ב"ה

Matot-Massei 5763 - July 25, 2003

Current
The Survivors

"Six thousand people applied to appear on the show, and not a single one was Jewish!" She asked me to help her understand this phenomenon. "After all" she noted, "wasn't it the Jews who survived the Holocaust?"
Parshah
Matot-Masei in a Nutshell
Vengeance and war spoils, east and west of the Jordan, tribalism, havens for inadvertent murderers, the daughters of Tzelafchad and forty-two journeys.
Story
The Shattered Goblet

“I shall go to the Wall and sound the shofar, so that all the supernal worlds will tremble. I am also bringing the kiddush cup which belonged to the Seer of Lublin. I will refuse to move from that spot until Moshiach comes . . .”
Living
Escape

Finally I had no pressures, no anxiety, no chores or responsibilities, no phone calls or people pulling me in every which direction. So why was my mind blank?
The Mystical Significance of the Mezuzah

The mezuzah is an arrow, fixed upon the doorpost in the three dimensions of space, time and soul, pointing from the "domain of the many" to the "domain of the one"
The world stands on three things: Torah, the service of G-d, and deeds of kindness
— Ethics of the Fathers 1:2
Print Magazine

People think that G‑d first made a world and then gave us instructions to follow, so we won’t mess it up. The truth is, the instructions came first, and the world was designed as the venue to carry them out.

Therefore, to say that anything in the world could oppose its Creator’s will is an absurdity. There can be no op...