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…
Avraham’s Little-Kown Role in Helping His Son Do Teshuvah You may already know that Yishmael did teshuvah during the lifetime of his father and that he lived out the rest of his days as a righteous man. But do you know the circumstances that led to his decision to turn his life around and return…
How One Decision can Become a Turning Point in Life After Avram returned from Mitzraim, we read the following about Lot (Bereshit 13:5): וְגַם־לְלוֹט הַהֹלֵךְ אֶת־אַבְרָם הָיָה צֹאן־וּבָקָר וְאֹהָלִים (And also Lot, who went with Avram, had a flock, cattle and tents). Since we already know from 13:1 that Lot was traveling with Avram, it…
Rosh Hashanah and Breaking the Power of Imagination Good things come in threes: three patriarchs (Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov), three mochin [spiritual brains] (chochmah, binah and da’at), three kinds of seichel [intellect] (potential, actualized and acquired), three lower aspects of the Jewish soul (nefesh, ruach and neshamah), three ‘garments’, i.e. manifestations, of the soul (machshavah…
The Deep Purpose for Suffering Why is it that when someone begins to do teshuvah and starts walking in Hashem’s ways, he frequently encounters difficulties and experiences suffering? If the purpose of suffering is to motivate a person to do teshuvah, why should he have to suffer at all? After all, he’s already doing teshuvah….
The Incredible Journey of Eternal Soulmates Life has been difficult lately – not just here in Eretz Yisrael but everywhere. And when life is difficult all over, people have a tendency to lose hope and get depressed. They begin by wondering if their life has any meaning or if Hashem bothers to pay any attention…
Why Yehoshua Told the Sun to be Quiet In last week’s study entitled Be Quiet, Sun!, we learned that Yehoshua bin Nun merited to silence the Sun in the Valley of Ayalon and defeat the army of the five kings because he had remained silent in the face of the insults and accusations that were…
Mashiach and the Mechanics of Rebuke (Likutei Moharan II:8:1) A little over a year ago, we published a d’var Torah entitled To Rebuke or Not to Rebuke: That is the Question. In that article, we explained what happens to someone who receives rebuke from someone who is unfit to rebuke. In short, instead of arousing…
The Secret of the Erev Rav (Part 3) In the past two issues of The Shoemaker Report, we examined the origins and characteristics of the souls of the converts who accompanied the Jewish People when they left Egypt in the days of Moshe Rabbeinu. This group, known collectively as the Erev Rav (‘mixed multitude’), is…
The Secret of the Erev Rav (Part 2) In last week’s article, The Erev Rav Also Went Up With Them, we learned a number of important points related to the Erev Rav and their relationship to B’nei Yisrael. First, the worship of the golden calf was instigated by a group of converts from Egypt known…
The Secret of the Erev Rav (Part 1) R’ Yirmeyah ben Elazar taught (Eruvin 18b): כָּל אוֹתָן הַשָּׁנִים שֶׁהָיָה אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן בְּנִידּוּי הוֹלִיד רוּחִין וְשֵׁידִין וְלִילִין שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר ״וַיְחִי אָדָם שְׁלֹשִׁים וּמְאַת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד בִּדְמוּתוֹ כְּצַלְמוֹ״ מִכְּלָל דְּעַד הָאִידָּנָא לָאו כְּצַלְמוֹ אוֹלֵיד (All the years that Adam ha-Rishon was in [self-imposed] isolation [from Chavah], he fathered…
How the Mishkan Was Built In what is perhaps his most well-known lesson in Likutei Moharan, R’ Nachman of Breslov explains the importance of looking for, and finding (!), the good points in every Jew, even in someone we might consider a rasha (see L.M. 282). He also teaches there the necessity of looking for…