The Library

And they cried that night… Bit of a depressing story really. We were within a hop skip & jump away from getting into Eretz Yisroel- then boom! Everyone has to die in the wilderness; weeping for one night means the destruction of both temples; exiles, holocausts, battl...

People cannot help when an improper impulse comes to mind, but they certainly can stop themselves from harboring the thought and allowing it to dominate their thinking. Yet, sometimes one may be responsible even for the impulse itself. While some impulses are completely s...

Parshas Shelach describes a Jew's inability of breaking out from victim - aka Egyptian (*1) Slave Mentality - into survivor - aka Freedom Mentality - when they accepted the report of the spies negatively. This sealed their fate in the desert. In contrast, the Haftara rela...

Lo Sasuru Acharei Eineichem is a Lo Sa'aseh on Hirhur Halev. How could there be a Lo Sa'aseh if Chazal say that a negative Machshava H' doesn't consider a Ma'aseh Aveira? R' Chaim Vital explains that a Chet is a combination of 4 things - Thought in the Brain, thought in t...

V'anancho omeid aleihem u'v'amut anan atta holeich lifneihem.When we just see a cloud over us, we should remember that Hashem is using THIS cloud to guide us! `````` U'kvod Hashem nire'eh b'ohel.Rashi: Ha'anan yarad sham.Some see The Kovod of Hashem & Others just see ...

מצוה שפ״ז שלא נתור אחר מחשבת הלב The chinuch compares one who pursues lust to an alcoholic: כי התאוה תמשוך הבשר כמשוך היין אל שותים. How's that for an endorsement of AA. The chinuch also writes that there is no malkus for one who violated this lav since its impossible ...

Picture what the scene must have looked like. Moshe tells the Bnei Yisroel everyone that is twenty years old and up should bring a machtzis hashekel to be counted. These coins are going to be used for the foundation of the mishkan. Do we have a concept of what it means...

It happens all the time we have a nasty fall and we finally get back up and all of the sudden we act like big tzaddikim. In a way, we are acting no different than the maplim. The cheit of the meraglim a tremendous yeridah that we are still paying the price for today. Y...

We are are continuing our new weekly Series – “How this Parasha relates to the Struggler” Have you ever faced a new opportunity or a big challenge? Did you ever really want to change but something always seemed to get in the way? You may be asking, what is keeping me fr...

Torah taken to heart creates a spiritual light that shines within a person. Tzitzis has a similar effect, but on the body. Tzitzis creates a protective light around a person's body and even effects their thoughts. The Bracha on the Talis (the Arizal would make this Bracha...

We read last week about the Meraglim. The sin of the Meraglim was that they believed "it could not be done". It is so easy to be guilty of the same sin, especially when dealing with the powerful desires of the Yetzer Hara. We must realise that even if someone could think ...

R' Yeruchum explains a Rashi in parshas Shelach (by the Meraglim). Rashi brings down that Hashem said, "I will give them room to make a mistake ." R' Yeruchum explains that Hashem didn't MAKE them do an aveirah - He just took away the help that he always provides, and onc...