Va’etchanan 5772

BS”D Parashat Va’etchanan 5772 Part A: The Jewish Army One day many years ago, I received a distressing call from my father, HaRav Yechezkel Shraga Kahana zt”l. He asked to see me, and I heard in his voice that he was crying. After hurrying to my parent’s...

A Tisha B’Av Message

* Note: this was written several years ago, but is still applicable today… Devarim 8:7-10 For the LORD your God brings you to a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, springing forth in valley and hills; A land of wheat and barley, and...

Devarim Shabbat Chazon 5772

BS”D Parashat Devarim Shabbat Chazon 5772 Part A: Many of the lamentable chapters we read on Tish’a B’Av were composed by Yehudah HaLevi (1080-1141), one of our greatest poets, who lived in Spain when it was under Islamic rule. He was a talmid chacham, a...

Pinchas & Matot-Masei 5772

BS”D Pinchas and Matot-Masei 5772 Three major incidents in parashat Pinchas were enacted by individuals who were nonconformist by acting against the national consensus. Pinchas acted quickly and zealously, while the nation’s leaders, Moshe and the Sanhedrin,...

Balak and Pinchas 5772

BS”D Balak and Pinchas 5772 Balak: In the week of parashat Balak, the world’s scientific communities were in ecstasy. After spending billions of dollars and thousands of great minds who participated in the project, they finally proved empirically the existence...

Balak 5772

The 17th of Tammuz, is the day when we solemnize five disastrous events in our history, as we also do for the calamitous 9th of Av, in three weeks hence. Both are fast days, with the 9th of Av following closely behind Yom Kippur in its halachic severity. However, this...