Torah

In the spirit of Purim, I figured I would ;share a thought of Torah with everyone here. ;The Bnei Yisaschar (Rav Zmi Elimelech Shapiro of Dinov) points out something very interesting about Purim. In naming the Moadim, the Torah refers to each particular holiday with a name that reflects the mirac...

"Moshe took the Book of the Covenant and read it in earshot of the people and they said: 'Everything that G-d has said, WE WILL DO AND WE WILL OBEY!'" ;(Exodus/Shemos 24:7) As we follow the narrative of the Jewish People from the time they spent as brutalized slaves in Egypt - to the demonstrati...

I struggled with shmiras einayim for years. I tried every trick in the book, every kind of inspiration, but nothing lasted for the long term. Until I finally gave up. ; Surprisingly though, it was actually when I gave up that things finally changed. I came to the realization that I just can't bea...

"On the third day when it was morning, there was Thunder and Lightning and a Heavy Cloud on The Mountain, and the Sound of the Shofar was very powerful, and the entire people that were ;around the camp ;shuddered" ;(Exodus/Shemos 19:16) Can you even imagine the DRAMA, the ANTICIPATION, the EXCIT...

; "He harnessed his chariot...He took six hundred elite chariots and all the chariots of Egypt, with officers on them all. ;Hashem strengthened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt and he pursued the Children of Israel" ;(Exodus/Shemos 14:6) "It was told to the king of Egypt that the people ha...

At the end of his new book, ;Tribe of Mentors, Timothy Ferris cites the following poem by Portia Nelson. It’s called ‘Autobiography in Five Short Chapters’: Chapter 1: I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost… I am helpless. It isn’t my fault. It takes fo...

The sforim tell us that rosh chodesh ;Shvat ;is very mesugal for his'chadshus - starting anew. It is the day Moshe Rabeinu began to explain the Torah. It is rosh hashana for trees according to Shammai - because the sap begins reviving the trees on that day. The Yidden were given the special koach...

The Holy Ruzhiner Rebbe zy”a interpreted the verse in Tehillim (37:10) “In a little while, the wicked is no more; reflect upon his place, and he is gone.” This means that “in a little while,” - shortly after sinning - “the wicked is no more” - the person no longer wants to be wicked for he regrets his sin. Therefore, it is better that he "reflect upon his place” - he should think before he commits the sin, at the place of the sin - and then “he is gone” - he will not commit the sin at all.

"When we became addicts, crushed by a Self-Imposed Crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either G-d is everything or else He is nothing. ;G-d either is or He isn't. What was our choice to be?" ;(Big Book, Page 53) בא אל פרעה "Come to Pharaoh" Comm...

When we were approaching חודש שבט I heard from Reb Shlomo Meyer a vort that was tremendous chizuk for me all these years. שבט ר״ת שמרם ברכם טהרם. This month, which is entirely during the weeks of שובבים is here to remind us what our goal in life is. ; We ask Hashem, please שמרם - watch over us th...