Collected Archive of Shoemaker Reports
The Shoemaker Report is Rav Hoshea’s weekly Torah publication. Its focus is on internalizing and living Torah from the heart, not only from the head. The divrei Torah often take the parashah of the week as their point of entry and address central questions of inner avodah — including teshuvah, prayer (tefillah), emunah, bitachon, and related areas of spiritual and personal refinement.
The writing assumes seriousness from the reader and speaks from within Torah life, with meaning emerging organically from honest analysis of our holy Torah and the words of Chazal, rather than from short-lived inspiration or simplified conclusions.
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
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
Regarding the meaning of the words וּלְחֹשְׁבֵי שְׁמוֹ (and for those who thought about His name) from Malachi 3:16, Rav Ashi taught (Berachot 6a): חָשַׁב אָדָם לַעֲשׂוֹת מִצְוָה וְנֶאֱנַס וְלֹא עֲשָׂאָהּ מַעֲלֶה עָלָיו הַכָּתוּב כְּאִילּוּ עֲשָׂאָהּ (If a person thought to do a mitzvah but was prevented against his will,
The Importance of Desire: Born into American slavery in 1856, Booker T. Washington was freed at the age of 9 when U.S. Troops, arriving the area in which he lived, enforced President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Teaching himself to read, he devoured every book he could get his hands on. He
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.
The Role of the Tzaddikim in Finding What We Lost: R' Simlai taught the following Baraita about the developing Jewish child in his mother's womb (Niddah 30b): ונר דלוק לו על ראשו וצופה ומביט מסוף העולם ועד סופו…ואין לך ימים שאדם שרוי בטובה יותר מאותן הימים…ומלמדין אותו כל התורה כולה…וכיון
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
How the Torah Can Be an Elixir of Life or a Deadly Poison: It is taught in Kiddushin 30b: תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן: ״וְשַׂמְתֶּם״ סַם תָּם, נִמְשְׁלָה תּוֹרָה כְּסַם חַיִּים (The Rabbis taught in a Baraita, "And you shall place [these words of Mine upon your heart and upon your soul]" [Devarim
Having Our Prayers and Requests Accepted: It is taught (Chullin 60b): רבי שמעון בן פזי רמי כתיב "ויעש אלקים את שני המאורות הגדולים" וכתיב "את המאור הגדול…ואת המאור הקטן" אמרה ירח לפני הקב"ה רבש"ע אפשר לשני מלכים שישתמשו בכתר אחד אמר לה לכי ומעטי את עצמך (R' Shimon ben Pazi
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
Making One's Prayers a Delight to Hashem: In Chullin 60b, Rav Asi reconciles an apparent contradiction in the account of creation regarding when the grasses grew from the ground (see Bereshit 1:12 and Bereshit 2:5 for specifics). He answered as follows: שיצאו דשאים ועמדו על פתח קרקע עד שבא אדם
The Laws of Nature vs. Divine Providence – It's Our Choice: Near the beginning of the first berachah before reciting the Shema in the morning, we praise Hashem by saying the following: וּבְטוּבוֹ מְחַדֵּשׁ בְּכָל יוֹם תָּמִיד מַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית (and in His goodness, He renews [mechadesh] every day, constantly, the
