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Parsha Pearls: Parshas Ki Sisa
For Whom Were the Tablets Brought Down?Take Off Your Crowns!What Makes the Holy Tongue Holy? And Yehoshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, and he said to Moshe, “The sound of war is in the camp!” And he said, “It is not the sound of cries of victory, nor the sound of…
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Parsha Pearls: Parshas Tetzaveh
Fighting a Defensive War And you shall put into the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Tumim (28:7) Rashi explains that they wrote the four-letter name of G-d and placed it inside the folded breastplate, and when they would ask a question, G-d would answer by causing the letters of the breastplate to light…
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Parsha Pearls: Parshas Terumah
I Am the Real King Solomon!Building the Temple Without MoshiachHeretics Destroy the Temple And they shall make Me a Sanctuary, and I shall dwell in their midst.” (25:8) The Midrash in Parshas Toldos tells the following story: In the days of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, the evil kingdom (Rome) decreed that the Beis Hamikdash be…
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Parsha Pearls: Parshas Mishpatim
It’s Our Vote that Counts in Heaven!The Insane Call the Sane InsaneThe Meaning of the Sapphire BrickWhen We Don’t Follow a Majority And he shall surely heal. (21:19) The Gemora in Bava Kama 85a says, “From here we learn that a doctor is permitted to heal.” Rashi explains that if not for this verse, we…
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Parsha Pearls: Parshas Yisro
One Must Have a RebbeDon’t Be a Blind FollowerThe Danger of Heretical ThoughtsMake Clear What You’re Protesting Against And Yisro, priest of Midyan, father-in-law of Moshe, heard all that G-d did for Moshe and Israel His people… And Yisro came… (18:1,5) Reb Elyakim Shlessinger once asked the Brisker Rav why his wife’s grandfather, Reb Yaakov…
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Parsha Pearls: Parshas Beshalach
The Zionist Leaders are AmalekReligious MKs Lend Legitimacy to the GovernmentJudaism Versus IdolatryLeaving Egyptian Exile Early And Moshe said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see Hashem’s saving that He will perform for you today… Hashem will fight for you, and you will be silent.” (14:13-14) Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Ehrenreich (1863-1944), the…
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Parsha Pearls: Parshas Bo
Natruna Means Waiting PatientlyDon’t Come In Unless You’re InvitedPurifying the Fiftieth GateThe Difference Between the Exodus and the Future Redemption And it will be for you to guard… Do not eat of it raw… (12:6,9) The Pesikta DeRav Kahana says that these verses contain hints to the Four Exiles and their redeemers. The chapter begins,…
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Parsha Pearls: Parshas Va’eira
Why Did the Fish Have to Suffer?The Lesson of the Hamotzi BlessingDon’t Antagonize the Nations in Exile And G-d spoke to Moshe, and said to him, “I am Hashem.” (6:2) Why does the Torah switch in mid-sentence from “Elokim” to “Hashem”? At the end of last week’s parsha, Moshe said, “Why have You dealt badly…
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Parsha Pearls: Parshas Shemos
The Meaning of Vayoel MosheExile Means Subservience to G-dThe Wicked SonIngathering the Exiles Lest they multiply, and when there be a war, they be added to our enemies…and Egypt made the children of Israel perform hard labor. (1:10,13). Rabbi Avraham Loewenstam of Emden, in his work Tzeror Hachaim (published 1820), writes that in every Jewish…
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Parsha Pearls: Parshas Vayechi
The Zionists Are Nourished From the YeshivosJews Have No Authority During ExileLet Us Gather TogetherThe Comfortable Exile And Yaakov called to his sons, and said, “Gather and I will tell you what will happen (yikra) to you in the end of days.” The Satmar Rav asked: The word “yikra” is usually understood to mean “happen,”…