In this week’s parshah it says “all the males by their skulls,” by their heads. So the Rema miPano, who authored a sefer called Asarah Ma’amaros, writes that Moshe Rabeinu would look at every single Jew when they came before him to present themselves. Moshe Rabeinu was able to see with ruach hakodesh how many times this individual would be required to come back in the world through gilgul. That’s what the remez of legilgelosam means.
Parshas Bechukosai falls out almost every year right before Shavuos, or close to Shavuos. The subject of Parshas Bechukosai, as many people will tell you, is klalos and brachos, or tochachah. But the emes is that tochachah is only the end result. Many of us deal with symptoms but we don’t think about the reason for the symptoms. You always have to search for the reason for the symptoms.
The gemara Yevamos (62b) tells us about the 12,000 pairs of talmidim that Rabbi Akiva had. They didn’t learn in one building. They were spread out from a place called Gabos until Antifras – a network of yeshivos under Rabbi Akiva’s leadership. To imagine such a yeshivah is unbelievable.
We began to study the steps [based on pesukim in Mishlei 2:1-3] that are required during yemei sefiras haomer to bring out and connect us to our spiritual dimension. Not only is the dimension of ruchniyus of a person separate from the physical dimension, but it is also much more real and powerful. It endures lanetzach netzachim. The gashmiyusdike side does not endure at all. However the “muscles” that a person builds up in his spiritual dimension is what determines his true and real strength.
The Torah allots two parshiyos, Tazria and Metzora, to discuss nega’im, tzaraas. Chazal tell us that one of the main reasons nega’im and tzaraas come is for lashon hara. You have to understand, if the Torah makes such a fuss and elaborates to such a degree over the onshim of lashon hara, it behooves us to contemplate once in a while about the seriousness of nega’im and lashon hara. Therefore, Moshe warned Am Yisrael, when he said to them, ‘This shall be the law for a metsora – the law of the one that gives out a bad name.
The big mitzvah on Pesach is the Mitzvah of the Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. We must know and understand what is the purpose of this night. Why do we make such a big fuss about repeating the same story of Yetzias Mitzrayim every single year? So if you are still not sure, listen carefully, because you’ve been doing it for so many years already and it’s a good idea to know why you are doing it.
The passuk opens by saying that Hashem called to Moshe – ויקרא אל משה (Vayikra 1:1). The Ba’al Haturim discusses why the last letter alef in the word ויקרא is written small. In a sefer Torah most letters are written uniformly, the same size. The alef in ויקרא is written smaller than the other letters. The Ba’al Haturim says that the reason for that is because Moshe Rabeinu was exceedingly humble. He was the ענו מכל אדם, the most humble of people. In spite of his immense brachos, in spite of all the greatness that Hashem bestowed upon him, Moshe was the humblest of all people.
Before I start the shiur, I want to pose a question. Maybe someone out there will have a good answer. I have noticed that they closed down all the yeshivos, talmud Torahs, the yeshivah ketanos, the batei midrashim and the kollelim. Baruch Hashem, an “amazing” accomplishment. Whose hachra’ah was that? Did it come from the rabbanim sitting together and thinking and planning? No. Most rabbanim understand that you don’t do this. But today, the Satan is very strong, so they brought police and medical people to
In this week’s Parsha, the Torah commands us regarding observance of Shabbos: ואתה דבר אל בני ישראל לאמר אך את שבתתי תשמרו כי אות הוא ביני וביניכם לדרתיכם לדעת כי אני ה’ מקדשכם – “Speak to the Bnei Yisroel and say, ‘You must keep My Shabbosos, for this is a sign between Me and you throughout the ages, that you may know that I sanctify you.” (Shemos 31:13)
I’d like to share with you today a mindset that one should have regarding the mitzvos of Purim. There is a mitzvah of mishloach manos איש לרעהו on Purim that the Yidden were mekabel upon themselves and it’s something that we still do with a great pump. People spend tremendous amounts of energy and money on this mitzvah today, as we see in all the ads, magazines and newspapers. The problem, however, is…
