Parshat HaShavua
Parshat HaShavua
We are pleased to feature a different Religious Zionist rabbi each week from around the country to share a Dvar Torah.
Parshat Netzavim Vayelech by Rabbi Zvi Romm
This past week, on the 23rd of Elul, we marked the 23rd yahrzeit of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Horowitz, the Potoker Rav. Born in the Ukraine, Rabbi Horowitz miraculously survived the Holocaust, hiding for 18 months in the forest and experiencing many near-death...
Parshat Ki Tavo by Rabbi Moshe D. Lichtman
TRUE HAPPINESS A recurring theme in this week’s parashah is simcha – happiness. In the opening section, which deals with bikurim (first fruits), the Torah states, – You shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord, your God, has given you and your household (26:11). ...
KI TAVO – The Balfour Declaration as the Ultimate Example of Prophetic, Poetic Justice By By Rabbis Tuly Weisz and Ethan Eisen
Eretz Yisrael in the Haftara Exactly 100 years ago, the British Foreign Minister declared, “His majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” The Balfour Declaration was the first significant diplomatic...
Parshat Ki Tavo by Rabbi Ian Lichter
As we look forward to the recitation of Slichot in preparation of Yomim Noraim, the connection between this time of year and Parshat Ki Tavo strikes me. The Ashkenazik practice is to begin the recitation of Slichot on a Motzei Shabbat, minimally 4 days before Rosh...
Parashat Ki Teitze by Rabbi Moshe Lichtman
THE LEAP OF FAITH One of the many mitzvot enumerated in this week’s parashah is the prohibition of causing a fellow Jew to take interest (ribit) – i.e., borrowing money on interest. (The prohibition of lending on interest is stated in Shemot 22:24 and VaYikra...
Parashat Ki Teitzei by Rabbi Howard Jachter
Sh’mor Sh’eirit Yisrael! It was an unusually thunderous speech from Rav Aharon Lichtenstein delivered on Purim 5442 (1982) at Yeshivat Har Etzion, one of Israel’s premier Yeshivot Hesder. Rav Lichtenstein summoned the Talmidim to follow the example of...
Parashat Shoftim by Rabbi Moshe D. Lichtman
PERMANENT PROPERTY You shall not move your fellow man’s boundary, which the earlier ones established, in your inheritance that you shall inherit, in the Land that the Lord, your God, gives you to possess it. (19:14) The Midrash (Sifrei) comments: What does this verse...
ME OR WE – THAT IS THE QUESTION by Rabbi Moshe D. Lichtman
(וירשת אותם וישבת בארצם (יב:כט ,כי יכרית ה’ אלוקיך את הגויים אשר אתה בא שמה לרשת אותם מפניך When the Lord your God will cut down the nations, which you come to drive them out from before you, you shall drive them out and dwell in their Land (12:29). The Midrash Sifrei...
PRACTICE MAKES IMPERFECT By: Rabbi Moshe Lichtman
Twice a day we recite the second paragraph of Kri’at Shema, taken from this week’s parashah. By the age of twenty, we have said it well over 10,000 times! If we have paid any attention to what we’ve been saying, we know that it talks about the blessings we will...
Parshat Devarim: “THE SOURCE OF ALL OUR TROUBLES” by Rabbi Moshe D. Lichtman
THE SOURCE OF ALL OUR TROUBLES This week’s parashah is always read on the Shabbat before Tish’a B’Av (Shabbat Chazon). How appropriate, then, that it contains a recap of the Sin of the Spies, the sin that gave Tish’a B’Av its calamitous nature. I already mentioned...