Va'etchanan

Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11

The way our calendar is set up, Parshat Vaetchanan is always on Shabbat Nachamu, when we read the first haftarah of consoling.

Anxious Parshah

On the Shema and the discipline of listening.

What does the word totafot actually mean?

Love of The Land Moses’ 36-day farewell address to the Children of Israel continues in the Torah portion of Va’etchanan. Va’etchanan, “and I pleaded,” Moses reminisces. Deuteronomy 3:23. After G-d permitted him to grant territory on the eastern side of th...

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...