Torah

We all want to share deep and thoughtful ideas at the Seder in order to enhance the experience. I hope this collection of divrei Torah will aid you on your journey towards a meaningful, transformative Seder night.

“Ashreichem!”

That was the enthusiastic way HaGaon HaRav Yisrael Neuman, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva, Beth Medrash Govoha of Lakewood, began his brief address to a massive crowd of some one thousand talmidei chachomim at Dirshu’s testing site in Lakewood last week.

Before Adam sinned, he required no clothing (B’reishis 2:25). His physical body radiated light, loyally expressing his angelic soul. Once Adam sinned, however, his physical body lost this spiritual level, no longer fully expressing the or (light) of his inner soul. The pasuk describes how Adam and Chavah suddenly realized their nakedness and became embarrassed, desiring to cover their bodies with clothing (ibid. 3:7). What is the meaning behind their embarrassment, and why was clothing the ideal remedy?

In a world where beauty is often misunderstood, it’s important to understand the deep spiritual nature and purpose of this powerful and fundamental concept. To do so, let us trace the spiritual concept of beauty back to the creation of man, before Adam HaRishon’s sin.

Rabbi Shay Schachter will be joining Yeshiva University as a full-time Torah Studies faculty member on YU’s Beren campus, beginning in this role at the end of August 2022 with the start of the Fall semester.

Rav Noach Isaac Oelbaum, mara d’asra of Khal Nachlas Yitzchok in Kew Gardens Hills, related that there is no real way to choose which area to focus on to be maspid Rav Chaim Kanievsky zt”l, as he was all encompassing. A resident of Los Angeles who learned with Rav Chaim over 60 years ago in the Lomza yeshivah in Petach Tikvah brought a remez from a pasuk on why Rav Chaim was niftar at Parshas Tzav. “Chok olam l’dorosam”: Chok refers to Rav Chaim, whose Torah will live on forever.