Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Chukkat They journeyed from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to circle the land of Edom, and the people became disheartened because of the way. (Bamidbar 21:4) Anything difficult for a person to bear is called kitzur nefesh , like a person who is beset with trouble, and his mind is not composed enough to accept it. There is no place in his heart for the distress to settle. The...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Balak How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel! (Bamidbar 24:5) Your dwelling places : even when they are desolate, for they are held as a pledge for you, and their desolate state atones for your souls, as it says, The Lord has spent His fury (Lamentations 4:11). How did He spend it? He has kindled a fire in Zion. (Rashi Bamidbar 24:5, Judaica Press translation) It is written, A...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Korach Speak to the children of Israel and take from them a staff for each father's house from all the chieftains according to their fathers' houses; twelve staffs, and inscribe each man's name on his staff. Inscribe Aaron's name on the staff of Levi… the staff of the man whom I will choose will blossom… And on the following day Moses came to the Tent of Testimony, and behold, Aaron's staff for the house...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Shelach You shall see what land it is, and the people who dwell upon it; are they strong or weak? Are there few or many? (Bamidbar 13:18) And the people who inhabit it – He told them to inspect the state's laws and customs, as that sage said, that when you enter a state you should check its laws, since troubles come upon a state only because of its laws… and when a state's...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Behaalotcha Speak to Aaron and say to him: "When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall cast their light toward the face of the menorah." (Bamidbar 8:2) The seven lamps shall cast their light All seven will cast their light and emanate supernal light upon Israel. The light from the lamps on the right and the light of those on the left will face and be directed towards the center branch, which is the essence...
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 This is the law of jealousies when a woman goes astray to someone other than her husband and is defiled or if a spirit of jealousy comes over a man, and he is jealous of his wife. (Bamidbar 5: 29-30) This is the law of jealousies : Justified jealousy and unjustified jealousy, which is explained by the phrases, when a woman goes astray to someone other than her husband and...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Behar – Behukotay And you shall count for yourself seven sabbatical years, seven years seven times. And the days of these seven sabbatical years shall amount to forty nine years for you. (Vayikra 25:8) The Shemittah Year serves to remind us that the land belongs to Him, may He be blessed, and it is given to us from His hand, and we are just aliens and residents with Him and we should not take pride...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Emor Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and all who heard shall lean their hands on his head. And the entire community shall stone him. (Vayikra 24, 14) The place of execution had to be outside the Israelite camp (Sanhedrin 42b, "outside the three camps"), outside the city. If the law court itself was outside the city, the place of execution had to be some distance away from it, so that it should not...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Achary Mot – Kedoshim And the land became defiled, and I visited its sin upon it, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. (Vayikra 18:25) The nations have defiled themselves… and the land became defiled – These words are usually used in reference to the entire planet earth – as it relates to humanity, since the entire earth is called land. Its name reflects its significance – the foundation for the development of...