Where is the outcry when we are crushed like never before, muted and silenced? * Everything we need to learn has been entrusted to us. It is up to us to be the mouthpiece of leadership - and more importantly, to live it ourselves.
If the Torah is going to chime in about medicine, it must follow the cutting edge of medical progress to remain relevant to the “evolving” human body. * How can a rabbi, who happens to be a doctor, be sure that his medical Torah teachings are in line with eternal G-dly wisdom?
In the same time period we have the revelation of all three [alluded to by the word “miyad,” spelled Mem-Yud-Daled]: Mem (stands for Moshiach),* Yud (stands for both names of my revered father in-law, the Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchok), and Daled (doram).
The Ten Commandments (or more correctly, the Ten Statements) are not just a collection of disparate laws. There is a thematic connection between the commandments/statements.
By any measure, Parshas Yisro stands out. It contains history’s most significant event: the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.
This Shabbos, Parshas Yisro, we read in the Torah about the giving of the Torah, one of the most foundational events of Jewish history. Hashem revealed Himself to the Yidden and chose them as His nation. We celebrate the giving of the Torah on Shavuos.
A question is posed, why does Yisro separate Moshe from Israel?
Chassidus explains that all Mitzvos are the Ratzon-Will of Hashem1. As such, it is understood that Mitzvos don’t need to be logical. If they were manmade they would need to be logical, but since Mitzvos stem from a source completely beyond any sphere of understanding, Hashem’s Will, they transcend logic. Nonetheless, Mitzvos do have some reasons and explanations that relate to us, a logic based species. However, it is vital to be aware that these explanations are only auxiliary to what the Mitzvos truly are
A woman does this through her own proper conduct, as well as by educating her children and family members to behave in a manner appropriate for a “Sanctuary” and a “Temple” for G-d, and in particular, a finely crafted and adorned Sanctuary or Temple.
“I am one hundred and twenty years today,” “today my days and years have become complete,” enriched and complete days and years, both physically and spiritually. The continuation of Moshe’s 120 years is the eternal life of the true and complete redemption.
In his classic work Tanya, the Alter Rebbe expounds on the revelation at Mount Sinai. What happened there was more than just the giving of a set of Ten Commandments, most of which were already known. Far more significantly, it was an unprecedented revelation of G-d’s presence in our physical world. No longer were the physical and the spiritual realms disparate entities
The leader of the generation – the nasi, meaning hisnas’us, uplifting – lifts up the entire generation, for “the nasi, the leader, is everything.”
We’ve already established that Yisro connotes to not rest on our laurels. What is the difference between the Yeser stage of his life and the Yisro stage? Both stages involve adding on; in the case of Yeser it is contributing a section of the Torah and in the case of Yisro it involved converting to Judaism. What was so fundamentally different about the second stage that a new letter, Vav, had to be added to his name?
February 1, 2021