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...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Behukotay And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the LORD, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand. (Lev. 27:14) And he shall add a fifth – that it and its fifth will be five, and so too with a house and a field and an estate, and in the second tithe. And the reason is...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Behar "And the land's Sabbath shall be food for you". Not for commerce, nor for waste nor for sprinkling nor for steeping nor for laundering, but eating it is permitted, and also wherever the benefit comes together with its consumption as with eating. For you and your male servant and your maid servant. That is to say, all are equal, just as they cannot be excluded because is hiker , and...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Emor With independence we gained control of ourselves. We achieved freedom of choice. We are not dependent upon others, and the process of redemption can be carried to completion, if so we wish. Redemption is not one of the 613 commandments, and the Halakhic meaning of redemption lies in political independence, in the possibility of observing those commandments which require sovereignty and territoriality in the Land of Israel. The beginning of redemption is the possibility of observing...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Kedoshim A Jew who went through the Shoah, a Jew who lived through five wars: the War of Independence, the Sinai War, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and the Lebanon War, aside from the War of Attrition – is allowed to fear another war. (Harav Amital, of Blessed Memory: "To Hear the Cry of a Baby" – quoted in: Moshe Maya – A World Built, Destroyed, and Rebuilt, p. 20) Blessed is the...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Achary Mot – Pessah Rabbi Hiya taught: the Torah spoke of four son; a wise son, a wicked son, a stupid son, and a son who does not know how to ask. (Yerushalmi Pesahim 10,4) My honored father of blessed memory said: that at first it was said, "Blessed be He who gave Torah to His people Israel, blessed be He," and afterward, "the Torah spoke of four sons," because by virtue of the Torah it...