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 – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Ha'azinu – Shabbat Teshuva OPEN A GATE FOR US AT THE HOUR OF THE GATE'S CLOSING – FOR THE DAY HAS PASSED   When is the Time for Ne'ila? The rabbis of Caesarea say: Rav and R. Yohanan disagree about it. Rav said: At the closing of the gates of Heaven. R. Yohanan: At the closing of the gates of the Temple. (Yerushalmi Berakhot 4:1)   And so they established a service following the minha...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Ha'azinu – Sukkot A sukkah whose height exceeds twenty cubits is unfit, but Rabbi Yehudah allows it… (Mishnah Sukkah 1:1) What is the scriptural basis?… Rava said: From You shall dwell in sukkot for seven days (Vayikra 23) – The Torah said: Leave your permanent dwelling and live in a temporary dwelling for all of those seven days. Up to twenty cubits – a person has made temporary dwelling; More than twenty...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Ha'azinu INDEED, AT A DISTANCE YOU SHALL SEE THE LAND, BUT THERE YOU SHALL NOT ENTER, THE LAND THAT I AM GIVING TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL (Devarim 32:52)   "Indeed, at a distance you shall see the land, but there you shall not come" – Here is written "but there you shall not come"; but further on it is written "but there you shall not cross". It cannot say "there you shall not come", for...