Divrei Chaim

Ya’akov in his dream sees the image of a ladder, “ V’hinei malachei Elokim olim v’yordim bo ,” with angels were going up and down “it”. The...

I am a big believer in appreciating seforim on their own terms. There are multiple ways to skin a cat and answer a kashe, and a pilpul of t...

V’ Anochi lo yada ’ti (28:16). Why was Ya’ akov so upset that he had slept? The Brisker Rav held that because of the din of morah mikda...

If you have daughters you have undoubtedly faced the question of how long a skirt must be to pass halachic muster. The answer to this import...

At the beginning of Toldos the Torah relates that Yitzchak has married Rivka "bas Besuel haArami achos Lavan" and they have no chi...

We all know that Eisav is the bad guy in the parsha right from the outset, but if you just read the pesukim it's hard to figure out w...

The value of a person can be pledged to the Mikdash (e.g. dmei ploni alay) and calculated based on the price a person would fetch on the sla...

Yesterday we compared and contrasted the donkey of R’ Pinchas ben Yair, which would not eat prohibited food, with the camels of Avraham Avin...

When Eliezer arrives at Rivka's home he removed the muzzles from his camels so they could eat. Rashi explains that the Torah deliberatel...

Getting to Chayei Sarah, a few quick ideas on this short Friday: 1) The pasuk first describes Lavan as running to greet Eliezer (24:29 - vay...

As a follow up to last week's post on the test of the akeidah I was privileged to have received the following summary of a sicha of t...

Rashi (22:2) writes that Hashem used the term “ na ”, please, in commanding the akeidah because Hashem begged Avraham not to fail so as...

Rashi explains based on the gemara ( Baba Metziya 86) that although angels cannot eat, the angels who came to Avraham pretended to eat ...

Rashi writes that Avraham fulfilled the mitzvah of chinuch by giving Yishmael the job of preparing the meat for this guests who arrived (18:...

This post is a continuation of what we started yesterday . What really drove my thinking about the Rashi of Hashem changing the story for ...

Before we get to an interesting Rashi in this week’s parsha and what I think it means, we need a little background about the midah of emes. ...

When Avraham begs G-d to save the city of Sdom and the vicinity if forty or even thirty people can be found, G-d responds, “ Lo e’eseh ” -- ...

The 5Towns this past week and upcoming week seems to be playing host to an influx of Rebbes of a variety of stripes and flavors, among them...

Rashi writes that Avraham, not knowing his guests were angels, asked them to wash their feet before entering his home lest they be pagans wh...

I happened to be looking at R' Shteineman's sefer Ayelet haShachar, so a few parsha ideas from there: A mussar idea: Rashi quotes th...