The Library

The Ropshitzer Rav explains that Hashem gave us the Torah in a desert which is desolate from all good things to teach us that the Torah was given and is available for every yid, no matter what level he is on. One must not feel too distant for Torah study rather Hashem ask...

Incredible vort on Megilas Rus. The Alshich Hakadosh brings that Machlon was zoche that through the "yibum" of Boaz, Machlon's neshama came back in Oved - the grandfather of Dovid Hamelech. And his almanah Rus produced malchus. What zchus did he have? And why not his brot...

Entering Sheloshes yemai hagbalah Closer to the Yom Matan Torah Excitement and anticipation mounting Ready to re-accept the Toras Chaim Hashem chose us as His am segulah What a magnificent privilege, what a simcha The opportunity to connect to ruchniyus Thereby live with ...

When I was seven years old I had the privilege of hearing the Chavler Rov, one of the biggest Geonim [geniuses] in the world. He said to my father, imagine that a big Rosh Yeshiva is walking down the street. Suddenly on the other side of the street there is a very beautif...

Shacharis. Shabbos morning. I'm not really feeling it. My mind wanders... before I know it, I'm holding by birchos krias sh'ma which speaks of the holy angels who praise Hashem..." It dawns on me, hey, does Hashem really need me? What am I, one small creature in a huge un...

At the receiving of the Torah, Hashem said to the Jewish people: “For you are a Kingdom of priests and a Holy Nation”. What does this really mean? The world has 4 basic levels of evolution. The first level is DOMEM – Dirt, Rocks, Water, etc. The second level of evolution ...

In the sugya of Matan Torah in Mesichta Shabbos there are (amongst many others) two mamorei Chazal: 1. The Yidden said Naaseh V'Nishman 2. כפה עליהם הר כגגית- the Eibishter held the mountain above the Yidden thereby forcing them to accept the Torah. The question arises if...

Dear chashuva fellow strugglers,You might ask, if the Jews said naaseh v'nishma, why did the Creator find it necessary to force them to accept the Torah by hanging a mountain over their heads? The answer is that the Creator of all things knew that even though the people...

Question: It's coming now kabalas hatorah, and I need a paradigm shift in saying "naseh venishma". I am being bothered by something that keeps coming to mind every so often, especially when learning about kedusha/aroyis or saying nase venishma to the whole Torah. Please d...

The word "Shavuos" is a double meaning, it translates both as "Weeks" and "Vows". Chaza"l say that on Shavuos there was a double vow; 1) the Jewish people vowed never to leave G-d, and 2) G-d vowed never to leave the Jewish people. We spoke last time about the power of vo...

Tonight is the holiday of Shavuos. "Shavuos" also means "Vows". Perhaps this is an indication that through "Vows", one can uphold the Torah that we receive on Shavuos. We read in this week's Parsha "ish ki yafli lindor neder La'hashem" - "a person who separates himself t...

In every generation we receive the Torah anew through the Tzadikim of all the generations. Someone sent us an e-mail recently: "Do you use sayings of R' Nachman a lot in your emails? The reason I am asking, is because in my community they don't learn Breslover teachings"....

Hi everyone, I think it's quite significant that I will reach 90 on Erev Shavuos. I must say that although I have not posted much, I obviously could not have come this far without stumbling upon this web site. Posting, but even more through reading, has really helped me t...

Shavuos is "Chetzyo Lachem, Chetzyo LaHashem". Interestingly, it seems that on Shavuos there's more of a reason to be involved in gashmiyus, because once we have Torah, gashmiyus can be raised onto the level of ruchniyos. That's why Shavuos is the only time during the yea...

There is a very interesting thing about the way we count the Omer. The natural way of counting towards an event is by counting down. When one looks forward to a significant day, one counts off the days remaining between the present and that day. In contrast, when we count...

This comes from the book called 'timeless seasons' by Rabbi Pinchos Roberts, but I figure most people haven't heard of it and it is SO relevant to us. How come ALL the Jews, without exception, accepted the Torah at Har Sinai? In parshas Vo'eschanan (Devorim 4:35), Moshe r...

Q. "I wanted to ask you what you thought about the fanatical separation of men and women in Arab countries. Is this the ideal for Jews as well in terms of separation of the sexes?" A. The approach in Judaism is not one of extreme separation from the temptations of this ...