Divrei Chaim

1) The Mishna in Kelim (1:6) writes that Eretz Yisrael has greater kedusha than all other lands because bikurim, shtei ha'lechem, and th...

It's  not clear to me which is the lesser of the two evils: to abandon any hope of trying to explain the smichus ha'parshiyos betwee...

After telling us to destroy the altars and asheirot of idolaters and obliterate any trace of avodah zarah, " v'ibadtem es shemam mi...

Chazon Ish (28:8) rejects the view of the Maadanei Y"T that the mitzvah of birchas ha'mazon was only given in year 40 when Klal Yis...

What's the connection between the end of the previous parsha -- where Moshe charges Yehoshua not to fear war against Canaan because G-d ...

Just before 9 Av I was looking at Arutz 7 and noticed one tragic headline story after another.  In Paris a Jew was beaten, in Vienna Jews we...

First a little lomdus, then a little machshava: 1) When 9 Av is a nidche, the halacha is that a ba'al bris does not have to finish the...

Two ideas on Masei, one a great yesod in tefilah, one a great Meshech Chochma: 1. Someone who killed b'shogeg must stay in an ir mikla...

M'ikar ha'din there is no issur of eating meat during the 9 days.  The minhag is not to, but technically the issur applies only duri...

Chazal tell us that as a result of the sin of not keeping nedarim a person's children can die.  Ayom v'nora, a tragic punishment!  W...

Can you imagine how much safer the Middle East would be today if Chucky Schumer had been as vocal in speaking out against the Iran deal as h...

My wife says it's OK to be intense.  Bilam even gave us a bracha for it -- " Mah tovu ohalecha Ya'akov ."   A few thoug...

Balak sent messengers to Bilam saying that he should come and help, " Va'agarshenu min ha'aretz. "  The Midrash comments, ...

1) This column on the parsha by R' Nachman Kahane is simply a MUST READ. I hesitate to excerpt any of it because then people won't ...

The gemara (Kid 31) illustrates the extent to which one must go to fulfill kibud av with a story.  There was a non-Jew named Dama ben Nesina...

The sefer She'eiris Menachem quotes from the Shem m'Shmuel (the same idea is quoted in other seforim as well) that a person who is b...

At the recent pidyon ha'ben made by my nephew for his bechor, my BIL RYGB started discussing with me why you have to make a bracha on t...

1. V'avdi Kaleiv eikev hay'sa ruach acheres imo...   Sefas Emes asks why the Torah has to justify Kaleiv getting a portion in Eretz...

Rashi writes that the Torah juxtaposes the story of the meraglim in parshas Shlach with the story of Miriam's criticism of Moshe and her...