The Library

As we prepare to exit the year 5770, it is a time to make a reckoning of how the year passed. How it started with guilt & regret for all the garbage I was living in, along hopes and prayers for Hashem to help me get out of it. The format was exactly the same as the ye...

Dear Guard, I wanted to wish you a K'sivah V'Chasimah Tovah. As I reflect on Rosh Hashanah I am filled with Hakoras Hatov. B'H, look what a year could bring. Last year at this time, I didn't know much about GYE, I didn't know much about the 12 steps, I didn't know Duvid C...

The Mishna teaches (tractate Avos, 4:17) that an hour of Teshuva (penitence) and good deeds in this world is worth more than the entire World to Come, yet a minute in the World to Come is more sublime than all the pleasures of this world combined.From the above Mishna, we...

I heard a vort from Osios d'Rabbi Akiva. Why does the letter zayin have a crown that points in two directions? Because baaley znus constantly look in all directions, one direction for lust objects, and the other direction to make sure no one is watching them. What horrib...

"In my youth, I was considered a bright and diligent student. How did I accomplish this? I tricked my yetzer hara. Other children had great plans at the beginning of the school year for the whole year, but in the end they failed. I said to myself, "I am going to plan just...

This Parsha begins with a focus on choice. We hear Moshe Rabbeinu saying: "Re'ei a'nochi no'sein lif'nei'chem ha'yom bracha u'klalla".(ArtScroll: "See. I present before you today a blessing and a curse.."). The Sfas Emes brings an insight from his Grandfather. The Chidush...

Rav Chaim Shmulevitz brings a ritvoh in Yuma (54b). The gemorah says, that when the non-Jews entered the kodesh hakodoshim to destroy the bais hamikdosh, they found the keruvim embracing each other and they made fun of the Jews. The ritvoh asks, that it says in bava basra...

I was doing shnayim mikreh and I encountered unkelus' translation of eloheyhem. The passuk says that Hashem inflicted punishment on Egypt's elohim. Unkelos translates it as "Ta'vusehon", which comes from the word "Ta'us" or mistake. The gods of Egypt were false gods, or i...

When the spies came back and declared "we can't" inherit the land of Israel, the entire nation wept that night in their tents. And Hashem declared that "since you cried on this night for nothing, you will cry on this night for generations". The crying for generations that...

The Zohar (in Chelek Beis, pg 78b) writes that Yakov Avinu took the months of Nissan and Iyar for himself (hence Yetziyas Mitzrayim, Kabbalas Hatorah), and Eisav took the months of Tammuz and Av for himself (and hence, the 17th of Tammuz and Tisha Be'av), but only the fir...

After Bila'am's failed efforts to curse the Jewish people, he devised another ploy. He advised the nations of Midian and Moav to lure the Jews to sin through salacious activities. Midian complied wholeheartedly, offering its daughters as conspirators in the profanity. The...

I wanted to share something with you. It has put in a nutshell what I have been thinking about for some days now, and I hope it can help us all: I learnt a little with my Rebbi last night and we were reading a chapter from the Steiplers Sefer 'Chayei Olam'. It was all abo...

Taanis Tzibbor - Krias HaTorah: "Im na matzasi chein be'einecha - yeileich na Hashem bekirbeinu" If I am to give you pleasure with the eyes (ten lo mishelo, she'ata v'shelach shelo), it can only be if you are with me. I cannot do it by myself. Ilimalei Hakodosh Boruch Hu...

This week's Parsha contains the lesson of what happens to the ultimate baal taavah (pleasure seeker). Chazal teach us that Bilaam's Power was with his mouth. Another thing Chazal tell us is that Bilaam had an "ayin rah - an evil eye". What was the significance of these tw...

The very phrases "Hayom al l'vovecha" and "asher Anochi metzaveh es'chem Hayom" in kriyas sh'ma are both darshened by chazal to mean that His proclamation here is new - today is the first day we have heard of it! Now, to me, this is precisely living one day at a time. It ...

Do you have accountability software installed yet? Don't trust yourself. Filters can be broken, loopholes can always be found. When lust attacks, an addict will find a way to get his "FIX". Only Accountability software may stop us in such times. Make sure someone you resp...