Hashem says to Moshe, “Why are you screaming, tell the Jewish nation to go.”
The Jewish nation gets to the shore of the Yam Suf and Mitzarayim is chasing behind them to kill them. Moshe cries out. Hashem is telling him two things: 1) why are you screaming? You are not sure what to do? Ok, so ask where should we go? To which I already told you. 2) The Gemara, when discussing the laws of the asheira tree, if it says something is going to get burned, it is as if it is already burnt. If you are holding a lulav from such a tree, you can shake it from today till tomorrow, but according to Halachah, you did nothing because this lulav does not exist. Hashem is telling Moshe, “this is my department, to work out nature, not your problem, I said go, for you that water is not there, it looks scary with all the waves at the sea, but don’t worry, they don’t exist.”

Good Shabbos to all,

Zevi

“Ratza Hakadosh Baruch Hu lizakos es Yisroel lifichach hirbah lahem Torah umitzvos …..” G-d very much wants to give us and provides the opportunities to reach there.

The passuk says “Hachodesh hazeh lachem.” Lachem is teaching us that G-d gave this month to us and not to anyone else.

Klal Yisroel was in Mitzrayim to do a Tikkun Olam/ fixing of souls, as after the Cheit of Adam Harishon when he ate from the tree of knowledge, his soul was split up and scattered around the world. Klal Yisroel had to fix a certain contamination that was there.

Now, the Jewish people are getting ready to leave Mitzrayim and get the Torah. We got a new mission, that is to keep the Mitzvos. However, the Torah commands us to do all sorts of mitzvos that require a specific time. Like, Eating Matza on Pesach for example. How are we to keep those mitzvos, if we don’t know when we are supposed to them? G-d is now giving us this control, to set Rosh Chodesh, so we can know exactly when to do those mitzvos.

Good Shabbos to all,
Zevi

Parshas Vaeira 5773

I always felt that Tefilla, communication with Hashem, takes a certain Holy Chutzpah based on certain things we see in the Torah. For example, when Moshe tells G-d, “if you will destroy the Jewish nation then erase me from Your book.”  You are telling G-d what to do? A lightning bolt should come down and kill you on the spot? Instead Hashem says, “You are correct in the way you have spoken.” But where was Moshe’s proof that this works. That proof comes from this week’s Parsha. The Posuk tells us, “And I also heard the groans of the Jewish nation, because the Egyptians are afflicting them, and I remember My deal that I made with Avraham. Therefore, tell the Jewish people I will take them out of the Sivlos of the Egyptians.” “Sivlos”, literaly, means burdens. However the Chidushei Harim points out to us, the root of the word is “Sovel” to handle. In last week’s Parsha, we see that “Moshe went out and saw how they were handling the gallus and he says, ‘now I understand’.” Last week, we wrote a few peshatim of what that means. Now we have a new pshat, as written above. This week’s Parsha tells us about the groans of the Jewish people from the fact that they could not be sovel, they could not handle the Galus of Mitzrayim. So G-d says, “Tell them I will take them out.”

Friends, when we Daven to Hashem to take us out of this rotten Galus, it has to come from a place of where we cannot stand it anymore. If we are content with being in Galus, then Hashem says they are happy, why should I take them out?

Good Shabbos to all,

Zevi

Moshe grows up in the house of Pharaoh. He then walks outside to his brothers and sees the slavery, he witness an Egyptian man hitting a Jew. Moshe kills and buries the Egyptian  The very next day, he sees one Jew hitting another and he says, “Rasha, wicked man, why are you hitting your friend?” to which the man responds, “Who are you to tell me what to do? Do you want me to tell Pharaoh that you killed the Egyptian?” To which Moshe responds, “Now I understand.”

We see from here 2 things: First, we see how when you see something wrong, i.e. another yid suffering, you can not say “I am living in Pharaoh’s house, I don’t need to worry about this. It is not my issue. You have to feel the pain of your brother who is suffering. The second thing we learn from here is from the words “Now I understand,” from the time Moshe walked out of Pharaoh’s house and saw the pain of his brothers, he could not understand, what did K’lal Yisroel do to deserve such a bitter Galus/exile, he says “Now I understand” because he sees that they have Sinas Chinam/baseless hatred and speak bad about each other.

“Now I understand”.

Friends, “Now we understand”,  from here, what we need to do. Let us work, this shabbos and from now on, on the attitude of Moshe Rabeinu. Let us not be quiet when we see something wrong. Let us not sit back when there is another Yid suffering. Of course, this includes: not hating a Yid for no reason at all, and for sure, never talking bad about a Holy Neshama.

We find in this week’s Parsha, Parshas Vayechi, how Yaakov calls his children around him at the end of his life to give them direction in creating K’lal Yisroel. Until then it was him, his father and grandfather; now it is going to be a nation coming from his children. He calls each one over and gives them their own unique bracha, they each have their own mission.

Dearest friends,No two people are the same. G-D does not want two people to do the exact same thing. He created each of us with our own unique mission and purpose and gave each of us the strength to do that. The Ramch”al (in the Introduction to his Sefer Mesilas Yesharim/ Path of the Rightous) tells us that the foundation of a person’s work in this world is to find what purpose he has in this world and then pursue it. G-D does not want you to be someone else at all but to be the best you that you can be.

May we try to be the best us we can be,

Good Shabbos to all,

Zevi

We find in this weeks parsha, How when Yosef reveals himself, he uses the words “is my father still alive” if these men were all brothers shouldn’t he have said “is our father still alive?” Besides Yehuda had just told him that their father was alive. So what’s going on here? The answer is as follows, Yehuda just gave Yosef the speech of a lifetime about how he cannot keep Binyomen, because of their old father who will not be able to be comforted. So Yosef is saying “what about me? My father is also alive, no?” In the very next pasuk Yosef calls in his brothers to a huddle and he very lovingly says “don’t have any regrets, bec as you see Hashem sent me before to arrange all the food, so you were only acting bshlichus” wasn’t Yosef starting off sounding like he is going to give them a guilt trip, yet now he is saying look there is a borei olam watching over us and he sent me here. So it is sort of a mixed message. Suppose a person had a gzeira min shamayim that he was going to loose $100, either it can fall out of your pocket and it won’t hurt so much, or you get a bill saying you owe one of the utility companies another $100 it hurts but not so much, and then you have the case where someone smashed your car window, that hurts.

Yosef is saying, “don’t be regretful about the fact that I have been in Mitzrayim all this time as we see now, “עתה” that this was what g-d wanted from me and I am mikabel that bahava, but why did it have to be by being sold?

Good Shabbos
Zevi

Friends, you know how a baby when he nurses for 15 min then goes to sleep for a few hours from all his hard work. try to imagine waking him up and showing him all the food he going to eat all the rest of his life. A river of milk, a lake of orange juice, an ocean of water. a costco stuffed with meat, a home depot filled with grains, breads and  cereals. a wallmart stuffed with f ruits and vegetables and a mountain of potatoes. and we tell this baby this all the food you have to eat. he is going to tell you. wow, i cant do it, it is too much work. so this baby was born he was 7.7 when he will die he will be 197.7 so all that food for 190 pounds? why go through the motions the answer is that every time we make a bracha, that lasts for ever. When you light the menorah, that light from that Mitzva lasts forever. The same thing with Torah, you really teach a person Torah he will remember it forever. Yaakov taught Yosef about eglah arufah 23 years earlier, but that is where Yosef was holding bec it stayed with him forever.

Good Shabbos

Zevi

We find in this weeks parsha, How when Yosef reveals himself, he uses the words “is my father still alive” if these men were all brothers shouldn’t he have said “is our father still alive?” Besides Yehuda had just told him that their father was alive. So what’s going on here? The answer is as follows, Yehuda just gave Yosef the speech of a lifetime about how he can not keep Binyomen, because of their old father who will not be able to be comforted. So Yosef is saying “what

about me? My father is also alive, no?” In the very next pasuk Yosef calls in his brothers to a huddle and he very lovingly says “don’t have any regrets, bec as you see Hashem sent me before to arrange all the food, so you were only acting bshlichus” wasn’t Yosef starting off sounding like he is going to give them a guilt trip, yet now he is saying look there is a borei olam watching over us and he sent me here. So it is sort of a mixed message. Suppose a person had a gzeira min shamayim that he was going to loose $100, either it can fall out of your pocket and it won’t hurt so much, or you get a bill saying you owe one of the utility companies another $100 it hurts but not so much, and then you have the case where someone smashed your car window, that hurts.

Yosef is saying, “don’t be regretful about the fact that I have been in Mitzrayim all this time as we see now, “עתה” that this was what g-d wanted from me and I am mikabel that bahava, but why did it have to be by being sold?

Good Shabbos
Zevi

Continuing (from last week) in our observation of the life of our dear patriarch yaakov Avinu. he is chased out by his father in law his brother is coming to kill him. yet, his Teffila is katonti mikol hachasadim. no matter what situation we find ourselves in we must always tell the borei olam how much we appreciate kol hachesed that he gives us.

Good shabbos,

Zevi

Friends, just a thought i want to share. If we look at parshas vayeitzei are the any “peys” or “samachs”? Pauses or stops, you will find none. Lets take a deep look about what happened to Yaakov avinu, the nisyonot he went through 1) he runs away from home because his brother wants to kill him 2) he gets mugged and left with nothing 3) his fiance gets switched on him after working for seven years for her, he has to deal with Lavan etc. Yet there are no stops or even pauses when the torah writes this, to teach us that no matter what challenge you are facing, you have to keep on going and never ever stop.