Parshas Bereishis
12 maamarim of the tzaddikim on this week's reading, each in Hebrew and English with a takeaway.
Lehavas David
Rav Dovid Matisyohu Rabinowitz ›Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzTruth through Torah: The Answer to the AngelsThe angels worried that even our mitzvos are easily mixed with other motives. Hashem's answer was to give us the Torah of truth, and the whole world stands on its power to bring…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzFrom Tohu to Heaven: Sifting Good from EvilWe were not made like the angels, wholly good with nothing to fix; we were placed in a world of *tohu vavohu*, where good and evil are mixed, so that we would sift them and bring…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzLonging Like the Waters: Cleaving to the CreatorAt creation even the lower waters, which have no soul, wept to be close to the King; we carry within us a portion of God from Above, so we should long for Him all the more. That…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzMasters of the World Through the TorahThe world was created on condition that Israel accept the Torah, so through the Torah we share in its existence and are, as it were, its masters, able even to annul harsh decrees…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzTohu Vavohu Redeemed: Serving Hashem with Every PowerWhen we have stumbled, the yetzer hara tells us we are too damaged to stand before Hashem. The truth is the opposite: the very passion and desire that drove us to sin can be…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzSimple Faith: The Light Hashem DesiresHashem desires simple, wholehearted faith rather than a faith that must pass through questions and doubts, where even one moment of wavering is not good. Like the Baal Shem Tov…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzShabbos Rest: A Taste of the World to ComeThis world is only a corridor, and on its own it does not let us see the World to Come. Shabbos is Hashem's gift of a taste of that rest, given so that we will long to serve Him…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzThe Spice Called Shabbos: Creation Completed through RestHashem gave the world strength for only six days, and the world is completed and renewed precisely on Shabbos, when we stop working. Shabbos is the spice that completes and…
Yismach Yisroel
Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok Dancyger ›Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerTwo Beginnings: Teshuvah and Endless RenewalBereishis means two beginnings: the uprightness we are born with, and the new uprightness of one who falls and returns, to whom Hashem gives the Land. Because Hashem, the Torah…Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerShabbos: The Seal of Truth That Sustains CreationShabbos is the world's seal of truth: on the one day no human work is done and blessing still flows, we see that all our achievements, material and spiritual, come from Hashem…Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerTeshuvah and the Two Beginnings of TorahTeshuvah is beyond human reason: Hashem, Who sees the heart's inner uprightness, lets the broken-hearted penitent become a new creation, upright as before, a second beginning…