Parsha Related

Chazal tell us that the sea split in the merit of Yosef Hatzadik. What is the connection between running away from zenus and klal yisroel meriting to go through, why should one have a bearing on the other? I think a possible explanation is that klal yisroel were in danger...

A lesson we can take from Sisera (that you probably never heard it Yeshiva). If you analyze it, it would appear that Sisera was a sex addict. Thus, when the women were comforting the mother of Sisera as to why her son was late, they told her don't worry, "רַחַם רַחֲמָתַי...

Haym ra'ah vayanos.Mah ra'ah? Arono shel Yosef ra'ah.(Midrash)Is that what the sea was afraid of? A few old bones in a box?The see was afraid of Atzmas Yosef - that atzmius of Yosef - the essence of Yosef! The sexual purity of Yosef Hatzadik that Klal Yisroel had within t...

I remember hearing a powerful story about Reb Moshe Leib M'Sosov who's yartzeit was this past week I think. It was on a Parshas Bo that Reb Moishe Leib was in Lizensk for shabbos as a guest of R' Elimelech. During the seuda he got up to say a vort on the parsha. The off...

ליל שימורים הוא להשם Amalek is determined to destroy klal yisrael. One of his primary weapons is to contaminate their personal holiness, the os bris kodesh. אשר קרך בדרך, from the same root as קרי, as Rashi says on that pasuk. Hashem says אין השם שלם ואין הכסא שלם, His Na...

The sedra starts with 'come to pharoh because I have hardened his heart.' Wouldn't it have been better to say 'go' rather than 'come.' And why is the hardening of the heart a reason to go, surely it's a reason to not bother?! The word 'oilam' comes from the word 'ne'elom'...

In Parshas Shemos, the Degel Machaneh Ephraim taught that a person should elevate the machshavos zaros (strange and evil thoughts) that come to him. Regarding this topic, one commenter asked how we should practically go about elevating these thoughts. Last night, I learne...

"God's angel appeared to Moses in the heart of a fire, in the midst of a thorn-bush." (Ex. 3:2) Why did God choose a sneh, a thorn-bush to reveal Himself to Moses? A Cure for Fever The Talmud (Shabbat 67a) prescribes a peculiar procedure for those suffering from a high fe...

"Ubnei Yisrael paru vayishritzu vayirbu vyatsmu." The passuk uses many terms to describe Bnei Yisrael's growth. The Bostoner Rebbe zt"l, Reb Levi Yitzchak Howoritz, in his sefer Shaar Levi, asks: Why does the passuk need to describe this so deeply, to go so far as to us...

The Ohr Hachayim on Parshas Shemos (3:8) writes that before Moshiach's time, the Jewish nation will be subjected to the 50th level of impurity. But he also writes there, that before the Redemption the Jewish people will garner the strength to enter into the very "mouth" o...