כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר ה’ נַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה וְנִשְׁמָֽע All that Hashem spoke we will do and we will hear. In this week’s parsha, we said “Na’aseh Ve’nishmah”. That means “we will do“, even without understanding, and only then will we hopefully merit to hear and understand. In a similar vein, the Baal HaLeshem zt”l, one of the last of the great mekubalim, offers an…
וְנָֽתַתִּ֧י אֶת־כָּל־אֹֽיְבֶ֛יךָ אֵלֶ֖יךָ עֹֽרֶף And I will make all your enemies run from you. Why can’t the IDF, the strongest army in the Middle East, wipe-out a bunch of terrorist squads in Gaza in just a few days? The answer is that the terrorists know they stand no chance at fighting the IDF head-on….
מְעַ֛ט מְעַ֛ט אֲגָֽרְשֶׁ֖נּוּ מִפָּנֶ֑יךָ עַ֚ד אֲשֶׁ֣ר תִּפְרֶ֔ה וְנָֽחַלְתָּ֖ אֶת־הָאָֽרֶץ I will drive them out from before you little by little, until you have increased and can occupy the land If we experience a slip or fall in Kedusha, we must never let it get us down. Getting depressed is exactly what the Yetzer Hara wants, and it…
עֲלֵ֥ה אֵלַ֛י הָהָ֖רָה… וְאֶתְּנָ֨ה לְךָ֜ אֶת־לֻחֹ֣ת הָאֶ֗בֶן וְהַתּוֹרָה֙ וְהַמִּצְוָ֔ה Come up to Me to the mountain… and I will give you the stone tablets, the law and the commandments We tend to think of success in terms of results, but Hashem does not seek great successes and big achievements from us. Whether we succeed in a…
עֶ֣בֶד עִבְרִ֔י שֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים יַֽעֲבֹ֑ד A Hebrew slave shall work for six years Nothing worthwhile comes without hard work. One of the greatest obstacles to change is the notion that change should happen without a lot of investment. We live in a generation of instant results, and we come to expect that whatever needs…
וְאֵ֨לֶּה֙ הַמִּשְׁפָּטִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר תָּשִׂ֖ים לִפְנֵיהֶֽם And these are the laws that you shall set before them Learning Torah is not only the key to overcoming all of our nisyonos in the realm of kedushah; it also plays an incredible role in the process of teshuvah. It is sometimes claimed that there is no kapparah for aveiros relating to shmiras habris. According to…
וְהַ֤ר סִינַי֙ עָשַׁ֣ן כֻּלּ֔וֹ מִ֠פְּנֵ֠י אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָרַ֥ד עָלָ֛יו ה’ בָּאֵ֑שׁ And the entire Mount Sinai smoked because the Lord had descended upon it in fire Regarding the struggle with the wrong thoughts that we all have, the Rambam writes : A person should always turn himself and his thoughts to the words of…
אַתֶּ֣ם רְאִיתֶ֔ם כִּ֚י מִן־הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם דִּבַּ֖רְתִּי עִמָּכֶֽם You have seen that I have spoken with you from the heavens. The primary approach that Chazal stress in dealing with kedusha struggles is learning Torah, ideally the kind of learning that one must delve into, engaging his mind. However, Rav Michel Yehudah Lefkowitz, zt”l explains that Chazal make an important…
אִם־שָׁמ֤וֹעַ תִּשְׁמְעוּ֙ בְּקֹלִ֔י וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֖ם אֶת־בְּרִיתִ֑י וִֽהְיִ֨יתֶם לִ֤י סְגֻלָּה֙ מִכָּל־הָ֣עַמִּ֔ים If you obey Me and keep My covenant, you shall be to Me a treasure out of all peoples. There’s a well-known story from when the Steipler was young and was drafted into the Russian army. It was Shabbos, and the soldier before him had…
