Divrei Chaim

The one factor, at least based on a superficial reading of the parsha, that distinguishes a case of ones from a case of znus is whether th...

(If you don't want any derush skip 1-4 but don't skip #5, the Even ha'Azel's beautiful chiddush based on a diyuk in Rambam.)...

Last week's post generated some comments in response to my having written that someone who observes mishpatim simply because it's th...

V'haya eikev tishme'un es hamishpatim ha'eileh v'shamar Hashem Elokecha lecha es ha'bris v'es ha'chessed asher n...

The gemara tells us that Shimon ha'Amsuni was able to darshen every single "es" in the Torah, but when he got to the pasuk, ...

The gemara at the end of Ta'anis tells us that the two biggest yamim tovim for Klal Yisrael were 15 Av and Yom Kippur.  On those days th...

Ki tavo'u lei'ra'os panay, mi bikesh zos m'yedchem r'mos chatzeiray?  Yishyahau haNavi, in the haftarah of Shabbos Cha...

1. The ba'al korei usually reads the pasuk " eichah esa livadi ..." in this week's parsha using the sad Megilas Eichah tun...

The Midrash opens Parshas Masei by telling us that although many great people -- Ya'akov, Moshe, David -- had to flee from their enemies...

V'lo chilisi es Bnei Yisrael b'kinasi...   If not for Pinchas taking action, that would have been it -- end of the story, sof pasuk,...

1) R' Zalman Melamed writes here : Every year, as the Three Weeks (of mourning over the Temple’s destruction) approach, people ask me ...

1) If someone is lost in the desert and doesn't know when Shabbos is he/she has to make kiddush and havdalah one day a week as if that d...

So much is going on in the parsha, and there is no little time to write! " Vayishlach Ya'akov malachaim el Eisav achiv..."  ...

1. According to Avos the machlokes of Korach exemplifies machlokes she'lo l'shem shamayim.  Isn't that a strange statement?  The...

    This is a page from the Graziano Haggadah , a 13th century haggadah on loan to the Met from JTS ( see here ).  While wandering through...

Rashi writes that Kaleiv broke away from the meraglim and stopped off in Chevron in order to daven at the kever of the Avos and elicit their...

Chasam Sofer (d"h nitma rosh) makes the interesting observation that even though  Klal Yisrael accepted the report of the mergalim and ...

We are approaching the completion of our counting of the omer, the preparation for mattan Torah, during which time we have been mourning the...

Hopefully I will get to post something before Shavuos, but in case I don't, this amazing Koznitzer Magid (at the end of Avodas Yisrael) ...

In Parshas Lech Lecha we read that Malkitzedek, the king of Shaleim, brought out food and wine for Avraham.  That same place of Shaleim woul...