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About the Author
Rabbi Zev Leff
Rabbi Zev Leff is Rav of Moshav Matisyahu, and a renowned lecturer and educator. He is the author of Shiurei Bina - Outlooks & Insights on the Weekly Torah Portion, and most recently, Shemoneh Esrei: The Depth and Beauty of Our Daily Tefillah, published by Targum Press. Visit his website online at www.rabbileff.net.
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Fences of Holiness
by Rabbi Zev LeffWithout implementing safety measures, we could fall to the lowest levels.
Two Aspects of the Mishkan
by Rabbi Zev LeffRabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonasan: The name Betzalel indicates his wisdom, for when God told Moses to tell Betzalel to ...
The Blessing of Self Knowledge
by Rabbi Zev Leff"...Each according to his own blessing." (Genesis 49 28) The Sages tell us that Jacob wished to reveal the keitz, the time of the final redemption, ...
Four Free Days
by Rabbi Zev LeffThe Midrash (Yalkut Emor 651) comments on the verse, "You should take for you on the first day," that Sukkot is the first day for the accounting of ...
Yom Kippur: Confession and Redemption
by Rabbi Zev LeffBeset by many evils and troubles, they will say, "It is because God is no longer with me that these evil things have befallen me." On that day I ...
Do not separate From the community
by Rabbi Zev LeffToday you are all standing before the Lord your God.(Deut. 29:9) After the 98 curses that the Jewish people heard at the end of Parshas Ki Tavo, ...
First and Foremost
by Rabbi Zev Leff"You shall take of every fruit of the ground produced by the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You must place it in a basket, and go to the ...
Fundamentals of Education
by Rabbi Zev Leff"When a man has a wayward, rebellious son, who does not obey his father and mother, they shall have him flogged. If he still does not listen to ...
A Perspective on Fear
by Rabbi Zev Leff"When you go out to war against your enemy and you see horses and chariots, an army greater than you, do not fear them, for the Lord your God, Who ...
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Living to Work_
by Rabbi Zev LeffWork can be fulfilling and ennobling, but only when it is purposeful and with a goal.
The Love of Kindness
by Rabbi Zev Leff"Grant truth to Jacob, kindness to Abraham, as you swore to our forefathers from ancient times."(Micha 7:20) In the first, second, fourth, and ...
Loving the Convert
by Rabbi Zev Leff"...[God] loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. You must also show love toward the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of ...
Double Sin, Double Comfort
by Rabbi Zev LeffThey sinned doubly, as it says, "Jerusalem has sinned a sin." And they were stricken doubly, as it says, "She has received double for her sins." And ...
Torah as the Totality of God's Will
by Rabbi Zev Leff"Who is the wise man that may understand this, and who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken that he may declare it? Why has the land ...
In the Eyes of Man and God
by Rabbi Zev LeffThe children of God and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Elazar the Kohen, and to the leaders of the assembly, saying, "Ataroth, Dibon, ...
The Function of a Leader
by Rabbi Zev LeffWhen Moses entreated God to appoint a leader to succeed him, God answered, "Before you command Me concerning My children, command My children ...
The Essence of the Jewish People
by Rabbi Zev LeffGod said to Balaam, "You shall not go with them! You shall not curse the people, for it is blessed." (Numbers 22:12) Ibn Ezra asks why God did not ...
Reasons and Tastes
by Rabbi Zev LeffThe Midrash (Kohelles Rabba 7:23) relates that King Solomon made a special effort to understand the reasons for para adumah (red heifer). In the end ...
Peace and Strife
by Rabbi Zev LeffAny dispute that is for the sake of Heaven will have a constructive outcome; but one that is not for the sake of Heaven will not have a constructive ...
Sin of the Spies - Who's in Charge?
by Rabbi Zev Leff"Moses renamed Hoshea son of Nun, 'Joshua.' " (Numbers 13:16) Prior to the departure of the 12 spies, Moses changed the name of his disciple Hoshea ...
Consistency and Faithfulness
by Rabbi Zev Leff"When the Ark would travel, Moses would say, 'Arise God, and let Your foes be scattered, let those who hate You flee from before You.' And when ...
The Nazir: a Holy Sinner
by Rabbi Zev Leff"All the days of his abstinence, he is holy to God." (Numbers 6:8) "The Kohen shall make one as a sin-offering and one as an elevation-offering, ...
Like a Desert
by Rabbi Zev Leff"And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai desert": Anyone who does not make himself hefker (ownerless) like the desert cannot acquire wisdom or Torah, ...
Toiling in Torah
by Rabbi Zev Leff"If you walk in My statutes..." (Leviticus 26:3) Walking in God's statutes, say the Sages, refers to toiling in Torah. Upon that toil, God's ...
Adapting to imperfection
by Rabbi Zev Leff"And if you shall say, what will we eat in the seventh year, for we have not planted or gathered in our grain [due to the restrictions of Shmitah], ...
Striving For Perfection
by Rabbi Zev LeffSforno explains that even though there are blemishes that actually increase the strength and value of an animal, they nevertheless render the animal ...
The Individual and the Group
by Rabbi Zev LeffThe Talmud (Sotah 14a) instructs us in the Mitzvah of imitating God in all His ways. Just as God clothes the naked, visits the sick, comforts ...
Correcting Selfishness
by Rabbi Zev LeffWhen you arrive in the land of Canaan that I give you as a possession, I will place a tzora'as affliction upon a house in the land of your ...
Life and Death in the Hands of the Tongue
by Rabbi Zev LeffWhy do we make a point to remember Miriam speaking badly about Moses?
Divine Service: Law and Ecstasy
by Rabbi Zev Leff"The sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, each took his fire pan. They put fire in them and placed incense upon it, and they brought before God an alien ...
The Gates of Prayer
by Rabbi Zev Leff"And God called to Moses..." (Leviticus 1:1) Rosh in his commentary to the Torah explains that the aleph in the word vayikra, with which the third ...
Two Aspects of the Mishkan
by Rabbi Zev LeffRabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonasan: The name Betzalel indicates his wisdom, for when God told Moses to tell Betzalel to ...
Invoking the Thirteen Attributes
by Rabbi Zev LeffFollowing God's promise not to destroy the Jewish people, after the sin of the Golden Calf, Moses requested that God make known to him the qualities ...
The Missing Moses
by Rabbi Zev LeffNow, if you would, please forgive their sin. If not, You can blot me out from the book that you have written. (Exodus 32:32) Moses' name is not ...
Three Days in the Desert
by Rabbi Zev Leff"I declare that I will bring you out of the wretchedness of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizites, Hivites and ...
Light Unto the Nations
by Rabbi Zev Leff"The Israelites [also] did as Moses had said. They requested silver and gold articles and clothing from the Egyptians. God made the Egyptians ...
Torah, Nature and Love of God
by Rabbi Zev Leff"The Nile will swarm with frogs, and when they emerge, they will be in your palace, in your bedroom, and [even] in your bed. [They will also be in] ...
Living to Work
by Rabbi Zev Leff"The Egyptians started to make the Israelites do labor designated to break their bodies." (Exodus 1:13) In order to keep the Israelites occupied so ...
Joseph's "sweet revenge"
by Rabbi Zev Leff"...And they said, 'Perhaps Joseph will nurse hatred against us...' " (Genesis 50:15) Upon returning from burying Jacob, Joseph's brothers sensed ...
Thanking God for Misfortune and Deliverance
by Rabbi Zev LeffRabbeinu Yona writes in Sha'arei Teshuva: When one receives God's chastisement and as a consequence improves his ways, it is proper for him to ...
Yosef and His Brothers: The Anatomy of a Sale
by Rabbi Zev Leff"...and Joseph would bring evil reports about them to their father." (Genesis 37:2) Just as the Halachic sections of the written Torah were meant ...
Its ways are ways of pleasantness
by Rabbi Zev Leff"And Yaakov was very frightened and distressed." (Genesis 32:7) Rashi comments that Yaakov was frightened lest he or members of his family be ...
The Jewish Home
by Rabbi Zev LeffNot like Avraham who called [the Temple] "mountain," and not like Yitzhak who called it "field," but rather like Yaakov who called it "house"... ...
