The Deeds of the Fathers
Parshat Lech Lecha The Sages teach a very important concept: “The actions of the fathers are a sign to the children” (Sotah 34a). This idea is manifest on many different levels – historically, psychologically, practically and spiritually. The Patriarchs and Matriarchs were all-inclusive souls and their every thought, speech and action left an indelible mark […]
Leaving the Ark Amazing Article
Parshat Noach In his book, Awakening the Spark Within, (which this author assisted in writing) Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh analyzes God’s command to Noah to leave the ark after the waters of the flood subsided. Rabbi Ginsburgh proposes that God’s command was not just on the physical level, but also entailed leaving behind his pre-Flood consciousness […]
Amazing Article Creation for the Glory of God
Parshat Bereishit The Torah begins with an account of the seven days of creation. Sefer Yetzirah, one of the oldest Kabbalistic texts, begins by explaining that God created the world through thirty-two wondrous pathways of wisdom. According to the Kabbalah, these thirty-two pathways are the ten sefirot, the Divine channels through which an infinite God […]
Fruits of the Orchard
The Ohr Chadash Torah Anthology Hardback – 603 pages In Fruits of the Orchard, Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman in his 20th book, displays his unique ability to blend the ancient wisdom of the Torah with our contemporary world. Weaving together a wide array of real-world and spiritual perspectives, as well as a wealth of traditional […]
Powerful messages in the Parshah A Separate Book in Torah
In the Torah portion of Beha’alotcha, we find a phenomenon that occurs nowhere else in the entire Tanach: two sentences are bracketed off from the rest of the text by two backward-facing and inverted Hebrew letters, two nuns, to be exact: And when the ark would journey, Moses said: “Arise God and let your […]
In The Portion Emor, Blemishes And Perfection, Powerful Insights
The word the Torah uses to describe the physical blemish that would disqualify a Kohen is “moom” – מום. This word appears exactly five times in the Torah section describing these blemishes (Vayikra 21:17-23). This is significant because according to Kabbalah and Chassidut there are five levels of the soul and five worlds. Furthermore, the […]
A Mystical Relationship
Along with the many reasons discussed above and in Orchard of Delights for the introduction of the mitzvah of the Sabbatical year being given at Mount Sinai, we now add a mystical meaning, comparing the relationship between God and Israel to that of the people of Israel and the Holy Land. One of the themes […]
The Songs of Moses
The Torah portion of Vayelech is the shortest of all portions, a mere 20 verses. Although in most years it is read along with the previous portion of Nitzavim, the last part of Vayelech introduces the song of Ha’azinu, the next portion. It is mentioned a number of times that Moses is to teach the […]
Chevron: A Place of Connection
Parshat Chayei Sarah The Torah portion of Chayei Sarah begins with a detailed explanation of how Abraham purchases the cave of Machpelah as the burial site of his beloved wife Sarah. The purchase of the cave was in fact the initial purchase of the land of Israel by Abraham. The Torah records that the place […]
An Open Tent
Parshat Vayeira When the three angels visited Avraham and Sarah they said to him “where is Sarah your wife?” (Bereishit 18:9). On the word “to him,” eylav, there are three dots over the letters alef, yud and vav (אֵׄלָיׄוׄ). These three letters together mean “where is he.” This alludes to a second question that was […]