Today is a special Purim for residents of the Holy City of Jerusalem. Our set calendar was designed such that Purim can never be on Shabbos—except in Jerusalem (and other cities surrounded by walls back in the time of Joshua). The Purim story tells us that Shushan,...

Our reading this week begins with Hashem's instruction to Moshe to "take for Me an offering" (Ex. 25:2). The Yalkut asks, as King David wrote in Tehillim (Psalms), "to Hashem is the land and all its fullness" (24:1). Hashem doesn't need anything from us, He already...

Rabbi Yaakov Galinsky zt"l (in his book VeHigadta) describes going to visit Rabbi Eliezer Shach, zt”l, Israel’s foremost Rosh Yeshiva [Dean of a Rabbinic seminary] at that time, while President Carter was in Israel for a state visit in 1979. He came in, and the Rosh...

In this week's reading, the Torah tells us that Moshe spread out his hand over the sea, a wind blew all through the night, the waters divided, and the Children of Israel walked through on dry ground [Ex. 14:21-22].  The Medrash, however, fills in an important...

“And I have also heard the outcry of the Children of Israel, that the Egyptians are burdening them with work” [Ex. 6:5] Rabbi Yehoshua M’Ostrov explained that Hashem was saying the following: In reality, all of the troubles and subjugation that I the Egyptians placed...

Then a new king came to power in Egypt, who did not know Joseph. “Look,” he said to his people, “the nation of the Children of Israel has become too numerous and powerful for us. Come, we must outsmart him or he will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out,...

Many believe that Chanukah is about a military battle: the untrained, unprepared small band of Jews defeated the great Greek army, pushed them out of the Holy Temple, and celebrated by lighting the Menorah and eating latkes. Israel even has a whole Maccabiah Games, a...

We learn in this week's reading that when Yosef had prophetic dreams about ruling over his family, his brothers resented it. Thinking that he was a threat to them and the nation they were to build, they contemplated killing him. Reuven, though, convinced them to throw...

In our reading, Yaakov is informed that Esav is coming out to meet him with 400 men. Yaakov prepares to face tremendous losses—"And he said, if Esav comes upon one camp and strikes it, the remaining camp will be for a remnant" [32:9]. The Medrash say that Yaakov...

"And all the wells that the servants of his father had dug, during the days of Avraham, the Pelishtim had closed them up and filled them with dirt" [26:15]. Yitzchak wanted to use the wells his father's servants had made, but the Pelishtim had gone and filled them in....

Sometimes, the Torah strikes us as repetitive. We are forced to wonder why the Torah felt it necessary to tell us the same thing twice, and to look more deeply to determine what we learn from the retelling. Nowhere is this more striking than the story of Eliezer going...

The Torah tells us that after the birth of Yitzchak, “the child grew and was weaned, and Avraham made a great banquet on the day that Yitzchak was weaned” [Genesis 21:8]. Rashi explains that what made the banquet “great” was the presence of the great men of the...