Torah Books

What is the significance of the Rambam's changes in writing about Mezuzah?

Introduction According to our Sages, See Sifsei Chachamim, Chasam Sofer, Bereishis 37:35, et al. the fact that a person becomes less pained by the loss of a loved one over the course of time is ordained from Above. Otherwise, there would be no way that on...

Introduction Our Rabbis Rashi, Berachos 13b. explain that the words “G‑d is one” in the Shema do not mean only that there is one G‑d, but that G‑d is one throughout all existence, that His unity encompasses the heavens above and all the four directions of...

Introduction The Giving of the Torah was a watershed moment in the world’s spiritual history. With the word Anochi (אנכי) Shmos 20:2; Devarim 5:6. – interpreted by our Sages Shabbos 105a. as an acronym for the Aramaic phrase, אנא נפשי כתבית יהבית, “I wrot...

Likkutei Sichos, Vol. IX, p. 61ff. I. The TurOrach Chayim, ch. 428. See also Shulchan Aruch and Ramah 428:8, Tosafos Megillah 31b, and Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Tefillah 13:19. states that from Parshas Bereishis until the Seventeenth of Tammuz, “the ...

The final Mishnah of Tracate Shabbat concludes with the law that one may "close up [a window], measure [an object needed for a mitzvah], and tie a [non-permanent] knot on Shabbat." What do each of these three ideas represent in our spiritual service of G-...

The 9th of Av is the date on which both Temples were destroyed. Each year, on the subsequent Shabbat, we read as our Haftorah the famous passage of consolation from Isaiah “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people.” The Midrash tells us that this is, literally, a...

In speaking of the “Cities of Refuge” — six cities to which those guilty of manslaughter could flee to find safety from a victim’s avengers — the Torah in the section of Vaes’chanan says:Devarim 4:42. “he shall flee to one of these cities and he shall liv...

In the Torah portion Vaes’chanan the commandment of tefillin is conveyed in the following manner: “You shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for a reminder between your eyes.”Devarim 6:8. Because the verse begins by saying, “You shal...

In describing the Voice with which G-d gave the Torah, we find in the Torah portion of Vaes’chanan , that it was “a great voice that did not cease.”.Devarim 5:19. The Midrash.Shmos Rabbah end of ch. 28. offers three explanations: a) The voice was not limi...