Ki Tisa תשפא In this week’s parsha Ki Tisa, we meet the principal craftsman for the Tabernacle and all its accoutrements, Betzalel ben Uri ben Chur from the tribe of Judah. (Exodus 31:1-5) (א) וַיְדַבֵּר יְדֹוָד אֶל משֶׁה לֵּאמֹר: (ב)…
Purim תשפא Purim is the most festive and happy holiday in the Jewish calendar. It is the only holiday that carries with it an obligation to drink wine to the point that one doesn’t know the difference between “Cursed be…
Parshat Shekalim תשפא Although this coming Shabbat is Parshat Zachor with its own special additional Torah reading and is the Shabbat on which we focus how Amalek (including, generations later, his great-great-great grandson, Haman), warred with us and tried to…
Parshat Yitro תשפא Yitro (in English Jethro), the person for whom this week’s portion is named, should have been the very last person in the world to have a portion in the Holy Torah named for him. Indeed, not only…
Parshat Beshalach This Shabbat, parashatבשלח (Beshalach), is called שבת שירה (Shabbat Shira), the Shabbat of the Song, because it contains the song that the Jewish people sang to Hashem in appreciation of their salvation from the pursuing Egyptian army at…
Parshat Bo תשפא This week’s portion, בא – Bo, describes Hashem’s last three plagues brought on the Egyptians and the Jews’ exodus from Egypt. The tenth plague, מכת בכורות, the killing of the first born, was the straw that broke…
Parshas Shemos A New Book Begins: What’s the book called? We finished the book of Genesis and are embarking on the second book of the Torah; The Book of Exodus. In this book, we encounter the first era of persecution…
Parshat Vayechi תשפא I heard this lesson from my Rebbe, Harav Moshe Shapiroזצ"ל , who heard it from his Rebbe, Rav Elyiahu Dessler זצ"ל. This week’s portion, Vayechi, is the last chapter in the book of Bereshit – Genesis. It…
Vayigash תשפא After sitting in prison for 12 years, Yosef was suddenly called up to interpret Pharaoh’s two disturbing dreams. Yosef accurately interpreted the dreams, which warned Pharaoh of an impending 7-year famine that would wipe out all life in…