness because it limits and controls you. But if a perso...

We are all Abraham-in Training. Click above for an inspiring 1-minute video clip.

“So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed from east. Thus they parted from each other." When Lot departs to his own way, the Torah says that he traveled from Beth El to the plain of the Jordan, from the east to the west (westward). (That...

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...

ראש חודש אלול. It's that time of year. When I usually sit down and write a list of everything I've done wrong. Of all the ways that I messed up. When I contemplate what a disappointment I've been to myself, my family, and those who don't even have any knowledge of h...

Head of the Rabbinical services organization 'Tzohar,' Rabbi David Stav, criticized on Wednesday rabbis who hush up sexual abuse cases in their communities rather than reporting them to the authorities. "Sexual abuse is physical and psychological damage of the highest or...