Chapter 1: The World Was Not Created Incomplete1. The Torah in Book of Genesis presents a world that is already complete. Trees bear fruit. Animals are fully mature. Rivers, seas, and ecosystems function perfectly. Everything necessary exists. It is called “very good.”2. Yet perfection in structure is not the same as perfection in purpose. Human…

Rabbi Hirsch explains that the cherubim atop the Ark were not decorative figures or abstract symbols. They conveyed a concrete truth about Torah, protection, responsibility, and Jewish survival.From their first appearance in Bereishis, cherubim serve as guardians, standing at the entrance to the Tree of Life. In the Prophets and Tehillim, they are described as…

The Gemara (בבא בתרא ט:) tells us, “Tzedakah is greater than all of the Korbanos (offerings), and through it one merits righteous children.” The Rambam (הלכות מתנות עניים, פרק י’) writes that one must be more careful with the mitzvah of tzedakah than any other positive commandment.Hashem promises that whoever gives maaser will merit great…

The relationship between God and Israel, established through the giving of the Law by God and its acceptance by Israel — is the context within which the significance of the Tabernacle as a whole and in its parts is to be sought and found. This significance explains why the chapters on the construction of the…

וגר לא תונה וגר לא תלחצנו כי גרים הייתם בארץ מצריםis closely connected with the thought expressed in the preceding verse. There it says that even a native-born Jew of the purest descent forfeits his life amidst the Jewish national community as soon as he departs, in the slightest degree, from the pure basic principle…

Pleasure and AsceticismPeople who don’t understand Chovos Halevavos interpret this as an encouragement of strict asceticism and total rejection of the world. They find that difficult to deal with. But their interpretation is mistaken. What Chovos Halevavos wants you to do is reject becoming intoxicated by the pleasures of This World. However, these pleasures serve…

A Jew  must understand that there are other needy people in the world. ( This is reference besides the charity that he was already given to the causes that are dear to him, idea is Reb. Mosha is trying to say that obligation of giving never stops as long as one takes for himself like…

(פסוק והביאור)כ״ה. נַעַר הָיִיתִי גַּם זָקַנְתִּי —וְלֹא רָאִיתִי צַדִּיק נֶעֱזָב, וְזַרְעוֹ מְבַקֵּשׁ לָחֶם. 25. “I have been a youth and also aged.”Ibn Ezra and Radak attribute this statement to the Psalmist, who declares, “After experiencing all phases of life, from beginning to end, I am equipped to make the following observation.”However, the Talmud (Yerushalmi 16b,…

Full Transcript of a 1981 SpeechA person must understand that there are other needy people in the world besides himself. The Torah established two kinds of obligations. One obligation is to give from what comes in — from income, from profit, from grain. But that is not enough. There is also an obligation to give…

The methods of acquiring humility, and the way this is made easier for a person, consist in keeping one’s thought and imagination focused on seven points.1. Reflect on Human Origin and Physical RealityA person begins as a drop of semen and blood, later becoming putrid and foul. He is sustained by impure blood in the…