Parshas Vayera
20 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 RabinowitzRevealed to Him: Holiness Built from BelowHoliness Above is made from our plain, physical keeping of the mitzvos, so even a person of high spiritual standing must do them simply, as they are. Avraham brought every middah…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzThe Dust of Their Feet: Faith in LivelihoodBowing to the dust of our feet means crediting our livelihood to our own running and toil, a kind of idolatry that Avraham would not let into his house. The way of Moshe and of…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzWashing Off the Dust: All Is from HashemAvraham kept away from anyone who bowed to the “dust of their feet,” crediting success to his own strength, and he taught his children tzedakah because giving roots the faith that…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzEvery Mitzvah a Chok: Reward in This WorldEven the mitzvos we understand best can be kept as a chok: simply because Hashem commanded them, with no ulterior motive. This is the way of Hashem that Avraham taught his…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzBuilt on Kindness: The Gateway to TorahThe world stands on Torah, but the Torah itself is acquired and kept alive through kindness. That is why Avraham drew people to Hashem with food, drink and lodging, and why the…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzEight Days of Longing: The Reward for YearningAvraham's eight days of waiting were not empty: because he longed for the mitzvah, every hour counted as though he were already doing it. Our anticipation and love before a…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzThe Akeidah in Thought: Self-Sacrifice for GenerationsAvraham's greatest test never came to a deed, and precisely because it remained in thought, it stayed in the world as an imprint of holiness that every Jew inherits. The power to…Lehavas David · Rav Dovid Matisyohu RabinowitzSelf-Sacrifice: Opening a New Order of BlessingA harsh decree is not the final word: when a person serves Hashem with mesirus nefesh, above nature, Hashem deals with him under a new order, in which that decree was never…
Yismach Yisroel
Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok Dancyger ›Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerLowly Origins: The Key to Receiving the TorahRemembering our lowly beginnings is not a cause for despair; it is the gateway to remembering that our souls are hewn from the Throne of Glory. Against discouragement, recall your…Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerAlways at the Doorway: Endless Inner GatesEvery true level of holiness should show a person how many doorways still lie ahead, so that he never rests on what he has reached but longs for the next mitzvah; that longing is…Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerLowliness and Love: The Preparation for the TorahThe more truly a person recognizes his own lowliness, the more he becomes a vessel for the light of the Torah. That humility shows itself in warmly welcoming every person as…Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerHumility Awakens the Merit of the AvosThe merit of the Avos is not an automatic inheritance; it is awakened by sharing their trait of humility. When a Jew honestly measures how far he has fallen from his holy…Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerHumility: Why Moshe, Not the Angels, Received the TorahOur human weakness, being born of woman and struggling with desire, is exactly what lets us reach humility, a broken heart and the teshuvah Hashem desires, which the angels…Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerHumility Unlocks Truth and Hidden WisdomTruth in Torah is not reached by intellect alone, but by humility. A person who honestly takes his lowly origins to heart and knows that all his strength is Hashem's gains a point…Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerAnother Ram: The Soul Caught in the ThicketA Jew's innermost point always longs to be offered up to Hashem like Yitzchak; what holds him back is the thicket of exile, livelihood and the yetzer hara, not his true self. Like…Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerAvraham's Planting of Kindness and PrayerAvraham's kindness was not a private virtue but a planting that took root in everyone he touched, and his prayer opened a gate through which every person can still reach Hashem…Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok Dancyger“From My Flesh I See God”: Humble KnowledgeAvraham's greatness lay in his humility: he credited his revelation only to the refining pain of the covenant and saw himself as “dust and ashes,” no better than any convert. The…Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerAvraham at the Door: Humility, Knowledge and HopeWhether a Jew has risen high or fallen low, the knowledge Avraham earned through his milah and planted in every Jewish soul tells him the same thing: he is only at the door. One…Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerDrawing Near the Distant Awakens Divine MercyThe Torah is a Torah of kindness only when it is shared. Like Avraham at his tent and Hillel with the would-be convert, we are to draw close even the undeserving and the senseless…Yismach Yisroel · Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok DancygerHospitality Opens the Way to the ShechinahMaking oneself a fitting vessel for the Shechinah is extremely hard, but there is a shorter road: welcome every guest warmly and with compassion, even those who do not seem to…