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Yefei Einayim: Bo

The 5th of Shevat is the Yahrtzeit of Rabbi David ben Mordechai of Brody, Austria, author of Yefei Einayim. He died on February 3, 1816.

Tags: Parsha, Portion of the Week, Prayer, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Spiritual Growth, The Foundation Stone

Tu Bishvat – Seven Species: Grapes

“The word of God came to me saying, ‘Son of Man, what will become of the vine-tree compared to any other tree, the branch that was among the trees of the forest? Can wood be taken

Tags: Israel, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Seven Species, The Foundation Stone, Tu Bishvat

Tu Bishvat – Seven Species: Wheat

“And He would feed him with the cream of the wheat, and from a rock I would sate you with honey.” (Psalms 81:17) The wheat is an allusion to the Manna we ate in the desert. The

Tags: Israel, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Seven Species, The Foundation Stone, Tu Bishvat

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Mitzvah 12 – Concept 278

“If you do not redeem it (the first-born donkey) you shall axe the back of its neck.” (Exodus 13:13) We are commanded to break the neck of the donkey if the owner does not intend to redeem it. (Rambam, Hilchot Bikkurim)

Tags: Chassidic, Commandments, commentaries, Kabbalah, Midrash, Mitzvot, Parsha, Portion of the Week, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Talmud, Taryag, The Foundation Stone

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Mitzvah 11 – Concept 277

“Every first issue donkey you shall redeem with a lamb or kid.” (Exodus 13:13) We are commanded to redeem the first-born donkey by giving a lamb to the Cohen. (Rambam, Hilchot Bikkurim)

Tags: Chassidic, Commandments, commentaries, Kabbalah, Midrash, Mitzvot, Parsha, Portion of the Week, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Talmud, Taryag, The Foundation Stone

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: The Marranos & Pesach

The efforts which the Marranos made to maintain their Judaism is revealed in a question which was sent early in their history to Rav Solomon b. Simon Duran in Algiers. The Marranos placed particular emphasis on the celebration of Passover. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Passover came at the same season as Easter and thus

Tags: Chassidic, Commandments, commentaries, Kabbalah, Midrash, Mitzvot, Parsha, Portion of the Week, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Talmud, Taryag, The Foundation Stone

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Mitzvah 8 – Concept 114

We are commanded to eat Matzah on the night of Pesach. (Exodus 12:18; Rambam, Hilchot Chametz U’Matzah)
This Mitzvah symbolizes the attribute of Chesed – Expansive Life Force, which is why Abraham served Matzah to the angels that came to visit him and announce that Isaac

Tags: Chassidic, Commandments, commentaries, Kabbalah, Midrash, Mitzvot, Parsha, Portion of the Week, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Talmud, Taryag, The Foundation Stone

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Mitzvah 9 – Concept 426

“Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the first issue of every womb among the Children of Israel, of man and beast, is Mine.” (Exodus 13:2)
We are commanded to set aside the first-born animals. (Rambam, Hilchot Bechorot)

Tags: Chassidic, Commandments, commentaries, Kabbalah, Midrash, Mitzvot, Parsha, Portion of the Week, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Talmud, Taryag, The Foundation Stone

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Machine Matza

The first such machine seems to have been invented in Austria in 1857, and the use of it quickly spread to various countries, especially to Germany. There was an immediate and violent reaction on the part of the rabbis to its use.

Tags: Chassidic, Commandments, commentaries, Kabbalah, Midrash, Mitzvot, Parsha, Portion of the Week, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Talmud, Taryag, The Foundation Stone

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Mitzvah 10 – Concept 115

“And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, ‘It is because of this that God acted on my behalf when I left Egypt.” (Exodus 13:8) We are commanded to relate the story of the Exodus from Egypt on the night of Pesach. (Rambam, Hilchot Chametz U’Matzah)

Tags: Chassidic, Commandments, commentaries, Kabbalah, Midrash, Mitzvot, Parsha, Portion of the Week, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Talmud, Taryag, The Foundation Stone

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: The Alienated Person

“This is the decree of the Pesach Offering: No alienated person may eat from it.” (Exodus 12:43) The first marranos appeared at the end of the fourteenth century, after the persecution of 1391, when Spanish Jews began to settle in North Africa. Therefore the earliest of these questions are found in the responsa of the

Tags: Chassidic, Commandments, commentaries, Kabbalah, Midrash, Mitzvot, Parsha, Portion of the Week, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Talmud, Taryag, The Foundation Stone

Silence

[caption id="attachment_1883" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Silence"][/caption] My wife is convinced that I need our dog's "help" to shovel the snow. Unfortunately, Pip doesn't realize that he is outside to help. He believes that we are outside to play. He thinks the shovel is a toy...

Tags: Bo, Exodus, Haggadah, Pesach, Ten Plagues, Vaeira

In The Final Moments

[caption id="attachment_1870" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Doubts"][/caption] “So shall you eat it; your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; you shall eat it in haste – it is a Pesach-Offering to God.” So why did they have to rush out the...

Tags: Bo, Exodus, Haggadah, Pesach

Sorry! From The Diary of a Former Slave

[caption id="attachment_1874" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="So Sorry!"][/caption] “Hey guys, do you want to see the letter I received today?” The mail has not been too regular out here in the desert. We move around too much. “Dear Ploni; I am one of your former Egyptian masters. I’m sure...

Tags: Beshalach, Bo, Exodus, Forgiveness, Haggadah, Pesach

Unlimited Vision

[caption id="attachment_1866" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Watching You"][/caption] “Feels right to me.” “Sounds OK to me.” “Looks good to me.” Different people experience the world in different ways. The Torah has them all, but this week’s portion seems to be all about vision: “It will cover the eye of the earth...

Tags: Bo, Exodus, Haggadah, Pesach

Haftarah: Bo

Jeremiah 46:13-28

This is Thucydides reporting from Syria for the BNN (Biblical News Network):

The world waits with bated breath as the two great armies of

Tags: Bible, Biblical News Network, BNN, Jeremiah, Prophets, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, The Foundation Stone

Table Talk: Bo

I get nervous reading about the locusts. It reminds me of the locusts in Baltimore that would appear every 17 years, especially when they were first building the current yeshiva campus. I do not want to even imagine what it was like for the Egyptians. Here are some offerings so you can share

Tags: Bo, man & man, Man's Soul, Psalms, Yoel

Bo: Measure for Measure

The Ten plagues were all perpetrated against Pharaoh measure for measure. Blood, because they did not permit the daughters of Israel to observe ritual immersion. Frogs, because

Tags: Parsha, Portion of the Week, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, The Foundation Stone

Tiferet Yisrael: Bo

The 4th of Shevat is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Yisrael Charif from Stanov, author of Tiferes Yisrael, disciple of the Baal Shem Tov. “Come to Pharaoh because I have hardened his heart.”

Tags: Parsha, Portion of the Week, Prayer, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Spiritual Growth, The Foundation Stone

Sefat Emet: Bo II

"This month shall be for you the beginning of the months …” Establishing and maintaining a calendar is the first mitzvah that God commanded us as a nation. God told this

Tags: Parsha, Portion of the Week, Prayer, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Spiritual Growth, The Foundation Stone

Kedushat Yom Tov: Bo

The 5th of Shevat is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Shlomo Zalman Friedman, Rachover Rav (1980). He was mechaber of Kedushas Yom Tov and a follower of the Rebbe of Sziget. He survived

Tags: Parsha, Portion of the Week, Prayer, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Spiritual Growth, The Foundation Stone

Tu Bishvat: Perek Shirah – Wheat

The Wheat sings, “A song of ascents, from the depths, I called to You, O God.” (Psalms 130:1) The Baal HaTanya explains that the food of the wheat is hidden, for it, one of the basic

Tags: Israel, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Seven Species, The Foundation Stone, Tu Bishvat

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Mitzvah 7 – Concept 109

“On the previous day you shall nullify the leaven from your homes.” (Exodus 12:15)
We are commanded to destroy all chametz on the 14th day of Nisan. (Rambam, Hilchot Chametz U’Matzah)

Tags: Chassidic, Commandments, commentaries, Kabbalah, Midrash, Mitzvot, Parsha, Portion of the Week, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Talmud, Taryag, The Foundation Stone

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Tefillin as Teachers

Generations of people fell into the trap of idol worship, until Abraham came and taught the world about God, One, Unified and All-Powerful. God wanted Abraham to know that his teachings, which fixed the world, empowered his descendants to do the same: To teach the world about God and His Power.

Tags: Chassidic, Commandments, commentaries, Kabbalah, Midrash, Mitzvot, Parsha, Portion of the Week, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Talmud, Taryag, The Foundation Stone

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Hiding The Afikoman

It is said in the name of the Brisker Rav, Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik, that the reason we hide the Afikoman is to remember how carefully people would guard and hide the meat of the Korban Pesach – the Paschal Offering – to protect its purity.

Tags: Afikoman, Haggadah

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo; Ramban: Remembering The Exodus

The mitzvah of “zechiras yetziyas Mitzrayim,” remembering the Exodus, occupies an incontrovertibly prominent position in Jewish consciousness. Ramban (Shemos 13:16) notes that the Jew’s constant recollection of yetziyas Mitzrayim attests to his unwavering belief

Tags: Chassidic, Commandments, commentaries, Kabbalah, Midrash, Mitzvot, Parsha, Portion of the Week, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Talmud, Taryag, The Foundation Stone

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Tefillin & Fidelity

"Bind them as a sign on your hand, and let them be tefillin between your eyes."
Your Tefillin are your wedding ring. When you wrap the tefillin around our hands, you say: “I will betroth you to Me forever, and I will betroth you to Me with righteousness,

Tags: Chassidic, Commandments, commentaries, Kabbalah, Midrash, Mitzvot, Parsha, Portion of the Week, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Talmud, Taryag, The Foundation Stone

Categories

Yefei Einayim: Bo

Tu Bishvat – Seven Species: Grapes

Tu Bishvat – Seven Species: Wheat

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Mitzvah 12 – Concept 278

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Mitzvah 11 – Concept 277

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: The Marranos & Pesach

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Mitzvah 8 – Concept 114

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Mitzvah 9 – Concept 426

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Machine Matza

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Mitzvah 10 – Concept 115

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: The Alienated Person

Silence

In The Final Moments

Sorry! From The Diary of a Former Slave

Unlimited Vision

Haftarah: Bo

Table Talk: Bo

Bo: Measure for Measure

Tiferet Yisrael: Bo

Sefat Emet: Bo II

Kedushat Yom Tov: Bo

Tu Bishvat: Perek Shirah – Wheat

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Mitzvah 7 – Concept 109

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Tefillin as Teachers

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Hiding The Afikoman

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo; Ramban: Remembering The Exodus

Parsha Mitzvot: Bo: Tefillin & Fidelity

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