Divrei Chaim

The gemara (Brachos 6) tells us that Hashem's presence is there when 10 people come together to daven, when 3 sit for a din torah, when ...

The Torah always puts the mitzvah of kibud av next to the mitzvah of Shabbos: you have it in the aseres hadibros in our parsha, you have it ...

A little halacha to start: Chazal (B"K 82) tell us "ain mayim elah Torah" and darshen the pasuk in our parsha, " Vayei...

The purpose of the makkos, says the Torah, is " l'ma'an tisaper b'oznei bincha u'ben bincha ," so that we will rel...

My wife asked me the following question, which I don't really know the answer to: there is a group of women who get together regularly t...

Sometimes a pshat hinges on reading a single word in a way that you never thought of before.  A great example in the Netziv's interpreta...

Hashem appears to Moshe in our parsha and tells him that he is going to redeem the Jewish people from Egypt and take them to Eretz Yisrael, ...

I am always short of time so its only occasionally that I get to post a rant on current events, but I would really be remiss if I didn't...

When Yosef brings his children to Ya'akov for a blessing, the parsha tells us that Ya'akov asks, "Who are they?"  (48:8)  ...

I wanted to write a fuller post about this issue, but haven't had time, so I figure better a chatzi shiur than nothing at all. The Ram...

The Torah tells us that one his way down to Mitzrayim, Yakaov stopped to offer korbanos "Elokei aviv Yitzhak," the G-d of his fath...

1. The Midrash writes that Ya'akov should have been brought down to Egypt in chains, but Hashem didn't want to do that to him; there...

When Yosef revealed himself, " Ani Yosef -- ha'od avi chai ?" the shevatim were too stunned to answer.  Chazal see this as a m...

" V'Choshech al pnei tehom" -- We all learned in history books about the Dark Ages between 500-1000, but Midrash darshens tha...

1. The gemara (Sotah 36) writes that Pharoah's advisors objected to his appointing this unknown slave named Yosef to a position of power...

Tosfos (Eiruvin 80b) asks why is it that kitusei michtas shiura disqualifies a korah made from an asheira but does not disqualify a lechi ma...

Yosef was lost somewhere in Mitzrayim, " vayeired Yehudah ," Yehudah lost his leadership position for his role in the fiasco, Reuv...

Rashi (32:23) writes that what happened to Dinah was a result of Ya'akov putting her in a box to keep her away from Eisav.  Had Dinah ma...

Rashi (28:17) writes that Ya'akov Avinu walked right past the makom mikdash on his journey to Lavan's house.  When he later realized...

The Netziv in last week's parsha says something very interesting.  The relationship between Rivka and Yitzchak was quite different than ...