Weekly Newsletter Volume 4, Issue 12

December 30, 2023; 18 Teiveis, 5784 Sponsored anonymously L’Ilui Nishmas Sara Eidel Bas Mordechai

And he (Yaakov) said, ‘Swear to me.’  And he (Yoseph) swore to him.  Then Yisrael (Yaakov) bowed at the head of the bed.” (Bereishis 47:31)  This verse discusses Yaakov Avinu’s desire to be buried in the land of Israel and his insistence that Yoseph swear to bury him there. 

It is interesting to note that in the prior verse, Yoseph had already given his father his word that he would bury him in Israel.  Why did Yaakov insist that Yoseph swear to it? ...

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Weekly Newsletter Volume 4, Issue 11

December 23, 2023; 11 Teiveis, 5784 Sponsored anonymously L’Ilui Nishmas Sara Eidel Bas Mordechai

The Gerrer Rebbe, Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847-1906), author of the Sfas Emes lived and led his Chassidus in Tsarist Russia which was a very difficult time for the Jewish people.

The Jews of Tsarist Russia endured horrible mistreatment under Tsar Nicolai the First. In 1827, through the issue of “The Cantonist Decree”, he tried to convert young Jewish children by forcibly placing them on a path to become Russian soldiers where the chances of remaining Frum (observantly Jewish) were perilously thin...

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Weekly Newsletter Volume 4, Issue 10

December 16, 2023; 4 Teiveis, 5784 Sponsored anonymously L’Ilui Nishmas Sara Eidel Bas Mordechai

And he [Yosef] turned away from them [the brothers] and wept, then returned to them and spoke to them; and he took Shimon from among them and imprisoned him before their eyes.” (Bereishis 42:24)

There is a fascinating Midrash (Midrash Tanchuma in Vayigash 4) that captures the conversation between Shimon and his brothers at the moment that Yosef, disguised as the Viceroy of Egypt, took Shimon away and imprisoned him....

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