How to Come Out from Under the Control of the Sitra Achra: Imagine a prison, a fairly standard prison – at least standard in the way that many prisons used to be. From sunrise to sunset, the prisoners are forced into hard labor. They don't get much time to rest and they're not allowed to…
What the War of Gog and Magog is Really All About: "Moshe ben Amram! Why do you keep letting up and giving the Egyptians one respite after another? That just hardens their hearts and emboldens them even more. Don't you understand that? Just finish them off already! Enough is enough. Haven't we been in galut…
A Deeper Look into the Weeks of Shovavim: Shimon ha-Tzaddik, one of the last surviving members of the Anshei Knesset ha-Gedolah – 120 elders of B'nei Yisrael, including a number of prophets, which instituted many of our customary practices in Judaism, such as the wording of the Shemoneh Esreh – used to teach the following…
A Deeper Reason Why Ya'akov Adopted Yosef's Two Sons: If we're not careful, the Torah can appear to us as a collection of unrelated events with no connectivity between them – this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened, and so on. Further compounding the problem is that the Torah rarely explains what…
The Day the Viceroy Became Yosef – Insights from the Midrash: For twenty-two long years, Ya'akov Avinu sat on the ground, covered in sackcloth and ashes, inconsolably grieving the death of Yosef. And throughout all those years, no one said a word. Why not? The brothers had bound themselves by an oath not to reveal…
The Job of a Shoemaker: It is written (Amos 2:6): כֹּה אָמַר יְיָ עַל־שְׁלֹשָׁה פִּשְׁעֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְעַל־אַרְבָּעָה לֹא אֲשִׁיבֶנּוּ עַל־מִכְרָם בַּכֶּסֶף צַדִּיק וְאֶבְיוֹן בַּעֲבוּר נַעֲלָיִם׃ (So said Hashem, For three crimes of Yisrael, and for four, I will not turn away, for their sale of a tzaddik and a pauper for a pair of shoes)….
A Point of Contention Between Yosef and His Brothers: The sale of Yosef. If we had a truly sensitive soul, those words would send shivers down our spine. Not only did that one action set into motion a chain of events that led to the brutal enslavement of the whole Jewish nation, but perhaps more…
How Come Esav Didn't Do Teshuvah? Ya'akov Avinu had finally extricated himself from Lavan's control. He had crossed the Yarden, entered Eretz Cana'an and was preparing to meet his brother Esav. He sent messengers ahead of himself, whom Rashi tells us, based on Bereshit Rabbah 75:4, were מַלְאָכִים מַמָּשׁ (literally 'angels'), instructing them with these…
Learning Torah Lishmah vs. Lo-Lishmah: As a post-script to our essay Cunning: Skill to Achieve One's Goals by Deceit, Rav Sheishet taught (Shabbat 63a): מַאי דִכְתִיב ״אֹרֶךְ יָמִים בִּימִינָהּ בִּשְׂמֹאלָהּ עֹשֶׁר וְכָבוֹד״ אֶלָּא בִּימִינָהּ אֹרֶךְ יָמִים אִיכָּא, עֹשֶׁר וְכָבוֹד לֵיכָּא?! אֶלָּא: לַמַּיְימִינִין בָּהּ אֹרֶךְ יָמִים אִיכָּא, וְכָל שֶׁכֵּן עוֹשֶׁר וְכָבוֹד. לַמַּשְׂמְאִילִים בָּהּ עוֹשֶׁר וְכָבוֹד אִיכָּא,…
What Was So Wrong With Lavan? It is written (Bereshit 3:1): וְהַנָּחָשׁ הָיָה עָרוּם מִכֹּל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְיָ אֱלֹקִים (And the Nachash was more arum than all the animals of the field which Hashem G-d had made). What is the meaning of עָרוּם [arum]? The Bechor Shor says it means that he spoke…
The Brothers Ate Eiver Min ha-Chai? When beginning the story of Yosef, the Torah tells us (Bereshit 37:2): וַיָּבֵא יוֹסֵף אֶת־דִּבָּתָם רָעָה אֶל־אֲבִיהֶם (And Yosef brought their defamation to their father). Much has been written about how the brothers defamed Yosef, but what was at the root of their disagreement with him? Rashi lists three…
The Secret of Eiver Min ha-Chai: We know the story. Yitzchak Avinu called for his eldest son to come to him (Bereshit 27:1). After he arrived, Yitzchak told Esav that he was approaching the day of his death (27:2), although he didn't know exactly when it would come, and that he wanted him to go…