Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Vayelech So Moshe wrote down this song on that day, and he taught it to the Children of Israel. (Devarim 31:22) “This song” – From “Haazinu hashamayim” (32:1) through “effecting atonement for the soil of his people.” (Rashi on 32:22) This refers to the Torah, for we have already learned that the Torah is called “song”. (Haamek Davar, ibid.) It is important to understand how it is that the Torah can be called “song” – after all, is it written in the style of...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Nitzavim For the commandment I command you this day: it is not too extraordinary for you, it is not too far away! It is not in the heavens, for you to say: Who will go up for us to the heavens and get it for us and have us hear it, that we may observe it? And it is not across the sea, for you to say: Who will cross for us, across the sea, and get it for us and have us hear it, that...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Ki Tavo “God will make you the head and not the tail, you will be only top, you will not be bottom – if you hearken to the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today, by taking care and by observing them.” (Devarim 28:13) THE BLESSING IS CONTINGENT UPON OUR MORAL STANDARDS “And to set you most high above all the nations…” – Said Rabbi Levi, “What is this “elyon” ? It is like this...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Ki Tetseh When a man takes a new wife, he is not to go out to the armed forces, he is not to cross over to them for any matter; free and clear let him remain in his house for one year, and let him give joy to his wife whom he has taken. (Devarim 24:5) The General Good Is Largely Dependent Upon the Happiness of the Individual The following are those who do not go out to the armed forces at all,...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Shoftim “When there is found among you, within one of your gates that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or a woman that does what is ill in the eyes of the Lord your God, to cross his covenant, going and serving other gods and prostrating oneself to them – to the sun or to the moon or to any of the forces of heaven that I have not commanded – and it is told to you, you are to hear and...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Reeh These you may eat from all that is in the sea; every one that has fins and scales, you may eat. (Devarim 14:9) “These are the living creatures that you may eat” – This teaches us that Moshe would hold the creature for Israel to see, saying “This you may eat and this you may not eat. This you may eat from all that is in the water, and this you may not eat. These you are to detest from fowl . ....
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Ekev “But the land you are crossing into to possess is a land of hills and cleft-valleys; from the rain of the heavens it drinks water; a land of which God makes demands.” (Devarim 11:11-12) “A land of which God makes demands.” A land of which demands may be made, e.g., to set aside challah, heave-offerings, and tithes — or is it possible that such demands be made of other lands as well? We derive from the passage that demands may be made...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Vaetchanan “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” One must bless (the Lord) for the bad just as he blesses Him for the good, as is written: ““And you shall love the Lord our God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” “With all your heart: — with both your inclinations, the good inclination and the evil inclination. “With all your soul” –...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Devarim YOU SHALL NOT BE PARTIAL IN JUDGEMENT . . . YOU ARE NOT TO BE IN FEAR OF ANY MAN, FOR JUDGEMENT IS GOD’S. (Devarim 1:17) Said Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korha: From where do we know that if one sits before a judge, and you know a point in favor of the poor against the rich, you may not remain silent? Says Scripture: “You are not to be in fear of any man.” (Tosefta, Sanhedrin 1:4) “FOR JUDGEMENT IS GOD’S” – When...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Parshat Matot-Mas'ei “These are the marching stages of the Children of Israel that they went on from the land of Egypt, by their forces, through the hand of Moshe and Aharon.” (Bemidbar 33:1) “These are the marching stages” – Why are these marches recorded? To illustrate the goodness of the Omniscient; even though He decreed their wandering in the desert, say not that they wandered ceaselessly, forty years, without rest. (Rashi, ibid.) The Wandering Stages of Children of Israel – Privilege, Blemished...