Until Moshiach Is Born
At Mincha time of Tisha Bav
Our נחמה Is Chanuka
נר חנוכה מצוה להניחה בתוך עשרה
Anywhere within ten?
Mekubalim say at seven
Halacha says above three
Why the ambiguity?
Twenty one days of בין המצרים
Bemoaning the churban
Bring us to thank Hashem for it
At the bottom of the ninth
לנח״ם בתוך עשרה
Shabbos Chazon Shalom
A Lesson For The Road
From the Baal Shem Tov
And Rabenu
Every Jew endures מ״ב travels during his lifetime
First Class like Yaakov
Or Business like Esav
אלה מסעי בני ישראל
Resulting from
אלה אלהיך ישראל
Esav travels to his golden end
בר מינן
Yaakov to his land
מחזיק ברכה
Shabbos Chazak Shalom
Immortalized Or Murderer
Depends on your kavana
Earning Olam Haba
Or just Olam Hazeh
Depends on your kavana
Mitzvos without kavana
Are like goof without neshama
Goofy never graduates Disney World
Real Jews outgrow the Mouseketeers
That’s Hashem’s kavana
Shabbos Shalom Shalom
Korach Was A Smart Men
Smart enough to question Moshe Rabenu
And Hashem too
The ultimate attribute is intelligence
In the eyes of apostasy
Korach was a פקח = בעל מום
יראה – deficient
ראשית חכמה יראת השם
Intelligence without a commensurate amount of יראה
Is like an accelerator without brakes
All you geniuses out there
Fasten your seat belts
Shabbos Shalom
A Day Of Yehuda
Son of Yaakov Avinu
What makes one a king?
The quality of Hod
טוב להודות לה׳
תודה isn’t limited to “thank you”
It’s regality
צדקה ממני
Loshon hora is the worst communication
הודאה is the best
Speech exists for this reason
The fifth brocho of shemoneh esreh
Begins and ends with a heh
And contains ten hehs
Yaakov had one heh endowed son
Today is his day
Say תודה ten times in his honor
Be king for a day
More Important Than What You’ve Done
What you really want to do
More precious than how close you’ve come
How close you really want to
More productive than what you’ve created
The creation you really suscribe to
More transcendent than what you’ve grasped
The incomprehensible dreams that elude you
More than Hashem fills the world
He surrounds it
And waits for you
Three Parts Of Reality
עולם שנה נפש
Each one has a heart
Shavuos is the heart of the year
The heart dare not sleep
Rabbi Shimon didn’t sleep
And guarantees a year of life
Depending on tonight’s blood pressure
Say the right tikun – syastolic
Don’t sleep at all – dystolic
Chag Sameach
We Were Slaves Of Pharaoh
Now we’re slaves of God
Like Moshe Rabenu
משה עבד השם
Freedom after two years isolated in a tunnel
After five years in a holocaust
After two thousand years of exile
Allows us to serve Hashem
Unlimited
Not to proceed with life
As we please
איו בן חורין אלא מי שעוסק בתורה
Shabbos Shalom
A Moment Of Silence
A daily practice
Perfomed in shul
Not on the highway
Hashem prohibits goyish travel
Observe His traffic laws
וחי בהם
The Torah is called דרך
Halacha is the requisite Waze
Be wary of scammers and hackers
Aiming at bushwacking
The eternity you were created to earn
Stones Of The Leprous House
Must be sent out of town
אל מקום טמא
The Rambam ignores the prescribed location
And everyone agrees
There is no specific מקום טמא
In fact, מקום can’t become טמא
Not in Israel
The Maharal explains
The words of Rashi (14:40):
The exported stones
Create a space which contaminates
Not as an ohel
Rather as a מקום
A new kind of טומאה
Invented by Rashi
Invisible to the Rambam
ר״ת אל מקום טמא = טמא
Shabbos Shalom