Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Chaye Sara And she said: Also for your camels shall I draw until all have finished drinking (Bereishit 24:19) And she said: Also for your camels shall I draw – From here we derive that one should show concern for himself and should watch over himself, and Eliezer, after he requests "Give me to drink" she gave him, but the beasts, because of the suffering of the animals, everyone, not only the owners,...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Vayera And isaac said to abraham his father, "father!" And he said, "here i am, my son." And he said, "here is the fire and the wood But where is the sheep for the offering?" (Bereishit 22:7) And they build the shrines of Baal which are in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, where they offered up their sons and daughters to Molech – when I had never commanded, or even thought , that they should do...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Lech-Lecha And he took him outside and he said, "look up to the heavens and count the stars, If you can count them." and he said, "so shall be your seed." (Bereishit 15:5) And He took him outside – The prophecy to observe the stars came to him in his tent in a prophetic vision, and so (Ezekiel 8:3) "And brought me in visions of God to Yerushalayim". Earlier He told him "as the dust of the...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Noah And it happened, at the end of forty days, That noah opened the window of the ark He had made (Bereishit 8:6) At the end of forty days – when the waters began to recede. To me it seems that the correct interpretation is from when the ark rested on Mt. Ararat, for how else could Noah have known that the waters had receded? But when it rested on Mt. Ararat, he...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Bereishit He drove the man out, And stationed east of the garden of eden the chrubim And the fiery ever-turning sword, To guard the way to the tree of life (bereishit 3:24) In Midrash Eicha (Ptichta 4) Rabbi Abba began "But they, as a man, have transgressed the Covenant" (Hosea 6:7). This refers to Adam, the first. Said the Holy One, blessed be He: Man, I placed him in the Garden of Eden, as is written...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Simhat Tora Be happy and rejoice on simchat torah – on the difference between SASSON AND SIMCHA Simcha occurs with the advent of something which makes one happy; sasson is present when that 'something' reaches its full and successful completion, as is written "Glad as they go forth, exultant as they return" (Artscroll translation). When they go forth to illumine the...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Ha'azinu – Sukkot Remember the days of old, Give thought to the years of times past. Ask your father, that he may tell you, Your elders, that they may say to you. (Devarim 32:7) Remember the days of old. After completion of the introduction to the poem, in which he announces his intention to justify the ways of the exalted God, that He is a God of trust who benefits those who do His will, who...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Vayelech – Shabbat Teshuva Open for us the gate of prayer, Even at the closing of the gate, Even now that the day has declined Gates, Locked and Unlocked Rabbi Eliezer said: Since the destruction of the Temple, the gates of prayer are locked, for it is written, Also when I cry out, He shuts out my prayer (Lamentations 3:8). Yet though the gates of prayer are locked, the gates of tears are not, for it is written, Hear...
SHABBAT SHALOM (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Nitzavim-Vayelech You stand this day. All of you before the lord your god – your tribal heads, your elders and your officials,all men of israel,your children,your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from the woodchopper to the waterdrawer. (Deuteronomy 29:9-10) Open reproof is better than concealed love (Proverbs 27:5) King Solomon, may he rest in peace, informed us in his book, of the principles of reproof, and taught us that life is dependent on reprimanding, and death is impending...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Ki Tavo Bread you did not eat, And wine and strong drink you did not drink, So that you might know that i am the lord your god (Devarim 29:5) "Bread you did not eat, and wine and strong drink you did not drink" – you did not eat it in order to live from it, for your primary sustenance was the manna, "that you know that I am the Lord your God" who sustains...