Behar 5760Volume 20 · Issue 30

Keeping the Sabbaticals

laws of the Torah are like this. One who is capable qualifies and one who is incapable does not. There is no room to claim, “Why should we be worse off?” It may be a complaint, a sigh, a prayer, but not a question that needs to be asked.

Bamidbar 5760Volume 20 · Issue 32

A Legion of Days

The topic of the Torah Reading before the Festival of Shavuos is the counting of Israel (Rambam, Hilchos Tefillah 13:2). In this manner, both numberings integrate—the Counting of the Omer and the counting of Israel. In the Torah Reading, we count the Children of Israel, and we count the Omer.

Shelach 5760Volume 20 · Issue 34

Fearsome People

Earlier in the passage, it was established that communal prayer is answered even after the decree. But seafarers in a storm do not integrate into a whole, and they are deemed as individuals. Why is beyond the scope of our discussion.

Balak 5760Volume 20 · Issue 37

From Devastation to Kingship

Will is how the earlier commentators understand the word usruas, related to the Aramaic raava in the prayer of Berich Shemei, and this is implied by one of the Aramaic translations of the verse. Once His will is with us, there is no moment in His rage, but rather all is in His will.

Devarim 5760Volume 20 · Issue 38

Destruction of the Mind

appear before the face of God your Lord three times a year” (Shemos 34:24; Chagigah 7a). And it had all the faculties of the face—eyes, mouth, nose, “My pleasant aroma,” (Bamidbar 28:2), and ears to hear prayer, as King Solomon had prayed (Melachim I 8:30).

Nitzavim-Vayelech 5759Volume 20 · Issue 4

Together Forever

Rabbeinu Nissim Gaon, cited by Tosafos, includes Nitzavim. And this is implied by the Rambam as well—he writes that the universal custom is to read Nitzavim before Rosh Hashanah (Hilchos Tefillah 13:2).

Rosh Hashanah 5759Volume 20 · Issue 5

Festival of the Covered Moon

judged alone whether he will live or die, whether in his time or before his time, whether he will be poor or rich, whether he will be lowered or raised (Rosh Hashanah 16a; Unesaneh Tokef in the Musaf Prayer).

Lech Lecha 5760Volume 20 · Issue 8

Concluding Generation

…the one whose name would conclude the first blessing of the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer (Rashi to Bereshis 12:2). Likewise, the Creator will conclude the world’s course similar to the way it was by Avraham. Just as the illumination…

Vayeishev 5761Volume 21 · Issue 13

Miracles and Wonders

The passage of HaNeiros Hallalu begins, “These lights we kindle over the miracles and over the wonders.” Likewise, the Ahl HaNissim prayer according to Nusach Sefard ends, “And You have performed with them a miracle and wonder.”

Beshalach 5761Volume 21 · Issue 19

Crossing Over

This concept is expressed in our designation as Ivrim, those who crossed ‘over’ the sea, “He led His children ‘over’ the divided parts of the Sea of Reeds” (Evening Prayer, First Blessing After the Reading of Shema).

Mishpatim-Shekalim 5761Volume 21 · Issue 21

Dangerous Currency

primary aspect is the power of inversion. “And the month that inverted for them from sorrow to joy and from mourning to festival” (Esther 9:22). It is when the wheel turned and, as we say in the poetic prayer after the Reading of the Megillah, “Haman’s lot inverted into our lot.”

Vayakhel-Pekudei 5761Volume 21 · Issue 24

Hearing the Truth

Of this, we say in the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer of festivals, “Israel consecrates the times” (Berachos 49a), referring not only to the festivals, which are based on the lunar month that we consecrate, but also to time itself.

Ki Savo 5760Volume 21 · Issue 3

A Good and Sweet Year

As we said, the portion of Ki Savo fulfills the ordinance of Ezra to read the curses of Deuteronomy before Rosh Hashanah to end the year and its curses, and, as the poetic prayer of Rosh Hashanah adds, to begin the year and its blessings.

Naso 5761Volume 21 · Issue 30

Between Man and His Fellow

The Giving of the Torah was with the giving of the Tablets. “Two stone Tablets he brought down in his hand” (Sabbath Morning Prayer). And the Ten Commandments were divided between the two Tablets, five on each.

Behaaloscha 5761Volume 21 · Issue 31

Reduced to Words

This is compelled. The Men of the Great Assembly instituted for us in our prayers (Berachos 33a) that the Sabbath is the purpose of the work of heaven and earth (Sabbath Evening Prayer). And the classification of the Sabbath in its essence is as it says (Yeshayahu 58:13), “You shall call the Sabbath delightful.”

Chukas 5761Volume 21 · Issue 34

Mutual Loyalty

The mitzvah to have faith in the Creator means to consider Him reliable. And here, it must be without reservation, without limit, as stated in the version found in our prayer books, “I rely with absolute reliance.”

Balak 5761Volume 21 · Issue 35

The Binding of Yitzchak

In fact, all his blessings reverted to the curses he had originally intended (Sanhedrin 105b). There is only one exception, only one place to escape them—in houses of prayer and learning. There, we are yet blessed. “How good are your tents, Yaakov, your dwellings Israel” (Bamidbar 24:5).

Noach 5761Volume 21 · Issue 7

Forbearance

Those who expound metaphorically, among the great commentators and even our earlier masters, read this in the words of the sages (Bereshis 12:2 Rashi). The first blessing of the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer mentions all the Fathers, but Avraham is the conclusion. Likewise, his illumination will return to light the path of the concluding generation.

Vayechi 5762Volume 22 · Issue 14

Catalyst of Unification

The explanation is that when he was taken out for execution, it was a cataclysmic change in world order. It was so fearsome that, in the wording of the poetic prayer of Yom Kippur, “Angels on high cried bitterly, ‘Is this Torah, and this its reward?’” Moshe Rabbeinu also could not understand it (Menachos 29b).

Tetzaveh-Zachor 5762Volume 22 · Issue 21

Internal Shift

“There is life in His will.” Life begins in His will and ends in the actualization of His will. “The end of the act aligns with the original thought” (Lechah Dodi Prayer).