Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Devarim Because of mount zion, which lies desolate; Jackals prowl over it On another occasion they were coming up to Jerusalem together, and just as they came to Mount Scopus they saw a jackal emerging from the Holy of Holies. They fell a-weeping and R. Akiva seemed merry. Wherefore, said they to him, are you merry? Said he: Wherefore are you weeping? Said they to him: A place of which it was once said, And the common...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Mas'ey Zelophehad's Daughters Marry Ariel Rathaus The Book of Numbers ends with the mention of a festive event, the marriage of Zelophehad's daughters with their cousins, "the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph." However, as often happens even today, tension and contention preceded this wedding. At the end of Parashat Masa'ey, the second episode in the story of Zelophehad's daughters is told (Numbers 36:1-10), and it may be said that this episode creates...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Matot The word of the lord came to me: What do you see, jeremiah? I replied: i see a branch of an almond tree. (From the haphtarah of Parashat Mattot, Jeremiah 1:11) Said Rabbi Munah: Both according to those who opine that the city wall was breached on the ninth of the month and according those who opine it was on the seventeenth of Tammuz, from the date of breach until the destruction of the temple,...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Pinchas Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names. To many thou shalt give the more inheritance, and to few thou shalt give the less inheritance: to every one shall his inheritance be given according to those that were numbered of him. Notwithstanding the land shall be divided by lot: according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit. According to the lot shall the...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Balak And Balaam raised his eyes and saw Israel dwelling by its tribes, and the spirit of God was upon him… How fair are your tents, O Yaakov, your dwellings, O Yisrael! (Bemidbar 24:5) Your dwellings – How fair are they even when they are in ruins because then they are a pledge for you , and the fact that they are in...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Chukkat And they turned and they went up on the road to bashan, And og king of bashan came out to meet them in battle, He and all his troops, at edrei. (Bemidbar 21:33) And Og went out – I have already explained in Parashat Lech Lecha why he was privileged to live so long, from Noah to Avraham. (Hizkuni, ibid., ibid.) And the fugitive arrived – Explained Rashi – "this was Og, who survived...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Korach Not a donkey of theirs have I carried off And i have done no harm to any one of them (Bemidbar16:15) "…Not a donkey of theirs have I carried off" is to be understood as follows – Moshe said: In what way do I lord it over you?! I never even took a donkey for my needs as do kings and minister, even though this be the prerogative of government, as is written (Shmuel I,...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Shelach "Amalek dwells in the Negev land And the Hittite and Jebusite and the Amorite dwell in the high country, And the Canaanite dwells by the sea and by the Jordan." And Caleb silenced the people around Moses and said, "We will surely go up and take hold of it, for we will surely prevail over it." We will surely go up and take hold of it. When Moshe sent off the twelve tribal leaders to...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Behaalotcha When you draw up the lampwicks Towards the front of the lampstand let the seven lampwicks give light. (Bemidbar 8:2) When you draw up the lampwicks – 'For you shall light my lamp' (Psalm 18) – Said the Children of Israel before the Holy One, Blessed Be He: Master of the Universe, you say that we shall light up before you, but you are the lamp of the world and light dwells with you! It...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Nasso – Chag Shavuot Rabbi Pinchas in the name of Rabbi Hoshaia said, "While the king sits at his table" (Song of Songs, 1:12), before the King, the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, sits at his table in heaven, He went first, as it is said (Ex. 19:16): "And it came to pass on the third day in the morning." This is like a king who decreed, "On a certain day I will...