Parasha of the Week RSS

The beauty of the Menorah "And so the Menorah was made, beaten, engraved in gold" (Numbers 8:4) (Parashat Behaloteja Bamidbar-Numbers 8,1 - 12,16)The great commentator Rashi, in Perasha Terumah wrote (25:32):Moshe Rabbenu had a hard time making the Menorah, so Hashem instructed him to throw a piece of gold into the fire and it would make itself. A question arises here. It is known that in Washington there is a museum that has statues of all the presidents who governed the United States. These pieces are also made from a single piece of metal. How is it that Moshe had...

Parasha Ajarei Mot - Kedoshim Vayikra - Leviticus (16,1- 20, 27) “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I, Hashem, your God, am holy.” (Vayikra 19:2). There are two kinds of holiness, the holiness that implies a departure from what is permitted by the Torah, “Sanctify yourself with that which is permitted to you,” As the Ramban wrote, and there is also holiness, which involves a distancing from what is prohibited by the Torah, and that is also called holiness, as Rashi explained about the phrase in the...

The present Shabbat is known as "Shabbat Shira" (The Shabbat of singing) as we read the Parasha Beshalach from the book of Shemot (Exodus 13:17 - 17:16) where great and wonderful events are told to us, such as the parting of the sea, the fall of Manna from heaven, among others. "Mana (Mana) and Teshuvah" When Manna fell from the sky, various miracles occurred, such as what the great sages wrote (Mechilta Beshalach 16): “For the righteous, the Manna fell at the door of their houses and even directly into their mouths, while for those who were not good people, they...

“Israel traveled with all he had; he arrived at Beer Sheva and offered offerings to the God of Yitzchak, his father” (Bereishit 46:1) Rashi explains about the phrase “to the G-d of Yitzchak, his father” that a person should honor his father more than his grandfather, therefore Yitzchak was mentioned and not Abraham.When Yaakov Avinu was informed that Joseph was alive in Egypt, he was overjoyed beyond measure. This was primarily due to the fact that Joseph had governed himself and had not forgotten the Torah he had learned.Yaakov did not rejoice in the political and physical power that Yosef...

Hashem constantly sends us messages, through his Hashgacha pratit, his 'Divine providence.' Now, what do we need to understand his messages clearly? The saga of Joseph and his brothers gives us crucial insight to decipher the messages the Creator sends us. After Joseph's brothers accused him of being a megalomaniac, with extravagant dreams of ruling over them, they sold him into slavery. Joseph was separated from his beloved father for 22 years and eventually rose to become viceroy of Egypt. A famine struck the land, forcing the brothers to go down to Egypt to obtain food. Seeing them, Joseph devised...