Danny Ginsbourg

Parashat Balak:

'A nation that dwells alone'

Our Sages took care to maintain this separation, enacting decrees so that we do not mingle with the nations, such as forbidding their wine, lest we thereby come close to their daughters, and the like.

Parashat Chukat:

"Ascend o well - call out to it"

‘This is truly ‘a gift’ - as our parsha promises - to become like a well of flowing water - of Torah.’

Parashat Korach:

The Levite who wanted to be High Priest

Did the intelligent Korach not feel the contradiction in his words?

Parashat Shlach:

Juxtaposition - and not by chance!

Answering an age-old question: Why does the story of the spies follow the story of Miriam's punishment for slander?

The complainers

‘This was the severity of their transgression, that: it was not meat that they desired, but that they desired desire.

Parashat Naso:

The sanctity of Aaron

The Kohen loves the people and they, in turn, love him.

Parashat Bamidbar:

Why was the tribe of Levi so much smaller than all the others?

Torah commentaries address the reason for the small number of levites when compared to every other tribe.

Parashat Behar-Bechukotai:

Shmita as a continuation of the revelation at Sinai

A person who is not subjugated to Torah - but to his possessions and his wealth - can not observe the mitzvah of shemita, whilst he still feels that he is the master of his fields.

Parashat Emor:

Why is Shabbat listed among the holidays?

Torah commentaries weigh in on the philosophic and practical issue of the difference between Shabbat and the other festivals and why Shabbat is mentioned with them despite that.

A survey of commentaries:

'Do not do as Egypt did, nor Canaan'

Commentaries weigh in on what exactly this prohibition means.

Parashat Tazria-Metzora

Conundrum: The difference in purification time between male and female births

‘Why are the periods of impurity - and then purity - of the mother who gives birth to a girl, double the periods where she gives birth to a male?’

Parashat Shmini:

Moses said to Aaron: Approach the altar and perform your service

Why did Aaron have to be convinced to approach the altar?

Passover:

Two faces of "the day after"

Though we had no merits - ‘no פתח no opening’ - Hashem still redeemed us.

Parashat Vayikra:

Hashem called to Moshe saying...

Not everyone merits to attain the upper part of the Torah, the concealed Torah which is in the hands of Hashem - however, every Jew is obliged to engage in the other two ‘lower’ parts of the Torah - the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, which are in alluded to as 'saying’ and ‘speaking’.

Pekudei:

Moshe could not enter the tent of meeting - why?

Commentators weigh in on why the greatest of Prophets could not enter the Tabernacle after it was put up - see the end of the Book of Exodus.

Vayakhel:

The men came with the women

‘The men needed to donate their ornaments to atone for their souls; but the women who did not want to give their ornaments for the calf did not require atonement. ‘Why, then, should the women give their ornaments?

Just one half-shekel, no more and no less?

’The wealthy shall not increase and the indigent shall not decrease’ - why?

Parashat Tetsave:

The priestly robe atones for lashon hara'a

The instrument of speech is a priceless gift to our people to serve Hashem, more so than any of our other organs. The robe was designed to remind us of that.

Terumah:

'They shall make a sanctuary for Me..for the Torah in the Ark

A collection of commentaries on our Sages' question: ’’THEY shall make an Ark’’- in plural, unlike the other utensils, which they are also commanded to make, but where the command is in the singular: ‘YOU shall make..’ - why?

'Distance yourself from a false word"

From our childhood, we indulge in a world of imagining, until that which we imagine becomes our reality....

Yitro:

'Thou shalt not covet'

Ibn Ezra comments: Many have wondered about this commandment: how can one not covet in your heart, a nice thing, which is goodly in his eyes? Read his famous answer and other commentaries' explanations of it below.

When Pharaoh sent them out

Who freed the slaves - Hashem or Pharaoh?

Parashat Bo:

'In your blood you shall live, in your blood you shall live'

Various commentators weigh in on a question on the Torah reading. Did Bnei israel in Egypt not have any Mitzvot, so that Hashem felt compelled to give them these two new Mitzvot - pesach and milah - in the merit of which they were redeemed from Egypt?

Parashat Vaera:

"The staff of Aaron swallowed their staffs"

The Egyptians acted as a snake, in their cruelty adding affliction and suffering, way beyond what had been decree.

'These are the names' - a haunting title for this week's parsha

Names truly reflect the forces with which the creation, so named, was created.

Vayechi:

The blessed partnership of Yissachar and Zevulun

Those engaged in commerce, must sustain those engaged in Torah, and, further, they themselves are thereby deemed to be engaged in Torah toil!

Vayigash:

'I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?'

Why did Joseph ask a question to which he had already been give the answer?

Pharaoh: There is no one as wise and discerning as you, Joseph

Who asked Yosef to offer his advice, in addition to proffering the solution to the dream, with which he was charged?

Yosef's two dreams

Selected commentaries explain why Joseph's brothers were angered by his dreams.

Vayishlach:

Do you have plenty?

The wicked, in their own eyes, consider themselves to be tzaddikim, and that all that is given to them is their due.

Vayetze:

Attached to the earth but reaching to the sky

What was the significance of Yaakov's dream of the ladder and angels? A selection of commentators' answers to the question.

'And Yitschak's eyes dimmed from seeing'

What is the reason God wanted Yitschak to think he was blessing Esav?

Chayei Sarah:

The death of Sarah Imenu

Why did the Torah find it necessary to testify that she remained righteous throughout her life, from beginning to end? And why did her end come after the Akeidah?

Why is it called 'the binding of Isaac'?

This episode is counted by our Sages as the final, culminating test with which Hashem tested Avraham. But then why is it named for Isaac?

The first Brit Milah

Why didn't Abraham perform the brit milah before G-d told him to?

Nitzavim-Vayelech:

The eternal witnesses

How can one compare man, with his abiiity to choose, to the heaven and earth? Commentaries weigh in on the question.

'This day you have become a people to Hashem'

There is no nation in the land, except for Bnei Israel, as all the nations, compared to it, are as nought, and do not merit being called ‘a nation’.

Ki Tetse:

Are we the "rebellious sons?"

A selection of commentaries on a difficult Torah commandment, with a surprising twist at the end.

Re'eh:

Resh, aleph, heh - acronyms, anagrams and gematriot

There are no coincidences. The word Elul and the word Re'eh contain many messages in symbolic form.

Parashat Ekev:

"Now O Israel! What does Hashem ask of you?

Reading Rabbi Lazer Gurkow's article this week informs us as to the outcome of reciting blessings. What do the commentaries add to explain the injunction to say 100 blessings each day?