Divrei Chaim

A beautiful story from Rabbi Riskin's column ( link ): The day before I [Rabbi Riskin] came home to make my visits, my daughter Elana...

The Ramban in last week’s parsha (33:53) writes that “ v’horashtem es ha’aretz v’yishavtem bah ” is a mitzvah to conquer and live in Eretz Y...

I’m glad the reporter writing this story sought the advice of an “expert,” a professor at the Columbia University, because left on my own I...

The Shem m’Shmuel quotes a Zohar that explains that Moshe Rabeinu died at the time of mincha on Shabbos, the “ ra’ava d’ra’avain ,” the grea...

I used to think that the point of the Midrash that compares Avraham’s discovery of G-d with someone who observes a birah dolekes, a burnin...

Monday, July 28, at 12:30 p.m. at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (that's 47th street and 2nd Ave)   Numerous organizations, including the OU, ...

Just as seforim bring down that it’s not a coincidence that Parshas Pinchas, which contains many mitzvos of korbanos haregel, usually falls ...

How Klal Yisrael goes to war:   And more here: Watching these videos is my mussar seder.  This is what love of Eretz Yisrael...

The gemara (Sanhedrin 20) writes that when Bnei Yisrael enter Eretz Yisrael they have three mitzvos to accomplish: 1) appoint a king; 2) d...

R’ Eliezer Melamed quotes a comment in the name of R’ Tzvi Yehudah Kook on the words we say every morning in davening describing Hashem a...

The Emergency Committee for Israel put out a statement in response to Obama’s call for a cease fire yesterday that has a gem of a line in...

1) On Friday I mentioned that when the Bnei Reuvain and Gad consented to the terms Moshe presented for their receiving Eiver haYarden, they...

Ramban observes that when the Bnei Reuvain and Gad first consented to the terms presented by Moshe that in exchange for their taking lands...

There is a chiddush in the parsha of nedarim that the vows of a child a year under bar mitzvah, a muflah hasamuch l’ish , have validity.  ...

The Ramban at the end of last week’s parsha contrasts the parsha of the musafim of the moadim described there with the parshiyos of korbanos...

Rashi writes in Parshas Pinchas that the Bnos Tzelafchad had the special zechus of the parsha of hilchos nachalos being transmitted thro...

The Rambam opens Hil Ta’anis by telling us that there are days set aside for fasting in order “to awaken hearts and open the gates of repe...

In last week’s parsha Rashi comments that the Torah emphasizes Bnos Tzelafchad’membership in sheivet Menashe because the love of Eretz Yis...

Rashi writes that Pinchas’ lineage was traced to Aharon to deflect the criticism that he was merely a descendent of Yiso, an idolator.   S...

You remember a few weeks ago when there was that massive tehillim rally held in downtown NY as a reaction against the planned draft of yes...