Thinkingaboutme.org
9 years of Parasha articles.
THE ART OF SUBSERVIENCE
click vayera 2024 for download THE ART OF SUBSERVIENCE We learn from the life of Avraham Avinu that his journey was marked by a series of ten trials, beginning with a call to leave his past behind and finishing with the last test, the ultimate challenge of relinquishing his future. The first test—leaving his homeland—required…
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THE ART OF BEING YOU
click lech lecha 2024 final to download THE ART OF BEING YOU The question we need to ask in the very beginning of the parasha is why the order seems off. G-d asks Avraham to leave his land, his birthplace and his father’s home. Geographically, the order is backwards. You first leave your father’s home,…
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Sukkot : The Happiness WorkShack
click sukkot 2024 to download Sukkot : The Happiness WorkShack The hardest Mitzvah in the Torah, according to the Vilna Gaon, is to be happy non-stop, 24/7, on Sukkot holiday. Sukkot is that time of year when we move out of our cozy homes into a little booth, eat outside like we’re on a camping…
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THE ART OF MEANING WHAT YOU SAY
click yom kippur 2024 to download THE ART OF MEANING WHAT YOU SAY The happiest moment of the year is the Shehechianu blessing during Kol Nidrei. That first moment of the Holy Day is so powerful, it’s worth living 70 years just to experience it. It’s as if, for that single moment, it’s worth coming…
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THE ART OF HAVING A SHANA TOVA
click rosh hashana 2024 for download THE ART OF HAVING A SHANA TOVA The choice of an apple on Rosh Hashanah is no accident. The apple, more than any other fruit, is closely tied to the blessing we offer each other: שנה טובה ומתוקה , “May you have a good and sweet year.” יהי רצון…
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THE ART OF GRATITUDE AND REDEMPTION
click ki tavo 2024 for download THE ART OF GRATITUDE AND REDEMPTION The reason we read Parshat Ki Tavo, with its barrage of curses, before Rosh Hashanah is rooted in the principle of “Tichleh shanah v’klaloteha”—let the old year and its curses fade into history—so we can step into the new year with “Tachel shanah…
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THE ART OF STAYING IN YOUR OWN LANE
click ki tetze 2024 for download THE ART OF STAYING IN YOUR OWN LANE In Parashat Ki Tetze, we find the mitzvah not to plow with an ox and a donkey together. The reason for this according to the Daat Zekenim Baal Hatosafot is simple yet profound—it’s not fair to the donkey that the ox…
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THE ART OF COMMUNAL RESPONSIBILITY
click shoftim 2024 to download THE ART OF COMMUNAL RESPONSIBILITY In this week’s parasha, the law of the Eglah Arufah is mentioned. This law applies when a murdered person is found in a field, and the killer is unknown. The elders and judges of the nearest city must measure the distance to determine which city…
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THE ART OF USING AI
click re’eh 2024 to download THE ART OF USING AI Summer break, marrying off our first child of ten in Israel, and Parashat Reeh, is a great recipe for writer’s block. When creative juices are not flowing, I sometimes ask Chat Gpt for help. But being that I plan on working on adding some humor…
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THE ART OF SAYING SHEMA ON YOUR BED
click balak 2024 for download THE ART OF SAYING SHEMA ON YOUR BED The Sefer Hassidim writes that only if a person goes to sleep like a spiritual lion, can he wake up like a spiritual lion. He derives this from this week’s Parasha. The Passuk says in this week’s Parasha, הֶן־עָם֙ כְּלָבִ֣יא יָק֔וּם וְכַאֲרִ֖י…
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THE ART OF FIXING WHAT CAN’T BE FIXED
click korah 2024 to download THE ART OF FIXING WHAT CAN’T BE FIXED One of my favorite-of-all-times songs is the song of Mordechai ben David: אם אדם מאמין שאפשר לקלקל ודאי שאפשר לתקן – רק בשמחה אפשר לתקן. If a person believes that it is possible to ruin things… for sure he has to believe…
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THE ART OF DEESCALATION
click shlach 2024 to download THE ART OF DEESCALATION Tisha B’av is a night when we cry each year over the Destructions of the two Temples, because we cried the night the spies came back with their report, over nothing that warranted that we cry at all. וַיִּבְכּ֥וּ הָעָ֖ם בַּלַּ֥יְלָה הַהֽוּא And the Nation cried…
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THE ART OF OVERCOMING FRUSTRATION
click Bhaalotcha 2024 to download THE ART OF OVERCOMING FRUSTRATION Baruch Hashem, we get a Mazal Tov. My son got engaged! In the process, there were things that frustrated me. They frustrated me so much, I felt I needed to get out of the house a little and let out some steam. My car was…
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THE ART OF TAKING OFF YOUR VR GOGGLES
THE ART OF TAKING OFF YOUR VR GOGGLES click bamidbar 2024 to download So many people have questions in the Torah and keeping its laws. So many laws may feel outdated, hard to relate to. Why are the laws of Shabbat/Holiday so restricting? Why do people living out of Israel need to keep two days…
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THE ART OF SEEING THE GOOD
click behar 2024 for download THE ART OF SEEING THE GOOD Rashi at the outset of the Parasha writes that Har Sinai is mentioned by the Mitzvah of Shemittah to teach a lesson. Just like Shemittah, has so many details, that the Torah mentions, and all those details, were received by Moshe at Har Sinai……
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THE ART OF BEING CHOSEN
click Emor 2024 to download THE ART OF BEING CHOSEN Rabbi Yehuda Teriki said the following, wild story. There was a couple that lived in London. They brought up their only child with love. When their son became of marriageable age, they set him up with the greatest, sweetest, girl. The couple, together, bought a…
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THE ART OF BEING KEDOSHIM
click kedoshim 2024 to download THE ART OF BEING KEDOSHIM There are different opinions of what the hardest mitzvah in the Torah is. What’s so ironic is that this week’s parasha has almost all of those hardest mitzvoth in it. Why is that? The reason is because Kedoshim is the Parasha of those who are Kadosh,…
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THE ART OF BEING UNIQUE
click acharei mot 2024 to download THE ART OF BEING UNIQUE This weeks Haftarah, calls us all כושים , black people, in the literal sense of the word. R Eliezer Ben Hurkenus gives it a twist though. He says that when the Torah refers to a Jew as black, it means metaphorically. Just as the…
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THE ART OF RENEWAL
click shemini 2024 to download THE ART OF RENEWAL Big days are ahead of us. The whole month of Nissan, we don’t say Tahanun. This is because the whole month is considered Rosh Hodesh, as it says, הַחֹ֧דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֛ה לָכֶ֖ם רֹ֣אשׁ חֳדָשִׁ֑ים. The first 12 days, we don’t say Tahanun because those days are the…
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THE ART OF SEEING THE FINAL REDEMPTION
click Parah 2024 for download THE ART OF SEEING THE FINAL REDEMPTION This week, we read about the Red Heifer purification. The purpose of this reading is to be some sort of preparation for the Passover sacrifice. We read about purification in the Haftarah as well. This is for the sake of being ready…
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THE ART OF GIVING G-D THE KEYS
click Vayikra 2024 for download THE ART OF GIVING G-D THE KEYS The Gentiles know that the Jew is indestructible. When Haman fumed over Mordechai not bowing to him, he turned to his 365 advisors for help. He needed a plan to rid this Jew. No one had the solution. Except Zeresh, Haman’s wife. She…
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THE ART OF CARING
click pikudei 2024 to download THE ART OF CARING We just ran a campaign this week in our Yeshiva, Lev Aharon, that collected over a million dollars in two days, towards our building fund. I coached it. Together with the Rosh Yeshiva’s son Yitzhak, and Charityextra, and of course, the hand of Hashem, we were…
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THE ART OF BEING THE ETERNAL NATION
click vayakhel 2024 for download THE ART OF BEING THE ETERNAL NATION Things don’t look that bright for Israel, with Ramadan coming up, but we don’t fear. The Holocaust did not happen because we were weak physically as a people, or because we had no army. It did not happen because it made sense it…
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THE ART OF BEING YOU
click ki tisa 2024 to download THE ART OF BEING YOU The hardest thing after 120 is to meet the person you could have been. This world is the only chance your soul has for it to get close to G-d, and the only way is through G-d’s manual, His Torah. Hell is not a…
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THE ART OF BEING RELATABLE
click tezaveh 2024 for download THE ART OF BEING RELATABLE There is a concept that was talked a lot about when I was growing up in Yeshiva amongst the serious Yeshiva boys. An Olama Haba Masechta. What Masechta, tractate, are you going to master by heart, that wherever you go, you can review the Talmud,…
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THE ART OF BEING SPIRITUALLY CONNECTED
click terumah 2024 to download THE ART OF BEING SPIRITUALLY CONNECTED Here is one of the reasons why it is so hard for a Jew to be spiritual, but first, a famous joke. There was a group of researchers that were looking for someone to fly to outer space, to be their astronaut on their…
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THE ART OF BALANCING HISHTADLUT
click mishpatim 2024 for download THE ART OF BALANCING HISHTADLUT Probably the hardest question in life for the believing Jew is how much Hishtadlut, how much effort, should I invest? If everything is preordained, the future is already known to G-d, הכל צפוי (Avot 3 15) – then what efforts should I put into it…
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THE ART OF BEING A LIGHT TO ALL THE NATIONS
click YITRO 2024 for download THE ART OF BEING A LIGHT TO ALL THE NATIONS The Zionistic dream of Ben Gurion was that the State of Israel would be “a light to the nations”. “History did not spoil us with strength, wealth, spacious lands, or a large nation. But it gave us a unique ethical…
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THE ART OF HOLDING ON
click Beshalach 2024 for download THE ART OF HOLDING ON What would you do in your life differently if you knew you could not fail? is probably the most important question in coaching. The second most important question What would be the worst case scenario, in case what you would like to do does not…
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THE ART OF PARENTING TROUBLED TEENS
click Bo 2024 for download THE ART OF PARENTING TROUBLED TEENS One of the hard things to understand about the Egyptian exile is that the numbers don’t match. In this week’s Parasha, the Torah tells us that the Jews were in Egypt for 430 years. This contradicts the number of years that the Rabbis tell…
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THE ART OF LIVING A LIFE OF TUTIM
Click vaera 2024 for download THE ART OF LIVING A LIFE OF TUTIM Are you ready for goosebumps?! One of the first soldiers that got wounded in the Oct. 7th war, was one of the two, out of all his squad, that survived. All his friends were shot and died. He also got a bullet…
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THE ART OF REDIRECTING YOUR NATURE
click SHEMOT 2024 to download THE ART OF REDIRECTING YOUR NATURE The Tur rules the Halacha: You can do the mitzvah of circumcision with whatever utensil you want… even with a sharp stone, with glass, or with anything that can cut. But it is a special mitzvah to use an iron utensil, ברזל. (YD 264)…
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THE ART OF WAITING AND TRUSTING
click vayechi 2023 for download THE ART OF WAITING AND TRUSTING Before he died, Yaakov told his sons the secret of bringing the Mashiach: וַיִּקְרָ֥א יַעֲקֹ֖ב אֶל־בָּנָ֑יו וַיֹּ֗אמֶר הֵאָֽסְפוּ֙ וְאַגִּ֣ידָה לָכֶ֔ם אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־יִקְרָ֥א אֶתְכֶ֖ם בְּאַחֲרִ֥ית הַיָּמִֽים: At the end of days, you will need to come together. האספו. If you stay separated, Mashiach won’t come.…
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THE ART OF DISCONNECTING FROM YOUR NARRATIVE
click vayigash 2023 to download THE ART OF DISCONNECTING FROM YOUR NARRATIVE Living like a Jew means living with a constant smile. Every Friday Night in Shul, the Hazan refers to the Jewish people, as עַם מְדֻשְּׁנֵי ענֶג, a nation that is fattened with pleasure. Knowing that your Father has everything or can create everything…
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THE ART OF BUILDING A TEMPLE IN MY HEART
click miketz 2023 to download THE ART OF BUILDING A TEMPLE IN MY HEART Next week, we are going to fast on Erev Shabbat the unique fast of Assarah Betevet. It is the only time that we fast on Friday, on Erev Shabbat, for something that happened in the past. This fast commemorates the beginning…
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