Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh's blog
Posted in Ki Teitzei, Parashah on Aug 30th, 2012
In the part of the Zohar called Ra’aya Meheimna, Moses’ soul root reveals Torah secrets to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his students. The Ra’aya Meheimna mainly discusses the inner mysteries of the Torah’s commandments. Interestingly, of all the seventy-four mitzvot enumerated in Parashat Ki-Teitzei, the principal commandment that is discussed in Ra’aya Meheimna on [...]
Posted in Va'etchanan on Aug 3rd, 2012
On the verse in this week’s parashah, “You have begun to show your servant…” the Zohar asks, What beginning is the verse referring to? It is certainly referring to Moses as being the first to be whole and complete. Though Jacob too was whole to a certain extent, Moses was crowned by greater wholeness, with [...]
Posted in Va'etchanan on Aug 1st, 2012
The Holy Land– the greatest gift of all The opening verse of this week’s Torah portion begins Moses’ account of how he prayed to enter the land of Israel: “And I entreated God at that time, saying.” The Midrash[1] explains that when God fulfills a person’s prayer, it can be either by virtue of their [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jul 19th, 2012
Constructing the kingdom of Israel Following the incident in which Pinchas avenged God’s Name by swiftly killing Zimri and the Midianite princess who seduced him, God told Moses to take revenge on the Midianite nation for sending their daughters to seduce the Jewish men. Pinchas was chosen to lead the Jewish army to war and he returned [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jul 19th, 2012
Patience, alacrity, Torah and mitzvah In a previous article, we discussed the swiftness with which Pinchas acted and in contrast we saw that Joshua did not complete the task of conquering the landof Israelbecause of his excessive patience. From the fact that Pinchas was appointed to lead the war against Midian, the sages learn that, [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jul 12th, 2012
Following a plague that wiped out many of the Jewish people, which came as punishment for their licentious behavior, God told Moses to take a census of the entire Jewish people. He then commanded him to divide thelandofIsraelinto tribal territories, prior to entering theHoly Land. Knowing that he would not be privileged to enter thelandofIsraelhimself, [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Aug 9th, 2011
There are two levels of “nothing,” absolute nothing and relative nothing, and two levels of “something,” intangible something and tangible something. Absolute nothing is the awareness that besides the absolute existence of God all is naught and that God’s absolute existence is absolutely incomprehensible; relative nothing is the state of nothing that precedes creation ex-nihilo; intangible [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Aug 9th, 2011
The Seer of Lublin once said, “Between mentor and mentor (Rebbe and Rebbe) I can’t differentiate and I don’t want to differentiate. Between disciple and disciple (talmid and talmid) I can differentiate but I don’t want to differentiate.” The two mentors he was referring to were the Arizal and the Ba’al Shem Tov. The two disciples he was [...]
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. [...]