The Library

A while back, I met with Rav Nasan Maimon who taught me something from his Rebbe, Rabbi Michel Dorfman, zt'l. He taught me in the name of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov that if one wants to repent he should accustom himself to recite Psalms daily. (5 a day and you can finish th...

"We made a decision to turn our Will and our Lives over to the care of Pharaoh as we understood him." (Step Four - Big Book, Egyptian Edition) Having concluded the Book of Genesis, we embark on a new chapter in the lives of B'nai Yisroel. As we all know from Sefer Berei...

"God's angel appeared to Moses in the heart of a fire, in the midst of a thorn-bush." (Ex. 3:2) Why did God choose a sneh, a thorn-bush to reveal Himself to Moses? A Cure for Fever The Talmud (Shabbat 67a) prescribes a peculiar procedure for those suffering from a high fe...

"Ubnei Yisrael paru vayishritzu vayirbu vyatsmu." The passuk uses many terms to describe Bnei Yisrael's growth. The Bostoner Rebbe zt"l, Reb Levi Yitzchak Howoritz, in his sefer Shaar Levi, asks: Why does the passuk need to describe this so deeply, to go so far as to us...

The Ohr Hachayim on Parshas Shemos (3:8) writes that before Moshiach's time, the Jewish nation will be subjected to the 50th level of impurity. But he also writes there, that before the Redemption the Jewish people will garner the strength to enter into the very "mouth" o...

Lama harei'osa la'am hazeh ki may'az basi ledaber bishmecha hayra la'am hazehThe Midrash gives a mashal ofto a king whose subjects acted disrespectfully to him and incurred his wrath. The king's faithful minister, seeing how angry he was at the people, went and slighted t...

Hashem tells Moshe rabbainu Tell the yidden pakod pakaditi Zuggt rashi This was a mesora that the eventual savior will say the code words pakod pakadti we are all in mitzrayim Metzer yam we are all enslaved and we serve our different levels...

Hashem says to Moshe Rabeinu, “Tell the Yidden, my name is “Eh-yeh asher Eh-yeh” - I will be with them during this golus, and I will be with them during future goluyos. And Moshe complained “Why mention future problems. Enough to deal with those when they arrive.” And Has...

There are no stories in the Torah for story's sake. So if the Torah tells us ויקם מלך חדש אשר לא ידע את יוסף, the Torah is teaching us a lesson. The meforshim explain that each Yid has his own personal obligation to go from מצרים. That is we each have little of מצרים with...

The Torah says that Moses left the royal palace and went out unto his brethren and looked upon their burdens. The Medrash states that he went among the Hebrew slaves and assisted them in their hard labor. While sympathy is a fine trait, it is not enough. Moses wanted to f...

I noted an interesting point while learning the sedra. Hashem showed Moshe Rabeinu the bush burning, nothing more, and Moshe could have easily shrugged his shoulders and continued. Only after Moshe went off his path to investigate, did Hashem speak to him. Hashem sends us...