Bais HaVaad on the Parsha

Presented By:  Rav Yechiel Bieberfeld Questions? Comments? We love feedback! Email us at info@baishavaad.org

Presented By: Rav Chaim Weg Questions? Comments? We love feedback! Email us at info@baishavaad.org

Presented By: Rav Yosef Greenwald Questions? Comments? We love feedback! Email us at info@baishavaad.org

And the necromancers did likewise with their whisperings to bring out the lice, but they were unable . . . Shemos 8:14 The Rambam ( Hil. Avodah Zarah 11) lists the types of witchcraft and sorcery that are forbidden by the Torah. He writes that all of these are lies and falsehoods; they have no real power and are only tricks and illusions used to fool people. This statement seems to contradict many...

Shall I go and call you a wet nurse from among the Ivri women, that she might nurse the child for you? Shemos 2:7 Because she brought him to many Egyptian women and he didn’t nurse, because he was destined to speak with the Shechinah . Rashi ibid. Why is a child subject to food prohibitions? The Gemara says in Yevamos that forbidden foods are metamtem es haleiv (create a spiritual blockage in the...

“So shall you say to Yosef, ‘Please, forgive now your brothers’ transgression and their sin, for they did evil to you.’” Bereishis 50:17 Yosef’s brothers ask him in their father’s name to forgive them for selling him, but the Torah never says that Yosef did so. According to Rabbeinu Bachya, he did not, so the asarah harugei malchus (the ten Sages killed by the Romans) were killed in atonement. How...

And it was when we ascended to your servant, my father . . . Bereishis 44:24 The Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer says that Yosef’s life was shortened because he did not protest when Yehuda referred to Yaakov multiple times as avdecha avi (your servant, my father). The Gemara (Kidushin 31b) and Shulchan Aruch (Y.D. 240) detail numerous aspects of the obligation of mora (awe for parents). For example, one ma...

I will guarantee him; from my hand you can demand him. If I do not bring him to you and stand him up before you, I will have sinned against you for all days. Bereishis 43:9 The Gemara enumerates three different kinds of areiv (guarantor) . The first is the standard areiv, where if the borrower doesn’t pay, the lender may collect from the areiv. The second is an areiv kablan, where the lender has t...

The Shulchan Aruch (O.C. 677:1) writes that if a person eats in one house and sleeps in another, he should light Chanukah candles where he sleeps. According to the Rama, he should light in the house in which he eats. The Mishnah Brurah writes that if one visits a friend for dinner one night but is not sleeping there, he still lights at home, because the Rama is referring to where one has a fixed l...

Please save me from my brother, from Eisav . . . Bereishis 32:12 The Gemara (Brachos 26b) derives from the pasuk of “ Vayifga bamakom ” in Parshas Vayeitzei (Bereishis 28:11) that Yaakov instituted the daily tefilah of Ma’ariv . In this pasuk in Parshas Vayishlach , Yaakov engages in tefilah b’eis tzarah (prayer in a time of crisis) and asks Hashem to save him. These two forms of tefilah parallel...

And he encountered (vayifga) the place and stayed there overnight because the sun had set . . . Bereishis 29:1 According to the Gemara (Brachos 26b), the word vayifga (from the root pegi’ah ) refers to tefilah , from which the Gemara derives that Yaakov established the practice of davening Ma’ariv. The Gemara also says (Brachos 27b) that Ma’ariv is optional, though Klal Yisrael accepted it as obli...

And Yaakov said to Yitzchak: I am Eisav, your firstborn. Bereishis 27:19 Yaakov Avinu engaged in deception multiple times to obtain what was rightfully his. Is such behavior permitted according to halacha? The Gemara (Berachos 5b) indicates that Rav Huna suffered financial loss because he did not give his sharecropper what he deserved, even though the sharecropper had acted dishonestly with Rav Hu...

And Avraham said to his servant . . . but you shall go to my land and to my birthplace, and you shall take a wife for my son, for Yitzchak. Bereishis 24:2,4 The Acharonim question how Yitzchak was permitted to have Eliezer serve as a shaliach (proxy) to marry Rivkah on his behalf. After all, the Gemara (Kiddushin 41a) states that it is forbidden to marry a woman without seeing her first to ensure...

And Hashem appeared to him in Elonei Mamrei, and he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day. Bereishis 18:1 According to the Midrash, Hashem visited Avraham following his bris milah to perform the mitzvah of bikur cholim. Although the Rambam ( Hilchos Avel 14:1) states that bikur cholim is considered a mitzvah derabanan, he writes that it also fulfills the mitzvah d’Oraisa o...

And there was a disagreement between the shepherds of Avraham and the shepherds of Lot.  (Bereishis 13:7) Lot’s shepherds were wicked, and they pastured their animals in fields belonging to others, so Avram’s shepherds rebuked them for committing robbery.” (Rashi ibid.) Rashi here implies that Avraham’s shepherds felt the mitzvah of tochachah (giving rebuke to a sinner) applies even to gentile sin...

And the earth became corrupt before G-d, and the earth became full of robbery. Bereishis 6:11 ‘Became corrupt’ is an expression of immorality and idolatry. Rashi ibid. In light of the violation of the standards of morality by the generation destroyed in the Flood as well as the lack of standards of modesty today, it behooves us to review the differences between a Jewish and non-Jewish marriage. Ac...

And Hashem Elokim formed man out of dirt from the ground, and He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life, and man became a living soul. Bereishis 2:7 The Gemara (Sanhedrin 38b) states that Hashem created Adam in stages. He first gathered dirt, then He formed it into a golem, then He stretched out its limbs, and finally He blew a neshamah into its nostrils. It seems from here that Adam Harishon...