Parshas Matos
7 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 RabinowitzVows for Hashem: Every Permitted Act a MitzvahA rush of enthusiasm is not yet proof of holiness; the real test is how carefully we handle what is merely permitted. Eating, sleeping and every other need, taken in measure and…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzHolding On to Fleeting Inspiration: Vows for Heaven's SakeEvery day brings a quiet call to return, yet it passes like a shadow unless we give it a fixed place in our hearts. A resolution taken for the sake of Torah and mitzvos is “the…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzGuarding Speech: Words as Part of the SoulOur words are part of our soul and our very life, and each one creates an advocate or an accuser. Breaking a promise or filling the air with idle talk quietly drains that life…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzThe Power of Speech: “This Is the Thing Hashem Commanded”The world was made and is sustained by speech, a few words can consecrate an animal, and each of us has a measured number of words for a lifetime. “This is the thing that Hashem…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzThe Holy Mouth of the Talmid ChachamA Torah scholar's power to undo a vow flows from a mouth that has never been made ordinary, and each of us can guard our speech so that even our plain “saying” carries something…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzMourning the Shechinah: Tzaddikim and the Beis HaMikdashMourning for the Beis HaMikdash can stay on the surface, a sadness over lost splendor on the fixed days. The deeper loss is the Shechinah that once rested among us and rests…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzShedding the Self: Pinchas and the Peace That Wins WarsPeace is more than the absence of quarrels, or even sitting together and liking one another: it is feeling that without the other person I am incomplete, like a body missing a…