In one of his talks on the weekly Torah reading (Sholom Smith, A Vort from Rav Pam, pp. 169-170), R. Avraham Pam notes that in his Mesilat Yesharim, chap. 20, the preeminent Torah scholar and kabbalist R. Moshe Chaim Luzzato (1707 – 1746) points out that the last verses of the Torah portion of Bamidbar are…
We read in the Torah portion of Bechukotai (Vayikra 26:27-28), “If…you behave toward Me with casualness. I will behave toward you with a fury of casualness.” Regarding this verse, Rambam (a.k.a. Maimonides) elaborates in his Mishne Torah (Hilkhot Taaniyot 1:1-3): “It is a positive precept in the Torah to cry out and sound the trumpets for…
In the Torah portion of Behar, we read (Vayikra 25:39-43), “If your brother becomes impoverished with you and is sold to you, you shall not work him with slave labor … You shall not subjugate him through hard labor.” In the event that one of our brethren were to be sold as a slave to…
In middle of the Torah portion of Emor (Vayikra 23:10-16), we are given instructions related to a precept that we are always involved in at the time that this portion is read in synagogues throughout the world – sefirat ha-Omer, counting of the Omer. G-d instructs Moses to tell us that, on the day after…
In the beginning of the Torah portion of Kedoshim, the renowned medieval commentator R. Moshe ben Nachman, a.k.a. Ramban or Nachmanides cites a statement of our Sages in Vayikra Rabbah in which they say that this Torah portion contains a rephrasing of each of the Ten Commandments. An example of this rephrasing is “I am the…
In the Torah portion of Acharei, we read (Vayikra 16:30), “For on this day [Yom Kippur] he shall provide atonement for you to purify you from all your sins; before G-d shall you be purified.” As regards the concept of G-d’s purifying us from our sins and past wrongdoing, the famous Tanna R. Akiva is quoted…
In the beginning of the Torah portion of Metzora, we are told of the “law of the metzora.” Our Sages tell us (Babylonian Talmud, Arakhin 16a), the metzora is someone who has been afflicted by G-d with a semblance of leprosy for performing any of seven sins including lashon hara, derogatory speech. The affliction and the process of atonement…
In the beginning of the Torah portion of Tazria, we read (Vayikra 12:3), “And on the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.” In his Darash Moshe, the latter day Torah giant R. Moshe Feinstein comments on this verse and thereby delves into the meaning of this precept and related precepts. R. Feinstein…
The Torah portion of Shmini includes, among instructions to the kohanim (priests) for the inauguration of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) during the sojourn of the Children of Israel in the desert, a reference to the death of Aaron’s son Nadav and Avihu. In his Michtav MiEliyahu vol. II, pp. 244-250, the noted mashgiach of Yeshivat Ponovezh R. Eliyahu Dessler (1892-1953) analyzes the matter of Nadav…
Events in the Torah portion of Miketz mark a culmination of a period of servitude and imprisonment imposed in Egypt upon Joseph the son of our forefather Jacob as well as an initial stage prior to the eventual cruel enslavement of Jacob’s descendents at the hands of the Egyptian until the omni-benevolent G-d miraculously freed…
