Living Torah Archives

The themes of the month of Nissan, and especially of Passover, comprise the fundamentals of Judaism. Accordingly, the Exodus from Egypt, and the messages of the holiday, must be applied not just once a month, but during every single day of a Jew’s life.

The soul of every Jew is an “actual part of God” to which God wishes to grant the ultimate good. This unparalleled opportunity for metamorphosis is possible only when the soul descends into a body, into an environment which is hostile to spirituality.

The Kabbalah states that when the sages of the Talmud ruled on a matter of law, it was a reflection of how the law was applied in the upper realms.

Maimonides writes that a Jew must view himself and the entire world as equally balanced between good and evil, and that his every word, thought, and action can have a tremendous impact. In reality however, remaining mindful of this at all times and not losing oneself for even a moment, is a tremendous feat.

One of the 613 commandments is to recount the Exodus from Egypt every single day. It is imperative for the success of a Jew’s daily mission to live with the consciousness that today he is witnessing G-d’s miracles of redemption.

Maimonides rules in his Laws of Kings about the times of Moshiach: “Do not think that the world will undergo miraculous changes. The world will continue according to the natural order. And prophecies such as, ‘The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,’ are metaphors.”

A good homemaker is missing nothing in her home, but she also has nothing extra. Extra possessions in one’s domain make clutter, they’re a distraction. So too, in the words of the Talmud: “G-d did not create even one detail in His world in vain.” If an intelligent human being avoids both deficiency and excess, then surely G-d, Who is the ultimate perfection, did not create any detail in vain.

A sword or gun, or fire or water, can affect only the physical body or the soul’s connection to the body, but never the soul itself . . .