Rabbi Jon 's Website and Blog

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E-Maggid

  • E-Maggid: Rewards of a Mitzvah

    As Parashat Chayei Sarah begins, Avraham sees to all the details of the burial of his wife Sarah.  In Judaism, burial is called chesed shel emet, or the most faithful type of kindness.  Reb Chaim of Tzernovitz taught that it's because of this mitzvah that the following chapter begins by saying that Adonai blessed Avraham in everything. Reb Chaim wonders about… Continue reading

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  • E-Maggid: You Speak to God, Not Us

    According to this week's parasha, Va-etchanan, after the Israelites heard the Ten Commandments directly from God, the leaders of the community who approached Moshe. They said:  "This day, we have seen that God can speak to a human being (adam) and that person lives (chai).  Now, why shall we die….?  For who of any flesh (basar) who has heard the living voice of… Continue reading

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  • E-Maggid: 42 Travels

    Parashat Mas'ei, the end of the book of Numbers, opens with an enumeration of the "goings-out for the travels" of the Israelite "troops" from Egypt to the edge of the Land of Israel.  Forty-one times the community set out.  The forty-second time will be the last, from east of the Jordan across into the land. What is… Continue reading

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  • E-Maggid: How to Argue

    Any dispute for the sake of Heaven has enduring value, and any dispute that is not for the Sake of Heaven has no enduring value.  What is an example of a dispute for the sake of Heaven?  The ongoing dispute between the School of Hillel and the School of Shammai.  What is an example of a… Continue reading

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  • E-Maggid: The Believing Game

    Speak to Aharon and say to him, "When you mount the lamps, let the seven lamps give light at the front of the menorah." Aharon did so; he mounted the lamps at the front of the menorah, as Adonai had commanded Moshe.  Now this is how the lampstand was made: it was hammered work (mik'shah) of… Continue reading

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  • E-Maggid: Halacha

    Why is Jewish law known as halacha – the walking?   Possibly, the term flows from the opening line of this week's Torah reading:  If you walk in My laws, and keep watch over My commandments, and do them… (Leviticus 26:3)   Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev taught that this verse describes stages in the performance of a mitzvah.… Continue reading

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  • E-Maggid: What Shall We Eat?

    From the insights of the Netivot Shalom ("Paths of Peace") from Rav Shalom Noach Barzovsky, the Slonimer Rebbe: In this week's parasha, Behar, we learn the mitzvah of the Shabbaton – the sabbatical of the land.  Every seventh year, the Land of Israel is to rest.  People are to eat simply what grows naturally from the land in that year.… Continue reading

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  • E-Maggid: Counting Time

    Last week we began the period of the year known as Sefirat Ha-Omer, the counting of the omer.  Between Pesach and Shavuot, we count fifty days to trace our journey from slavery to receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai.  This chasidic story is about counting time.  What can we learn from it in an age when the… Continue reading

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  • E-Maggid: Song of the Sea

    According to tradition, the crossing of the Sea of Reeds is celebrated on the seventh day of Pesach.  In services that morning we will read Shirat Hayam, the Song of the Sea.  In the middle of the song is the most familiar quotation:  Mi cha-mocha ba-elim Adonai, "Who is like You, Adonai?"   The Torah tells us that "Moshe… Continue reading

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  • E-Maggid: Cleaning Out Chametz

    Three takes on chametz as we clean and prepare our homes for Pesach:  1.  Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad Chasidism, taught that chametz represents haughtiness.  Yeast comes into the mixture of simple flour and water, and it starts eating.  The byproducts are gases that become trapped in the dough and expand it.  So… Continue reading

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  • E-Maggid: Aharon’s Words

    Who is Aharon, the brother of Moshe?  It must have been hard to have his life taken over at some point by an unusual and extreme mission:  just to be a better mouth for Moshe.  As they go together to Pharaoh, Aharon is fully there, but the words are not his own.  But in this… Continue reading

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  • E-Maggid: What Is Freedom?

    "Tell old Pharaoh: Let My people go." Everyone knows the words of the old spiritual. But in the Torah, the words are a bit different. Say to him: Adonai, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you to say: Let My people go so they may serve Me in the wilderness (Exodus 7:16).… Continue reading

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