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Toldos 5765Volume 10 · Issue 8
Focus of Creation
There is an unsettling phenomenon in the world, which should strike fear in our hearts. To illustrate—those of us who live in Israel are far distant from earning our keep, including even the wealthy. Everyone here lives off the crumbs of another’s table. This is not a novel insight; every
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Miketz Chanukah 5775Volume 11 · Issue 10
Obligating Events
Ekyeh, spelled Aleph Kei Yud Kei, is a Name that we very rarely utilize. According to Ashkenazic custom, it is only utilized during the Days of Awe. The Rashbam (Shemos 3:15) explains that it is essentially the Name of Existence—but as the Creator refers to Himself. When a person speaks of himself in first person, he uses the prefix Aleph, as in e’eseh
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Vayigash 5775Volume 11 · Issue 11
Light from Darkness
conflicting implications, but the fingerprints of the censors are everywhere. That he was a disciple of R’ Yehoshua ben Perachiah is explicit in the Talmud. The censors had erased the event but even this has recently been restored; the fear of the censors is no longer that great.
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Shemos 5775Volume 11 · Issue 13
Joining the Exodus
conspired against them, and You made a Name for Yourself as of this day.” Clearly, by means of the Exodus, the Name of the Creator was revealed. And as stated in an Ashkenazic supplications for the Days of Awe, “And our name, You have called by Your Name.”
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Behaaloscha 5775Volume 11 · Issue 26
The Great and Fearsome Desert
The Men of the Great Assembly restored the crown to its original state. They declared, “To the contrary—this in itself is the revelation of His fearsomeness, for if not for the fear of Him, how could one nation exist among the nations?” If we exist despite the unambiguous fact that all of them wish to annihilate us to the very end, it must be that the attribute of fearsomeness is actively employed
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Devarim 5775Volume 11 · Issue 31
Festival of Destiny
hear in this the secret that the Creator whispers in our ears, “I am with you. Your destruction is also My destruction.”
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Vayeira 5776Volume 11 · Issue 6
Prayer from the Heart
Foremost, prayer must emanate from our true selves, from the depths of our anochi. Words that emerge at the press of a button will not reach anywhere. Of this, the sages state (Tikunei Zohar 10, 26b), “Without fear and love, it does not soar on high.” It is nothing; the words are lacking in value, in content, and in everything else.
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Vayechi 5747Volume 12 · Issue 14
Heritage in Exile
…utmost secrecy, not due to anything in the world but only due to the fear of God, has sanctified the Name of Heaven like Yosef HaTzaddik. No one is looking, no one will see, and moreover, all external…
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Shemos 5747Volume 12 · Issue 15
Eternal Name
only in our speech do we employ this term but also the verse itself (Devarim 28:58): “If you will not be careful to perform all the words of this Torah that are written in this Book—to fear this honored and fearsome Name, God your Lord….” The verse uses the word HaShem, and afterward, it says His Name, God your Lord.
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Tetzaveh 5776Volume 12 · Issue 23
Life Purpose
The Talmud states that the Messianic King has the power to smell certainties (Sanhedrin 93b). And this is how he will judge, as it says (Yeshayahu 11:3), “And he shall smell the fear of God—not by the sight of his eyes shall he judge and not by the hearing of his ears shall he decide.”
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VaYakhel-Shekalim 5776Volume 12 · Issue 26
Communal Currency
“He answered, “I derive it from a verse, for it says, “But as for you, fear not, My servant Yaakov—the word of God—and worry not, Israel, for I am indeed delivering you from afar and your progeny from the land of their captivity.” Yaakov and his progeny are stated together. “It compares
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Pekudei 5776Volume 12 · Issue 27
Month of Intercalation
The letter was sent to Rava in secret out of fear of the kingdom. The kingdoms by which we were in exile did not permit us to consecrate months and intercalate years, as all know of the Greeks, who had not permitted us to consecrate the month
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Behar 5776Volume 12 · Issue 32
Your Truth
They are the fathers of all the attributes, and they indeed correspond to the fathers Avraham and Yitzchak. Kindness is associated with Avraham: “Ascribe truth to Yaakov, kindness to Avraham” (Michah 7:20). And the attribute of justice—mightiness, fear, recoiling—is associated with Yitzchak (cf. Bereshis 31:42).
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Bechukosai 5776Volume 12 · Issue 33
Fifty Weeks
…stopped by a miniscule grain of sane (Yirmiyahu 5:22): “Will you not fear Me, says God, will you not tremble before Me, Who has set sand as a boundary for the sea?” We also say this in the Song of the…
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Korach 5776Volume 12 · Issue 37
Faithful Tradition
This is how Rabbeinu Bechayei teaches us to understand the portion—the great severity, the fear, the concern.
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Nitzavim 5775Volume 12 · Issue 4
Wondrous Gift
After all that has been said on the subject, it is very, very difficult. How is it that we celebrate the Day of Judgment? It should be a day of fear, a day of dread, a day when we walk about with subdued countenance, pitiable, terrified. But we walk about as on a festival. And this is the Halachic ruling. The Tur (Orach Chaim chapter 581) states in the name
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Noach 5776Volume 12 · Issue 6
Heart of the Matter
But this is not difficult. It is truly not a question—to the extent that it is very hard to understand the questioner. Water merely causes wetness. The fear was from the Great Flood, not from the water. With water, one can manage. One can enter a barge and it floats. But the Great Flood destroys the status of place. It makes it impossible to remain there; it uproots
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Toldos 5747Volume 13 · Issue 10
Echoes of Laughter
…of the future. He is the one who planted in us true honor, which demands fear. It demands a sense of negation, a sense of nothingness, a sense of nonexistence. On our own, we do not exist. By ourselves, “What are we,…
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Yisro 5753Volume 13 · Issue 21
In the Beginning of Commandments
shall be silent” (Shemos 14:14). No action was required of us; we did not have to do anything.
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VaYikra-Zachor 5746Volume 13 · Issue 24
Wine of Solace
…ught not. The Talmud states (Bava Basra 10a), “Harsh wine is distilled by fear.” She thus claims, ““I did not laugh,” for she was frightened.” She was claiming that she has no association with the other wine. But she was…
