As I sit and study looking at the falling snow, I realize that each figure in Bereshit, which we will finish reading this coming Shabbat, is a bridge; each figure is a link in the destined chain. As we all are.
Just as Joseph's brothers were reconciled and unified and spoke one with another, also in our generation, the People of Israel, who are being gathered from among the nations, must become unified in the Land of Israel.
Meta-mitzvot are necessary because the Torah cannot possibly address every circumstance people encounter. Kedushah is an example.
The Tanya compacts four millennia of Jewish wisdom to answer the great personal and existential questions of life. It has revolutionized the way we think about G -d the human soul, the world and our place in it.
Why did Yaakov send Yehuda to Egypt before he descended there to see his son Yosef at last?
"The Jewish people are crowned with two qualities, Eidut (testimony) and Torah, one seen in Joseph and the other in Judah."
"I Am Who I Am, Because You Sold Me."
We have witnessed the resurrection of the dry bones. We have seen the ashes of Auschwitz giving rise to the miracle that is the State of Israel. In the past two years, through trauma, loss, and uncertainty, the Jewish people have survived. But endurance is not the final goal.
Yosef had been nearly killed, sold as a slave, and spent years in an Egyptian dungeon because of his brothers’ aspersions; his father, Yaakov, was grieving and suffering for 22 years-and yet, despite all of the above, Yosef understood that it is still more worthwhile not to embarrass his brothers, and reveal himself to Yaakov.
The temptation to despair is strong. But Torah teaches that we cannot remain there. We must act responsibly, together, and with unity.
How Yossef is showing and hinting to Yaakov how he dealt with the Egyptian world successfully.
The prophet clarifies: Unity demands shared purpose, honest self-examination and recommitment to what binds us together.
This is perhaps the most dramatic narrative in the entire Torah. Why did Yosef suddenly conclude the charade?
In the end, Rachel and Leah are is not a competition, but a single system.
Last week we celebrated Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights - which is all about Miracles. Why are miracles so important? Watch and find out.
Eight Jews stood in a Soviet courtroom like upright candles and declared their loyalty to the Jewish people. It happened during the dark days of Communism when that could mean exile to Siberia or worse. A true story.
There is really no way to leave a state of depression unless one has the courage and boldness to dedicate their energies to developing and honing their talents and doing something worthwhile for society.
We are now in transition, from Hannukah, the holiday of light and celebration, to a day of fasting and mourning. How do we do that?
The primary role of the members of the Tribe of Levi is to lead the army spiritually, and see to its disciplined behavior.
As in Miketz, after two years of war, we look back and glance at what is happening. It feels like a dream. And it goes on - like a prophecy.
In Judaism, there is a core and ancient teaching that we should strive to learn an important lesson from every experience in our lives, especially when that experience is connected to a significant and Divinely inspired holiday like Hanukkah. What we learn from olive oil.
There is no guarantee that our enemies will no longer attack us here in Israel - but at least their sadistic joy is guaranteed to be short-lived and thoroughly repaid. And one day we will sing a Psalm for the coming of Mashiach.
Hanukkah does not offer simple answers, nor does it lessen the pain. It asks something deeper of us: to hold on to faith even when matters are unclear and the Hand of G-d seems concealed.
The interpreter has a key function in the realization of a dream: his analysis can determine how the dream will come to pass.
We already know that everything that was created with man, was worthy of existing - except for the foreskin, as the Torah commanded us to remove it.
There are three awe-inspiring similarities between Yosef and the Hanukkah lights, starting with his name.
The prophet does not deny the danger. He transcends it.
When Mashiach comes, we will realize that we are currently in a dream. Our life is a living paradox, yet it seems to make sense to us as if it were normal.
From the Yeshiva's Beit Midrash in the Arab Quarter (actually the Old Jewish Quarter) of the Old City, Rabbi Aviner talks about miracles, why we don't say Hallel on Purim, and more.
Someone asked me if there is any way that we can forgive the Australian government and what it would take for them to regain trust of Australian Jewry. So, let’s talk about Yosef.
What was the real conflict?
When one signs onto idolatry, they are in fact [subconsciously or consciously] worshipping their own self interest; the idolatry is just an external rationalization of the undertaken path. Judaism, however, requires “Bittul", or self-awareness that there is one true G-d, Hashem, to whom we must pledge our devotion,
Grappling with questions of faith, forging a heightened awareness of God’s presence in daily life, and making the Creator accessible to the tens of thousands of Jews who thirst for His voice must stand at the very top of our educational agenda, but it is not on this one.
Rashi explains in the name of the Sifrei that the light of God’s countenance “gives you grace.”
How should Yosef have dealt with the Chief Butler so that his plight would be remembered after interpreting the two prisoners' dreams?
The four letters on the dreidel are not the same in Israel and the Diaspora. They tell us something we should pay attention to.
It is all too easy to look around us and feel hopeless...
It's time for a Hanukkah that simply says: As a Jew, I am the inheritor of Jews who fought for the political independence of the Jewish state. I am a Zionist just like Judah the Maccabee. Op-ed.
When darkness strikes one corner of the Jewish world, the shadows are felt in the heart of every single Jew globally. Your pain is deeply, personally our pain.
Why does the blessing mention one light when we light an ascending number of candles on the holiday?
Words of encouragement for Hanukkah.
The Tanya compacts four millennia of Jewish wisdom to answer the great personal and existential questions of life. It has revolutionized the way we think about G -d the human soul, the world and our place in it.
The victory in war and the dedication of the altar are one and the same. And in our time we have been privileged to see both.
Numerous Kohanim and the Levites participated in the wars of Israel. Even before they participated in wars as regular soldiers, they led the soldiers of Israel in their fighting.
The eternal challenge of Jewish leadership is knowing when to stand firm and when to acknowledge reality, when to pursue the ideal and when compromise is necessary.
Rav Yitzchok Hutner's thoughts on the significance of the Maccabees' victory over the Greeks: 'The rekindling of the Temple Menorah on Hanukkah represents a new era of Torah transmission.'
“Peace will prevail in the future,” Rabbi Kook concludes, “when people come to recognize clearly that all of the different, individual lights are truly one single light." And who would lead them?
Why did Joseph go to the brothers he knew hated him - and why did Jacob send him, knowing the same?
Sometimes what I perceive to be good for me could actually be bad, and what I think is bad could actually be something absolutely extraordinary for me.
The many impure sources of Redemption are a defense against the Satan - the adversary, whose purpose is to prevent the Redemption from coming into the world.
The Parsha shows us how individuals can go astray, The Haftorah shows us how nations do.
Yaakov thought there was no need for a future exile after all he had gone through. The Medrash explains.
The prophet Jeremiah brings G-d's comforting words to Mother Rachel, but how can she find comfort when the promise of redemption is far into the future?
The point of the Torah is not that great people are saints who never do wrong. They are ordinary humans who are imperfect beings and capable of serious mistakes.
In this parasha, we learn about Judah, the leader of the tribe that will give the Israelites the kingdom of David and ultimately, the Messiah.
A disagreement does not undo our connection. A quarrel cannot touch the neshamah within.
The Tanya compacts four millennia of Jewish wisdom to answer the great personal and existential questions of life. It has revolutionized the way we think about G -d the human soul, the world and our place in it.
G-d assured Yaakov that Eisav’s rule will eventually end. All Yaakov had to do was to ascend the ladder in his dream himself, and he would prevent this version of history from ever happening. Yet Yaakov refused to ascend the ladder.
The Maggid of Mezritch's yahrzeit is also the day the Alter Rebbe was released from Czarist prison - and the day that, many years later, Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neria, founder of the Bnai Akiva yeshiva network, returned his soul to his Maker. Here are their stories.
