Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh's blog
Posted in Noach on Oct 19th, 2012
In Parashat Noach, humanity undergoes two great catastrophes. The first is the flood – the holocaust that annihilates all of humanity and all land-life except those who survive in Noach’s ark. The second catastrophe is the dispersal of humanity to all ends of the earth as a result of the collapse of the Tower of [...]
Posted in Rectifying the Sense of Sight on Jul 16th, 2011
The Torah lists by name the non-kosher birds. One of them is the ra’ah, literally “the seer.” The sages explain: It stands in Babylonia and sees a corpse in the Land of Israel. Babylonia (בבל) means “confusion” (בלבול). There God confused the tongues of the builders of the Tower of Babel. The Ba’al Shem Tov explains that [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jun 9th, 2011
First put on your right shoe, then your left shoe, then bind your left shoe, and finally bind your right shoe. That’s the way Jews do it. The Torah was given to sanctify the mundane. Shoes allow us to walk the face of the earth, to contact physicality and move around as we wish freely. [...]
Posted in Questions in the Bible on Jun 3rd, 2011
An angel asked Hagar, Sarai’s maid, “where are you coming from and where are you going?” She answered, “I’m fleeing from Sarai my mistress” (“אֵי מִזֶּה בָאת וְאָנָה תֵלֵכִי וַתֹּאמֶר מִפְּנֵי שָׂרַי גְּבִרְתִּי אָנֹכִי בֹּרַחַת”). This is the first appearance in the Torah of the question “where [are you going]?” (Note that the form of the [...]
Posted in Questions in the Bible on May 31st, 2011
There are three forms of the question “where?” in Biblical Hebrew. They first appear in the Torah in evolving order, both grammatically and numerically. The first form, ey (אי), comprises only two letters (perhaps the simplest syllable in the Hebrew language) and first appears in the question we contemplated above, “Where is Abel your brother” (אי [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 17th, 2011
The two great exiles of the Jewish People in our days: Edom (אדום, 51) and Ishmael (ישמעאל, 451) equal 502 = “Cursed be Haman” (ארור המן) = “Blessed be Mordechai” (ברוך מרדכי). The joyous wine of Purim takes us to a place where we are unable to distinguish between “Cursed be Haman” and “Blessed be [...]
Posted in Tweets from the year 5771 on Feb 24th, 2011
Consummate service of God unites meditation (919), prayer (515), and action (415). They complement one another. Together, 1849 = 43^2. Meditation connects mind to heart. Prayer connects heart to mouth. Action connects mouth (in the Torah speaking is action) to hands. There is something special about hands. When lifted, they ascend above the head and [...]
Posted in Tweets from the year 5771 on Feb 24th, 2011
Photosynthesis harvests the sun’s energy. It is the biological process that transforms light into life. Much can be learnt from it. Both blue and red light activate photosynthesis, but red light works better than blue light. Why is this so and what can we learn from it? Because of its higher frequency a blue photon [...]
Posted in Tweets from the year 5771 on Feb 24th, 2011
“And these are the generations of Isaac the son of Abraham, Abraham begat Isaac.” Know who your father really is; he can make you potent. Isaac and Rebecca had two sons, Jacob and Esau, one righteous and one wicked. Isaac and Rebecca are in our mind, Jacob and Esau in our heart. Jacob and Esau [...]
Posted in Tweets from the year 5771 on Feb 24th, 2011
Sarah, although not physically present, was the catalyst in the Binding of Isaac to unite father and son. In the Binding of Isaac, “the two (Abraham and Isaac) walked together” appears twice, before Isaac knew that he was the sacrifice and after. “The two walked together” = 505 = Sarah. She was there, uniting her [...]