Prism of Torah

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Living the Present • Parshas Reeh • Ep. 178

Aug 5, 2021

12:23

Some of us replay the past and some of us live in next week, and a good stretch can fool us as easily as a bad one. Parshas Re'eh opens with Hashem saying He gives the blessing and the curse "today." Why the word "hayom"? Rabbeinu Bechaye reads it as advice for how to live, and it speaks both to someone riding high and to someone who is struggling. A story follows of a village family whose three horses ran off, and of the one sentence the father answered every neighbor who came to console him.

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Awareness, the point of life • Parshas Eikev • Ep. 177

Jul 29, 2021

12:46

In Parshas Eikev, Chazal read "mah Hashem sho'el" as "meah," a hundred, and learn that we should say a hundred brachos a day. It sounds like a word play. Is there a real link between a pasuk about yiras Hashem and a daily count? And why were the Aseres HaDibros carved into stone, when the rest of the Torah was written in ink? The Ramban on the meaning of a bris is the starting point for both. A gift on a surgeon's wall, with words carved into it, brings the idea into an ordinary workday.

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Spiritual cleansing • Parshas Matos • Ep. 176

Jul 9, 2021

10:09

Rabbi Akiva returns home after years of learning and is about to knock on the door. Then he overhears his wife, and he turns his students around and leaves. Why would he do that, when a simple hello would have cost so little? The scene fits a puzzle in Parshas Matos. After the war with Midyan, Elazar gives the laws for purifying utensils and the Torah calls them "chukas haTorah" and not "chukas hakeilim." The Chofetz Chaim finds a message about fire, and about what consistency does to us.

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Kiddush Hashem • Parshas Pinchas • Ep. 175

Jul 1, 2021

16:30

Pinchas acts with total zeal for Hashem, and the Torah explains his reward, the Kehunah and the covenant of peace, by saying he turned back Hashem's anger from Bnei Yisrael. Why that reason, when the act was already a great Kiddush Hashem? The Steipler in Birkas Peretz looks at which mitzvos pay off even in this world. Rav Moshe Feinstein adds a second layer, with a little child helping his mother carry the groceries. Together they raise a question about where learning Torah fits in.

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In good hands, always • Parshas Chukas • Ep. 174

Jun 17, 2021

16:07

Why does the Midrash Rabbah say Hashem gave Moshe the reason for the Parah Adumah and left everyone else with a chok? And why does the Torah introduce this one mitzvah as "chukas haTorah," as if it stood for the whole Torah? The Be'er Yosef's answer starts from the moment this mitzvah is actually used. Rabbi Asaf Prisman closes with a businessman before the war who sold everything and seemed to have found the safest place, until a bleak day arrived.

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Influence via insulation • Parshas Behaaloscha • Ep. 173

May 28, 2021

9:54

Rabbi Yosef ben Kisma was offered all the gold and silver in the world to leave his city of Torah scholars and settle elsewhere, and he refused. He could have built a yeshiva there and lifted everyone around him. Why didn't he? The Mishnah's wording of the offer holds a small redundancy. It also settles a tension in Parshas Behaaloscha: the Levi'im are told to be set apart, and yet they must teach everyone. And how can anyone follow the Rambam's advice to live among good people, if everyone does the same?

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The ONLY things we acquire for eternity • Parshas Naso • Ep. 172

May 21, 2021

12:54

In Parshas Naso the Torah says of what a man gives to the Kohen, "it shall be his." Whose is it, if he just handed it away? Rashi gives two answers, and the Chofetz Chaim finds in the pasuk an anchor for how to spend a life. He tells of a man with three friends, summoned by the king with two hours to spare, who goes to each in turn asking for help. Which one stands by him is told in a mashal that stays with you.

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The Avoda of Sefiras HaOmer • Sefiras Haomer • Ep. 171

Apr 28, 2021

16:49

A father spends two hours on a bus with his screaming three-year-old, on his way to a specialist, and is quietly aching over the learning he gave up. Then someone says one sentence to him that changes how he sees it all. It connects to a puzzle in Sefiras HaOmer. Why do we count from the Korban Omer, an offering named for a measure of grain, and not from the first day of Pesach? The Chinuch's reasoning points to what these weeks are meant to be, and why Shavuos carries the name it does.

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Practice is perfect • Parshas Shemini • Ep. 170

Apr 9, 2021

9:11

For seven days Moshe set up the Mishkan, did the avodah, and took it all down again, and the Shechinah never came. Then, on the day she finally rested there, the Torah calls it the eighth day, and names the whole parsha Shemini. Why not call it the first day? Rav Dovid Feinstein finds a lesson in that single word, and it reaches into davening, the Shabbos table and the way we count Sefiras HaOmer. A couple who once asked a gadol when they should start preparing to be parents received an answer that is hard to forget.

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Shvei Shel Pesach Boosting Your Emuna • Pesach • Ep. 169

Apr 2, 2021

13:50

Why would Hashem split the sea for a nation that, in the angels' eyes, had no claim to be saved because many of them had served idols in Mitzrayim? And what is the right way to feel at the Seder and on the seventh day of Pesach? A young king on his way to a royal shidduch meets a muddy girl begging at his carriage, and his advisors can't believe what he does next. This mashal, brought in the Kav HaYashar, speaks to how Hashem sees us, and to the gratitude that Pesach is meant to build in us.

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Investing in Leil HaSeder The Pesach Perspective • Pesach • Ep. 168

Mar 24, 2021

11:47

The Torah warns us not to forget what we saw at Har Sinai, yet we have no night when the family sits down and retells it, the way we do for Yetzias Mitzrayim. Why would Chazal give the Seder to one event and not to the other? The Ramban at the end of Parshas Bo sets out what Pesach is meant to pass from generation to generation. Rabbi Asaf Prisman then separates knowing something from living it, with an image of the Steipler and a cup of tea, and what that asks of us before the Seder.

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Understanding the Duality of Matza in Pesach • Pesach • Ep. 167

Mar 11, 2021

12:22

The Haggadah says matzah is the poor man's bread our ancestors ate in Mitzrayim. The Torah says we eat it because we left in haste. One is a symbol of slavery and the other a symbol of freedom, yet it is the same piece of matzah. Why does the Torah name the whole holiday Chag HaMatzos after it? The Kli Yakar on Pharaoh's dreams, together with a mashal about forms stuck in an office and a word from the king, brings the two meanings together. It also says something about any situation that looks stuck right now.

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Being Wise in the Heart • Parshas Ki Sisa • Ep. 166

Mar 5, 2021

13:26

Most of us know what we should do and still end up following whatever pulls us in the moment. In Parshas Ki Sisa, Hashem says He gives wisdom "into the heart of all who are wise." The Gemara in Berachos reads this to mean that Hashem gives wisdom only to those who already have it. How does that work, and why is wisdom placed in the heart, the seat of desire? The Malbim's definition of a wise heart resolves it, and explains what Betzalel had. A short exchange with Rav Steinman about a fancy car closes it out.

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Gaining a Life Perspective • Purim • Ep. 165

Feb 26, 2021

10:39

Why does the Megillah open with "Vayehi bimei Achashverosh," while Al HaNissim in davening begins "Bimei Mordechai V'Esther"? Why the doubled language of "Vayehi" and "hu Achashverosh," and why does the Gemara say we re-accepted the Torah out of love "in the days of Achashverosh" and not in the days of Mordechai? The Vilna Gaon gives one root idea that settles all three. It speaks to anyone who feels that Hashem is hidden right now, and to what Purim teaches us about the stretches of life that look like exile.

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Supporting the Supporter • Parshas Terumah • Ep. 164

Feb 18, 2021

11:34

In Parshas Vayakhel, the word for the Nesi'im is written without its yud, a mark of rebuke. Their offer sounded generous: let everyone else give first, and we will cover whatever is still missing. What was wrong with that, and why does the Torah show it through a missing letter? Hashem commands "take from Me an offering," and the Gemara in Bava Basra, with Rabbi Akiva's answer to a Roman governor, points to what the Nesi'im overlooked. A story of Rabbi Eliezer Gordon and his father-in-law, who asked "who knows who is supporting whom?", brings it into a real family.

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What's Important in Life • Parshas Mishpatim • Ep. 163

Feb 12, 2021

10:32

A beloved rav is stepping down after decades, the elders have blessed his move to a small village, and the wagons are packed. Then messengers from the city rush out and stop him at the last moment. This mashal of the Maggid of Dubno speaks to something in Parshas Mishpatim that has long bothered Rabbi Asaf Prisman. When the angels objected to Hashem giving the Torah to human beings, what did they actually think they would gain, when Moshe's answer was so clear? Afterward comes a simple look at what our own reactions teach our children about what matters.

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The Secret to Success • Parshas Shemos • Ep. 162

Jan 8, 2021

14:34

The Gemara in Sotah says that all of Klal Yisrael waited seven days for Miriam, because she once waited by the Nile to see what would become of her baby brother. That seems like a very large reward for standing and watching. What was she really doing there? The answer goes back to what she told her father Amram about his decree, and to a law about lost objects. It ends during the Holocaust, with Jews hiding in the dark, a shoelace for a wick on the first night of Chanukah, and one bracha the rabbi hesitates before saying.

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Cognitive Dissonance • Parshas Vayigash • Ep. 161

Dec 24, 2020

15:50

Anyone who has missed something obvious, and later wondered how, will recognize the brothers in Parshas Vayigash. They stand before the second-in-command of Mitzrayim, and everything points to Yosef: his questions about their father, the seating from oldest to youngest, the dreams of bowing coming true. How could smart men miss all of it? And if Yosef wanted to stay hidden, why did he keep dropping hints? A Gemara in Taanis about a pasuk in Mishlei reframes the whole scene. The finish is a pilot who cannot tell sky from sea.

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Exploring the True Meaning of Chanukah • Chanukah • Ep. 160

Dec 16, 2020

14:09

Why does Chanukah have a basic way to light and then a mehadrin way, something we find nowhere else in halacha? Why does the Gemara celebrate only the oil and not the war? And in Parshas Behaaloscha, why does the Ramban ask what was so special about the Menorah that it consoled Aharon? One idea answers all three, and it shapes how we light. It starts at home: a wife sets out a fine dinner for her husband, and then adds one small thing she did not have to.

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Lighting Up Mitzvos Hadlaka Ossa Mitzvah • Chanukah • Ep. 159

Dec 11, 2020

14:53

According to the Shulchan Aruch, if your Chanukah candles go out early, you do not have to relight them. That holds even if you knocked them out yourself by accident. The reason is the phrase "hadlaka osa mitzvah": the mitzvah is the act of lighting. So what happens to the many people in Yerushalayim who light in a glass box and only slide the door shut a moment after the flame is lit? Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and other poskim weigh in on a very practical question, with a few suggestions for how to light this year.

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Menorahs and Mezuzahs • Chanukah • Ep. 158

Dec 10, 2020

10:47

The Al HaNissim we add to davening speaks almost entirely about the victory over the Greeks. Yet when the Gemara asks "What is Chanukah?", it answers with the oil. Which miracle is the real one, and why do the two sources seem to disagree? The answer starts with what makes any miracle significant. Then comes a small halacha that raised a second question: why is the menorah placed opposite the mezuzah, so that we stand surrounded by mitzvos? One idea about what the Greeks wanted answers both.

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Holy Help From Above • Parshas Vayishlach • Ep. 157

Dec 3, 2020

7:24

Hashem runs everything except free will, the saying goes, and how another person chooses to live is up to him. But is that the whole picture? A Chazon Ish surprised Rabbi Asaf Prisman this week, about who actually holds the decisions between right and wrong, and what that means when we daven for a friend or a child. Then comes a London lawyer in deep trouble, who had once sworn he would never ask Hashem for anything again, and the moment that promise was tested.

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Maximize the impact of davening • Parshas Vayetzei • Ep. 156

Nov 27, 2020

14:02

A daughter begs a doctor to come to her sick mother, and he keeps pausing to ask which tie goes better with which jacket. Something similar sits in Parshas Vayetzei. Rachel cries out to Yaakov for children, and he answers her sharply, with Rashi spelling out his words. How could Yaakov speak that way to a wife in pain, and why is his answer not even fully accurate? The Malbim on Chana's tefillah points to what Yaakov may have wanted Rachel to feel, and it reaches every request we bring to Hashem.

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The Brachos • Parshas Toldos • Ep. 155

Nov 20, 2020

8:25

Why would Yitzchak want to give the brachos to Esav when he knew Yaakov stood higher? And how could Esav, so deep in this world, believe he had a share in Olam HaBa too? Rav Moshe Feinstein reads the second explanation of Rashi on the twins fighting in the womb and finds one mistaken assumption sitting behind both questions. It is an assumption any of us can slip into without noticing, in the middle of our own avodas Hashem.

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Freedom of Choice vs Sold Game • Parshas Toldos • Ep. 154

Nov 19, 2020

13:59

If Esav leaned toward idol worship before he was even born, where was his freedom of choice? Rashi says the twins were already pushing in Rivka's womb, one toward the doors of Torah and one toward avodah zarah. The Rambam seems to say both things: in Hilchos Deos that traits are inborn, and in Hilchos Teshuva that every person chooses who to be. How can both be true, and what was Yitzchak thinking when he prepared to bless Esav? Your own natural temperament looks different once the two are put side by side.

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True Farmer Story • Parshas Chayei Sarah • Ep. 153

Nov 12, 2020

10:29

A talented farmer in the Jordan Valley hears his Rav speak about Shemitah and makes an offer: he will keep it, but only if the Rav guarantees that Hashem will take care of him. The Rav is frightened by the responsibility and brings the question to Rav Elyashiv. What he is allowed to promise, and what the farmer decides to do with it, starts a year that every farmer around him is watching and mocking. The story comes from Emunah Sheleimah. The year closes with a car with a very pointed name, and a lesson in taking a step against the current.

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Not to Judge • Parshas Vayera • Ep. 152

Nov 5, 2020

11:08

The better you are at something, the harder it is to be patient with someone who isn't. A person who is always on time can't understand lateness, and one who is careful with every detail judges those who aren't. Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky asks why the Torah places Avraham's lavish hospitality right beside the destruction of Sdom, and why Avraham, of all people, argues on behalf of Sdom's people. A mashal of two closed doors, with a beautiful voice behind one and a poor voice behind the other, holds the key.

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Lech Lecha: A True Eved Hashem • Parshas Lech Lecha • Ep. 151

Oct 29, 2020

14:28

Leaving Charan is counted among Avraham's ten tests. But if Hashem Himself told any of us to leave home, circumcise ourselves or bring a son, wouldn't we simply obey? What made these tests so hard? The Gemara in Berachos has Yeshayahu telling King Chizkiyahu he will lose his place in the World to Come, and the reason is surprising. Rav Chaim Shmulevitz reads it as the key to Avraham's tests, and even to Shaul's lost kingdom and the drinking of Purim. Where does "doing the math" quietly cost us our service of Hashem?

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Emulating Hashem’s Middos (story) • Parshas Noach • Ep. 150

Oct 22, 2020

7:02

A seminary girl on a summer program feels unwell and heads back to Yerushalayim alone. A last-minute request for a photograph sends her onto another bus, she falls asleep, and she wakes up at night in a neighborhood she doesn't recognize, with the buses stopped and her phone dead. She picks a door and knocks. What she hears when it opens leaves her speechless. It's a true, second-hand story about the middah of appreciating what others give you, and how small habits of kindness toward Hashem's creations can matter in ways we never plan for.

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Steaks, Wine & Spirituality • Parshas Bereishis • Ep. 149

Oct 15, 2020

12:49

According to the Gemara in Sanhedrin, the angels roasted meat for Adam HaRishon in Gan Eden and strained his wine. He had everything, before he had passed a single test. Then he sinned, and the consequences were hard work for bread and a return to dust. What do those two consequences have to do with eating from the Eitz HaDaas? The Ramchal explains why Adam had everything, and what changed. A wealthy man offers to add bedrooms to Rav Chaim Kanievsky's small apartment, and the reply from the Rebbetzin, and then from Rav Chaim, is not what he expected.

81

Zman Simchaseinu • Sukkos • Ep. 148

Oct 3, 2020

12:36

Why do we read Koheles, with its cry of "hevel havalim," on Sukkos, the holiday the Torah calls Zman Simchaseinu? And why would the Torah send us out of our comfortable homes into a shaky hut at the very moment we are meant to be happiest? Some say Koheles is read to keep the joy from going too far. The Gemara in Shabbos shows Koheles praising simcha in one chapter and dismissing it in another. Which kind of happiness is being praised, and which one dismissed? Everything we chase this season hangs on the answer.

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The Higher House • Sukkos • Ep. 147

Oct 2, 2020

12:05

Avraham called the Beis HaMikdash a mountain. Yitzchak called it a field. Yaakov called it a house. Why would Yaakov describe the holiest place as something so ordinary? And why do the three Regalim line up with the three Avos, with Sukkos tied to Yaakov, who made booths for his animals? Even a simple detail like saying the bracha of the Sukkah every day, while we say no bracha on matzah after the first night of Pesach, points the way. A bus company's bonus for accident-free months, and one driver's claim for his share, brings it down to earth.

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Life's Elevator Journey • Yom Kippur • Ep. 146

Sep 25, 2020

14:08

The Ramban says the shofar stands for judgment, yet the pesukim we say about it in the Shemoneh Esrei of Rosh Hashanah speak entirely of mercy. Which is it? And what does it mean that we blow twice to confuse the Satan, or that on Yom Kippur we "bribe" him by afflicting ourselves? Rabbi Asaf Prisman works through both days, then turns to a Mesilas Yesharim on how much pleasure is too much. A guest pays a fortune for a hotel and is led into a bare, dark room, and his complaint to the manager gets a surprising reply.

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Mentally Preparing for Rosh Hashanah • Rosh Hashana • Ep. 145

Sep 11, 2020

13:44

Most of us walk into Rosh Hashanah with last year's record in our hands, and the Yetzer Hara is happy to read it back to us. But Hashem judged Yishmael "ba'asher hu sham," where he is now, and the angels still argued. Why was there anything to argue about, when Hashem is the true judge? And why does the Ben Sorer U'Moreh get the death penalty before he has done anything deserving of it? Then there is Rosh Hashanah coming before Yom Kippur. A rider, a hungry horse and a treasure at the end of the road make the point about the Ten Days.

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The secret to true happiness • Parshas Ki Savo • Ep. 144

Sep 4, 2020

17:32

Parshas Ki Savo ends its long list of curses with a surprising reason: because you did not serve Hashem with joy. But where in the Torah are we commanded to be joyful, and how can we be punished for missing something never asked of us? The Rambam in Sefer HaMitzvos, in the third mitzvah, offers a place to look. Before Rosh Hashanah, a Torah scholar comes home to find his house turned upside down and a book fund gone. His reaction startles the neighbors, and the story keeps going. What would it take to be happy no matter what?

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The wonderful war of life...bring it on • Parshas Ki Seitzei • Ep. 143

Aug 28, 2020

11:53

"When you go out to war against your enemies." Against whom else would anyone go to war? The Torah never wastes words, and the Tiferes Shlomo says these two extra words point to a war of a very particular kind. It also shifts how to read the old question of why Yaakov Avinu was not allowed to simply rest, and why David HaMelech in his old age was given a particular remedy. When life hits hard, most of us ask "why me?" A man jumps out of the dentist's chair in pain, and the dentist's reply says more than you would expect.

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Self judgment & believing in WAZE • Parshas Shoftim • Ep. 142

Aug 21, 2020

16:28

In Parshas Shoftim, the Ben Ish Chai reads "judges and officers at your gates" as a call to stand guard over our own eyes, ears and mouth. How honest is our own self-judgment in Elul? A businessman driving home through a violent storm finds the only hotel is twenty-five miles away. A gas station attendant sends him to an old age home out back, where a room has just opened up: an hour earlier, a ninety-five-year-old man had died in it. Why was he sent there, and what does it have to do with trusting a voice that says "turn left" when your gut says right?

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Elul Preparation Guide • Elul • Ep. 141

Aug 20, 2020

15:24

Rabbeinu Yonah in Shaarei Teshuva says that when you accept rebuke from the wise, you can leap from darkness to great light in one moment. Yet on Pirkei Avos, the same Rabbeinu Yonah says that if I am not for myself, nothing happens. Which is the real teshuva, a voice from outside or a push from within? For Rosh Chodesh Elul, Rabbi Asaf Prisman brings the Mesilas Yesharim's picture of walking at night to explain why both are needed. A story of a woman in Yerushalayim, sick for twenty years, closes on a turn nobody expected.

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The true purpose of the blessings • Parshas Reeh • Ep. 140

Aug 14, 2020

11:00

Parshas Re'eh sets a blessing and a curse side by side, yet the two are not worded the same. The curse comes "if you do not listen." The blessing carries no "if" at all. The Torah is usually exact, so why the difference, and what does Rashi's short comment say about it? Rav Ganzfried's Apiryon gives a picture from a parent's love. A man filling out a mortgage insurance form discovers something he had never noticed about his own life, and about how quickly we count what is going wrong.

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Fearing Hashem • Parshas Eikev • Ep. 139

Aug 6, 2020

12:09

The pasuk in Eikev says "Mah Hashem Elokecha shoel mei'imach," what does Hashem ask of you but to fear Him. The Gemara in Menachos reads the word "mah" as "me'ah," a hundred, and learns that we must say a hundred brachos every day. Who gave the Gemara the right to switch that word, and what does a hundred blessings have to do with fearing Hashem at all? The Divrei Yoel says the link is deeper than a wordplay, and it begins with what "fear" really means. For anyone who says brachos on autopilot, it reframes the whole day.

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Getting into the Tisha B'Av Mindset • Tisha B'Av • Ep. 138

Jul 23, 2020

12:32

Rashi says Bnei Yisrael gave Moshe the wrong answer. He offered judges to share his burden, they called it a good idea, and Rashi faults them for it. Why is agreeing a failing? And how could Moshe's cry of "Eicha, how can I carry you alone" begin a chain that ended with the Eicha we read on Tisha B'Av? The answer reaches anyone who has lost a din Torah or wanted a neighbor's house. Then a mother in Poland, whose only son was taken by the army, spends the night on a station bench waiting for him. The Chofetz Chaim took nearly an hour telling it before Tisha B'Av.

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Pure motivation • Parshas Masei • Ep. 137

Jul 16, 2020

11:39

A couple waits eighteen years for a child. Then, when the boy turns eighteen, he lands in the hospital, and his father steps out on Erev Shabbos to buy groceries, working on himself the whole way to accept what Hashem sends. What happens when he comes back to the ward is not what he expects. It connects to Parshas Masei: why did Bnei Yisrael need forty-two stops to reach Eretz Yisrael, and why does the Gemara in Berachos say Torah, the Land and the World to Come all come through hardship? What does hardship reveal about why we do what we do?

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Reflecting on the 17th of Tammuz • Three Weeks • Ep. 136

Jul 9, 2020

10:18

The Mishna in Taanis lists five calamities of the 17th of Tammuz, including the broken Luchos, and among them the Korban Tamid being stopped. Why is that the one sacrifice singled out, when every korban ended? The introduction to Ein Yaakov adds a stranger piece: one Tanna says the single pasuk that contains the whole Torah is the one about the Tamid, next to Shema Yisrael and "love your friend as yourself." What did that daily offering hold that the whole Torah leans on? A friend's anniversary gift that cost far more than he ever saw her spend gives a clue.

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Part of a bigger plan • Parshas Balak • Ep. 135

Jul 2, 2020

13:06

Bilam says the same sentence twice in Parshas Balak: even a house full of silver and gold, I can't go against Hashem. The first time it ends with "small or big." The second time it ends with "good or bad." Why the change? Between the two, a donkey speaks and a curse turns into a blessing. The answer touches every one of us who has pushed hard for something and watched it go the other way. Rabbi Asaf Prisman closes with a bag of fresh buns at the end of the war, and a line Moshe heard at Sinai.

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Maximizing enjoyment in this world • Parshas Emor • Ep. 127

May 8, 2020

13:20

The man tasted like anything a person wanted, and even the angels enjoyed it, yet Bnei Yisrael eventually said they couldn't stand it. Torah is described as sweeter than honey, but a Midrash Tanchuma says Hashem had to make a covenant over it because it is so hard. Midrashim also link the Omer offering to the man. How do these contradictions fit together?The Malbim offers a key that explains them all. It reaches the Omer, Sefiras HaOmer and the gap between doing a mitzvah and loving it. A young man excited about a shidduch gets an answer from his Rav that he did not expect.

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How to be a holy Jew • Parshas Kedoshim • Ep. 126

May 1, 2020

15:29

Does being holy mean walking away from every pleasure in this world? Parshas Kedoshim commands us to be holy, and Chazal read that as separating ourselves. Yet the Yerushalmi says we will have to answer for every permitted food we saw and refused. And why does the Torah follow "be holy" so quickly with respecting your parents?The Ramban draws a line that sorts out the Nazir, who is called holy and also called a sinner. The story is of a man, niftar only a week earlier, who once desperately needed a kidney, and what he did with that need.

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Sefiras HaOmer Utilizing Isolation for Contemplation • Sefiras Haomer • Ep. 125

Apr 24, 2020

14:38

Seven weeks, the pasuk says, and then it says it again. The counting of the Omer is stated twice, and it starts "from the morrow after the Shabbos," though Chazal tell us this means the day after the first day of Pesach. Why the repeat, and why the word Shabbos?A Zohar on Parshas Yisro about how Bnei Yisrael climbed out of Mitzrayim, one level at a time, answers both. Each day of Sefiras HaOmer gets a purpose. A mashal about a very frugal businessman who wanders from the back of a plane toward business class asks where we belong, and what we are doing to get there.

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Taking Responsibility and Embracing Emuna • Pesach • Ep. 124

Apr 14, 2020

11:47

When something needs doing, it is easy to wait for someone else to step up first. Why should it be me? The Tosefta in Berachos says that at the splitting of the sea, the tribes argued over who would go into the water first, and that this is why Yehudah earned the kingship.Was it only a leap of emunah, or did taking responsibility itself change them? A Yerushalmi in Bikurim, about a chasan and a pasuk about Esav, points the same way, and asks what taking responsibility does to the one who takes it.

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Sipping the Seder Pesach's 4 Cups of Wisdom • Pesach • Ep. 123

Apr 8, 2020

10:48

You drink the four cups at the Seder and say the short bracha after the wine, but you forget Yaaleh V'Yavo. Do you go back and say it again? By the usual rule, a bracha is repeated when the meal was obligatory, and the four cups are certainly obligatory. Yet no one seems to rule that way.Rav Shach offers a new angle on what exactly is obligating us that night. Then Rabbi Akiva Eger's teshuvah on women and the matzah seems to push against it, until one more distinction brings the two back together.

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Deciphering Hashem's Expectations in Pesach • Pesach • Ep. 122

Apr 3, 2020

14:42

The Haggadah opens by pointing at the matzah and calling it the poor man's bread, before it has said a word about why we eat it. Why start there, when we are about to sit like kings and drink like kings?A mashal about a king who meets a young shepherd on a hunting trip, makes him his treasurer, and then finds an unexpected locked room in his house gives the reason. Rabbi Asaf Prisman connects it to a banner he saw outside a shul during the lockdown, and to what it might mean to prepare for Pesach in the heart before the kitchen.

Prism of Torah

Prism of Torah

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