Over 165 In-Depth Maamarim Addressing the Questions You’ve Always Had, but Didn’t Ask

“One of the greatest difficulties facing a person who wants to properly learn Chumash,” HaGaon HaRav Yaakov Kaminetsky, zt”l, Rosh Yeshiva of Mesivta Torah Vodaas, said in a seminal drasha at one of the first Torah Umesorah conventions in the 1940’s, “is overcoming the childish perceptions of the stories and halachos in the Torah that they were taught in grade school.”

Yes! It is very complicated to change one’s mindset. Therefore, as people grow older and their intellect develops, they often view the sippurei haTorah and mishpetei haTorah with the same simplistic, childish understanding embedded in their minds as children.

Dorash Dovid on Chamishah Chumshei Torah Series II, a new, multi-volume set of sefarim that has just been published in English, transforms the way one learns Chumash by opening the mind and broadening one’s horizons.

This set of Dorash Dovid is entirely new with more than one-hundred-and-sixty-five maamarim – translating into multiple maamarim on each parsha. Yes, it is new, but at the same time, it is familiar as it is the second series of Dorash Dovid on Chumash to be published. It has been fifteen years since the groundbreaking first series of Dorash Dovid sefarim in English was first released and this new, second series adds and enriches the library of any thinking person who wants a deeper understanding of the weekly parsha.

“The Thinking Person’s Sefer on Chumash!”

Dorash Dovid has been written by Rav Dovid Hofstedter, shlita, renowned Nasi of Dirshu, the Torah organization that has transformed accountable limud haTorah in Klal Yisrael and has enriched the Torah lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews the world over.

In addition to being the visionary founder, leader and Nasi of Dirshu, Rav Hofstedter is also a prominent maggid shiur who delivers daily shiurim both in Gemara b’iyun and in Dirshu’s Kinyan Shas, Amud HaYomi and Daf HaYomi B’Halacha programs. Now, in addition to personally delivering shiurim, his chiddushim and deep explanations on the weekly parsha will be available to the wider public.

Indeed, even a perfunctory perusal of Dorash Dovid reveals Rav Hofstedter as not only a visionary facilitator of harbatzas haTorah but a prime marbitz Torah in his own right. The sefer, based on years of shiurim and public speeches, is not a sefer of vertlach or pithy allegorical Torah thoughts. Rather, Rav Hofstedter has authored an unprecedented breakthrough in the Torah world that one astute talmid chacham called, “The thinking person’s sefer on Chumash.”

Dorash Dovid is solidly based on the foundations set by the great Rishonim and Acharonim. Its objective is to clarify the Torah’s concepts and commentaries and to illuminate its messages. The enthusiastic approbations by leading gedolei hador of the previous and present generations, offer a window into the groundbreaking nature of the sefer.

Every maamar in Dorash Dovid begins by presenting several questions which are then answered through an in-depth, clear approach that opens new vistas into truly grasping the messages imparted by the Torah and our sages.

Eye-Opening Questions, Transformative Answers

In this unique work, Rav Hofstedter analyzes each parsha, virtually every event and commandment in the Torah, and focuses on discerning the true depth of the Torah’s message to us.

Sample questions that he addresses are, “Why wasn’t Noach successful in influencing the people of his generation?”

“Why did Yaakov have to receive the brachos from his father through an act of deception?”

“Why did the people sing shirah only after the splitting of the Yam Suf and not when they left Egypt?”

“How can it be said that the Mishkan was built to atone for the cheit ha’egel if its existence was decreed before the creation of the world?”

“If Bnei Yisrael hadn’t yet been told that blasphemy was subject to the death penalty, why did they imprison the blasphemer?”

“Why did the spies that Yehoshua dispatched react differently from the meraglim Moshe sent?”

“What was the reason Moshe was barred from entering Eretz Yisrael — was it his own actions or the nation’s faults that caused it?”

“How does the obligation to return a lost object to its owner reflect the imperative of outreach to irreligious Jews?”

Questions such as these on the weekly parsha come up all the time. They are questions you’ve wanted to ask but didn’t. The sefer Dorash Dovid addresses the above questions and countless others.

Praised by Numerous Gedolim

The previous volume of Dorash Dovid received haskamos from many of the Gedolei Hador who were living at that time such as HaGaon HaRav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, zt”l, HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Wosner, zt”l, HaGaon HaRav Ahron Leib Shteinman, zt”l, HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, HaGaon HaRav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, zt”l, and HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Scheiner, zt”l.

Rav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz wrote, “Rav Dovid has compiled an entire sefer of maamarim that are both illuminating and instructive filled with depth, mussar and yiras shomayim, all while based on the words of Chazal.”

HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Scheiner, zt”l  wrote, “Dorash Dovid contains words of hashkafa and mussar… that help guide anyone who seeks to follow in the path of Hashem.”

“This sefer contains precious passages,” the Sanzer Rebbe, shlita, wrote in his enthusiastic haskama to the sefer, “Precious passages that the public will certainly gain from and enjoy”

There is no question that Dorash Dovid will transform the way you learn Chumash and the way you understand the events and words of the Torah.

If you are a person who doesn’t want to remain with the childish understanding of Chumash that you imbibed as a young child in cheder or school, as bemoaned by Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky, then Dorash Dovid is a sefer that you will want to pick up week after week, Shabbos after Shabbos to find out, “What is the parsha really telling me? What lesson can I learn and apply to my personal life?”

Dorash Dovid can be purchased in sefarim and Judaica stores across the country.

By Yosef Sosnow