By Zachary Fish “Trauma” is a buzzword nowadays. In the modern language around trauma and trigger warnings, the instinct is often to avoid revisiting painful experiences and, as much as possible, leave them in the past. In this week’s parsha, though, the Torah tells us something almost opposite: וזכרת את כל הדרך אשר הוליכך ה׳ אלהיך זה ארבעים שנה במדבר למען ענתך לנסתך לדעת את אשר בלבבך התשמר מצותו אם לא. ויענך וירעבך ויאכלך את המן אשר לא ידעת ולא ידעון אבתיך למען הודיעך כי לא

That is the vision of Vaetchanan. To keep yearning. To keep believing. To keep looking beyond what our eyes immediately see. To refuse despair, even when hope feels irrational.

People become great because they take what they have and work exceptionally hard. ... If an individual surrounds himself with great people, he will look to see what those great people did to succeed and implement those lessons into his own life.

Parashat Matot-Masei not only marks the end of Bamidbar but also that of the mainstream, standard Torah. Next week, we will begin Devarim, the fifth book of the Pentateuch and one different in character and nature. Devarim differs from the previous parts, both in terms of the perspective (Moshe’s first person, vs Hashem’s third person), content (Mishne Torah vs the OG), and perhaps authorship (Moshe Rabbeinu with God’s command [see Abarbanel] vs God Himself). As such, it wou

By Judah Graber In Bamidbar 27:18, Hashem asks Moshe to appoint Yehoshua as the next leader of Klal Yisrael: “וַיֹּאמֶר ה׳ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה קַח־לְךָ אֶת־יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בִּן־נוּן אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר־רוּחַ בּוֹ וְסָמַכְתָּ אֶת־יָדְךָ עָלָיו.” The Netziv highlights the interesting lashon of “קַח־לְךָ”- “take for yourself.” What does it mean, “for yourself”? As opposed to whom? He explains that it means for Moshe’s own hana’ah, his own pleasure, because Yehoshua was Moshe’s talmid muvhak, and the

By Tuvia Goldstein “We use our words and we don’t hit!” Those words, oft-cited by my mother in a house full of boys, are often the classic message derived from משה’s striking the rock and his subsequent punishment. This idea comes from none other than רש''י, who explains that משה’s great sin was in not abiding ה'’s directive of ודברתם אל הסלע. Since משה hit the rock instead, he and אהרן were punished, barring them from entering א"י. But is that really why they were punished?

By Ian Schwartz This week’s parsha features the rare musical note shalshalet. As we know, the shalshalet appears only three times in the entire Torah, and in our parsha it appears on the word “Vayima’ein”—“and he refused,” describing Yosef’s refusal of Eshet Potiphar. I once heard a beautiful explanation of this shalshalet from Rav YY Jacobson. Chazal tell us: “Eileh toldos Yaakov, Yosef.” Everything that happened to Yaakov happened to Yosef. Yosef experienced the same trials

By Rabbi Josh Appel Winston Churchill often spoke of his personal battles with what he called his “Black Dog,” a metaphor for the depression that followed him through much of his life. For a man celebrated as a beacon of resilience during some of the darkest days of human history, this internal battle was no less tumultuous than the external war he helped to win. This brings us to Yaakov, who also faced a mysterious and lonely battle in the dead of night: Jacob was left alone

I wanted to look at the name יוסף itself and see what the essence of this name is. If you look at the pesukim where Rachel Names Yosef, it says. ותהר ותלד בן ותאמר אסף אלקים את־חרפתי She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” ותקרא את־שמו יוסף לאמר יסף ה׳ לי בן אחר So she named him Joseph, saying, “May Hashem add another son for me.” ויהי כאשר ילדה רחל את־יוסף ויאמר יעקב אל־לבן שלחני ואלכה אל־מקומי ולארצי After Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob sai

By Mordy Blau When looking through the past couple of parshiot, I noticed something very interesting. Whenever Avraham is going on his journey to a new location, the Torah emphasizes that he went with Sarah, his wife. We see this first at the end of Lech Lecha when Avraham leaves for Ur Kasdim. Terach took Avraham, Lot, and Sarah—אשת אברם. וַיִּקַּ֨ח תֶּ֜רַח אֶת־אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֗וֹ וְאֶת־ל֤וֹט בֶּן־הָרָן֙ בֶּן־בְּנ֔וֹ וְאֵת֙ שָׂרַ֣י כַּלָּת֔וֹ אֵ֖שֶׁת אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֑וֹ וַיֵּצְא֨ו

By Seth Jacobs Avraham and Yitzchak were walking together towards הר המוריה. The wheels in יצחק’s head were turning, and he was beginning to realize what was happening. He turned to אברהם and said "אבי" my father and then remained quiet, waiting for a response. The כלי יקר explains that this was actually a question. יצחק wanted to see whether אברהם still saw him as a son, or whether he no longer cared and was acting out of his own volition. When אברהם responded "הנני בני",