Dear Friends, For your interest, here is the link to my Tisha B’Av shiur, presented at the YI Woodmere. https://www.yutorah.org/sidebar/lecture.cfm/930022/mrs-michal-horowitz/eichah-unique-permission-to-ask-why-/ Enjoy and feel free to share with others. Kol tuv and besuros tovos for all. Michal...
This week’s parsha, Parshas Devarim, is always read erev Tisha B’Av (and this year is read on 9 Av itself). Why the juxtaposition of Parshas Devarim to Tisha B’Av? In perek alef (Chapter 1), Moshe recalls the sin of the spies, who went up the scout...
As Sefer Bamidbar closes, in its final two parshios of Mattos and Masei, we read of two narratives centered around the chashivus (importance) of Eretz Yisrael. At the end of Mattos, the tribes of Reuven and Gad request their portion of land on the eastern side...
During this time of year, when we mourn for the destruction of Tzion and Yerushalayim, for the churban Beis Ha’Mikdash and the loss of our holy places, we remember all churbanos (all destructions) that have befallen our people since the Second Temple was destroyed by...
In the beginning of this week’s parsha, Parshas Pinchas, the drama from last week’s parsha (Balak) continues to unfold. Parshas Balak ended tragically, as the prince of the tribe of Shimon, Zimri, publicly lays with the princess of Midyan, Kozbi. In an act of zealotry to...
In this week’s parsha, Parshas Balak, Balak the king of Moav, fearing the strength of the Jewish nation encamped on his borders, hires Bilaam to curse the Jewish people. Balak is afraid that he will not be able to militarily defeat Am Yisrael, but if...
In this week’s parsha, Chukas, our three great leaders - Miriam, Moshe and Aharon - meet their end on ever la’Yarden (the eastern side of the Jordan River). Miriam dies in Kadesh; Moshe and Aharon are banned forever from the Holy Land, due to their...
At the end of a dramatic parsha, filled with triumph and hope on the one hand (וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה לְחֹבָב בֶּן-רְעוּאֵל הַמִּדְיָנִי חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה, נֹסְעִים אֲנַחְנוּ אֶל-הַמָּקוֹם - And Moshe said to his father-in-law: we are traveling to the place that Hashem said, “to you I...
This week’s parsha, Parshas Naso, is the longest parsha in the Torah. This is, in a large part, due to perek zayin (Ch.7), which is 89 pasukim (verses) long! The perek begins with: וַיְהִי בְּיוֹם כַּלּוֹת מֹשֶׁה לְהָקִים אֶת-הַמִּשְׁכָּן, וַיִּמְשַׁח אֹתוֹ וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אֹתוֹ וְאֶת-כָּל-כֵּלָיו, וְאֶת-הַמִּזְבֵּחַ, וְאֶת-כָּל-כֵּלָיו;...
Shavuos: The Yom Tov of Torah. וַיִּקַּח סֵפֶר הַבְּרִית, וַיִּקְרָא בְּאָזְנֵי הָעָם וַיֹּאמְרוּ, כֹּל אֲשֶׁר-דִּבֶּר ה’ נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָע, and he (Moshe) took the Book of the Covenant, and he read it in the ears of the nation, and they said: All that Hashem has spoken,...