The Midrash explains that there were 4 different responses Bnei Yisroel had when faced with Pharos army:

1. Retreat to Egypt.
2. Give up and die.
3. Jump in the water and swim to safety.
4. Fight back.

All these responses were wrong. So often we are faced with challenges, difficulties, anxieties. We plan for every eventuality and contingency. Yet, we leave Hashem out of the equation. It is to Hashem, and only Hashem, we are supposed to turn to in times of distress, everything else is merely our Hishtadlut or a messenger from him.

Shabbat Shalom.

At the beginning of this week’s parsha (and twice in last week’s parsha) Moshe is instructed to warn Pharaoh about the next plague. The phrase that is used is בא אל פרעה – “Come to Pharaoh”. The question is, since Hashem was sending Moshe to speak to Pharaoh surely it should say לך אל פרעה – go to Pharaoh not come to Pharaoh?

Rabbeinu Bachya offers the following explanation: We know that the plagues came in three series of three; the first two had a warning whilst the third did not. The first of those warnings was always given outside and the second was given inside Pharaoh’s palace. בא doesn’t mean “come”, rather “enter” and was a command to warn Pharaoh in his palace. This week’s parsha opens with the eighth plague and therefore the warning was to be given inside Pharaoh’s palace. Pharaoh was too arrogant to admit that Hashem was in charge. Ruling over the vast land of Egypt and living in a lavish palace made him feel omnipotent. The plagues were intended to teach him a lesson, therefore the warnings for the plagues were specifically alternated between his two power bases. We also have two power bases. Our mind (soul) and body (tefillin Shel rosh and Shel yad).

I give everyone a bracha that if we get a sign in one power, we should be wise enough to understand it and apply it in our lives.

Shabbat Shalom,

(in the name of Rabbi Adam Siegel in the name of Rabbi Shapiro)
When the brothers brought Joseph’s coat to Jacob, Jacob said, a wild animal, a ” חיה רעה ” ate him. Rashi points out that he was
not wrong, that he had ruach hakodesh and saw that Potifar’s wife was a wild animal, since she was trying to “eat” Joseph and
devour his strength of yidishkeit. Rashi says this so that people realize that tzadikim are never wrong, and that this does not
only apply to this situation. Later in a different Rashi, it says “why was Tamar’s incident connected to Potifar’s wife’s incident? To
show that just like Tamar was לשם שמים so too was potifars wife.”

Wait, so he is saying that you can be a wild animal חיה רעה even if you are doing something for שם שמים? Our enemies are doing
everything ” לשם שמים ” but they act like wild animals!

This is why you have to ask a rabbi, before you do anything, because even if you have good intentions, you don’t want to be a
חיה רעה , Like Potifar’s wife.

I give everyone a bracha that we should be זוכה to serve Hashem לשם שמים but not be a wild animal.

Avraham just finished doing akaidas yitzchak, one of the most powerful spiritual experiences ever. Right after that, the Torah talks about Nachor and all the children that he had. Why? From spiritual heights to a man that worships avoda Zara? Maybe it’s to teach that even if you are on a high level and close to Hashem, you are still supposed to maintain connections with others, especially to your family, even if you think their not “on your level”. And because Abraham did this, he found Rivkah, Yitchak’s wife and the second of the Imahos.
Shabbat Shalom,

This week it says in לך-לך the following words.
“ ואברהם בן-תשעים ותשע שנה בהמלו בשר ערלתו ”

Rashi states a beautiful pshat saying that Avraham took the knife in one hand, and his עורלה in the other, about to cut but then became afraid and feared, that since he was old it wouldn’t work (either the pain to great or that his hands shook of age), so what did Hashem do? He sent out his hand and held on the knife with him, as it states “וכרות עמו הברית ” He made a covenant with him, and doesn’t say he made a covenant for him.

In essence what is this trying to say? I believe that this is one of the most beautiful ideas for us. Why? We always see Avraham as an amazing person, and he was. However sometimes we forget that he too was human. He was afraid, he got old, he had a lot of the same difficulties many people have now! We sometimes think that the past generations were perfect, and we are in the ground. We fail to recognize that they too were human. I think this is important, especially in our generation that we see that just because we have a challenge doesn’t mean we can’t be great people like Avraham!

I wish everyone a good week, and to be the best you can be.

Shabbat Shalom,

(special thanks to my dad for helping me prepare this dvar torah!)

“So now, write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel… (31:19)”

Chazal derive from this pasuk that each person is required to write a Sefer Torah for himself. Even if one inherited a Sefer Torah or received one as a gift, he is nevertheless still obligated to write one. Why is it so important for each individual to write his own Sefer Torah?

If a person who starts a business puts his whole heart and soul into it. He will stay up late at night and spend lots of money to make sure everything runs smoothly. If anyone makes a negative remark about his company, he will be the first one to stick up for it. For some reason he never gets sick and doesn’t need to take off. When he retires and passes the reigns over to his son, things just won’t be the same. His son will definitely do his job and may even work overtime, but he won’t put his whole heart and soul into it like his father did. After all, it’s not his own business. There is no comparison be-tween an employee and the founder of a company.

A person is obligated to write his own Sefer Torah because Hashem wants a person to feel the Torah is his own, and not a hand-me-down. Each individual is meant to become a CEO over the Torah, going to great lengths to make sure he ful-fills the Torah, and spending the time and effort to ensure that his “business” is running smoothly. If it was just a hand-me-down from someone else we would feel no real desire to do our best.

I give a Bracha that we all manage to make the Torah “our business” so we give it 110% and be the best we can be!

Shabbat Shalom

 

The pasuk in Shemos says that Hashem heard our voices when we were crying in Egypt (not our actual prayers). This seems odd: If Hashem is able to hear our prayers which have meaning, why would he listen to our “voices” and not our tefilos?

The answer is actually quite simple! While most human communication is from speech, there is another form called “body language”. What does that mean? We “talk” without speaking, like it says in a famous song “people talking without speaking”. Not only that, body language can be stronger then talking. For example: If your son came up to you saying “Abba, Mommy I am sad, you will sit down and talk to him make him feel good. However, if he came crying out, tears all over his face, you will immediately go and hug him, and calm him down since that is a greater expression of emotion than talking. Same with Hashem who our voices, which might be saying something real and logical about our suffering, but it’s our cries, our deepest emotions that Hashem really wants and loves and listens for. I know for me when hear a song, the way it is sung has a deep impression on me, sometimes more than the actual words. Lets keep this in mind during Elul and through the Yomim Noraim as we daven and do teshuva. Perhaps this idea is even related to the shofar we blow daily and on Rosh Hashanah. May we all be Zocheh to be able to have that deepest emotion with Hashem and may we be answered.

Shabbat Shalom