Parsha Moment

An understanding of why the students realize that it was time to say the morning shema and their teachers did not

Why is the first question of the four questions about the obligation of dipping? To impress upon the parents that customs are of great significance when it comes to educating the next generation

The Torah informs us that God promised Abraham that he would be blessed with many offspring and in fact he only had one son Isaac how do we explain this? The blessing was in terms of quality not quantity The one son Isaac was deemed to be as great as many children

What was the blessing that Aaron gave to the Jewish people

Why didn't Achashvwresh no what to do with vashti?

The word magilla means Revelation. Besides the events that took place on Purim were not miraculous they also did not occur directly one event after the other. And it was only when it was all written down could we see and connect the dots between one event and the other. Therefore it is called a Megila because by the writing of it we now saw clearly how all of this had been orchestrated by God

Who wrote the megilla? It was written by the men of the Great Assembly and then it was copied by the Persians and that is why hashem's name is not mentioned because the Persians would have deleted hashem's name and in its place they would have placed the name of their idols

We explain why the first sacrifices to be discussed are those that are a donation by an individual. And we don't discuss initially the communal sacrifices or the individual who needs to bring a sacrifice like a sin offering. The basic answer is because the first sacrifices brought by the Jewish people were the individual bringing a donation of a sacrifice

Why in the opening verse is there a small alef in the word vayikra? It corresponds to the large alef found in divrei hayamim by the name Adam. The significance of that is discussed

Why do young children begin learning chumash with the laws of the sacrifices? To explain the concept of those that are pure ie the children should study about the pure sacrifices

Vayikra is the most difficult sefer to comprehend

At the end of every section of the Torah we are told the numerical number of verses in the section and usually it is a Hebrew word. This week's portion there is no mention and the question is why

Earlier we learned that Moshe dressed the priests in all of their garments. In this week's portion he only dressed them in their tunic. Why the difference? Earlier he was training them and getting them ready for service so he had to teach them how to dress properly. This week's portion they know what to do he is simply inaugurating them in the service and therefore was sufficient to dress them in...

Why why are we not told what the gold was used for? There was not enough gold collected and a moshe had to supplement the gold from his own pocket therefore there was no need to be told what the gold was used for as no one could suspect that Moshe was taking the gold for himself

Why why do we only make mention of gold silver and copper? These items are measured by weight. The idea of the weight of something speaks to action without deep thought. This impresses upon us that even doing something following the instructions of Moshe even though we may not have the correct intentions or deeper meaning to our actions they all will count in the building of the Tabernacle

The word mishkan is similar to the word mashkon collateral this is to teach us that when Hashem took the two temples back it was only temporary and once we will merit then just like collateral is returned likewise the temple will be returned as well

We are told that betzalel built the ark by himself. Rashi says that cannot be taken literally because the ark included the cover which was a very thick piece of gold that wasn't impossible for one person to pick up. Therefore when it says betzalel built the ark it cannot be taken at face value

We discuss the difference between men and women when it came to giving donations to building the Tabernacle

Why are we told that we should work for 6 days and rest on the 7th? To teach us that the Tabernacle could not be built on Shabbat. And also to teach us that there must be unity between Jews during the 6 days of work as well

Rashi informs us that Moshe gathered the Jewish people the day after Yom Kippur. How does Rashi know that? Since the verse says that he gathered them meaning they were not together as a group. If the events of this week's portion occurred on the day that Moshe descended the mountain the Jewish people were waiting for him there and there was no need to gather them. The very fact that he needed to g...

On the one hand we are told that Elijah the prophet was answered when he prayed the afternoon service. On the other hand it is written that the afternoon service is a time of strict justice. How do we reconcile these differences? If a person is able to overcome the strict justice and his prayers are accepted then the sky is the limit so to speak.

Hashem told Moshe you can see the back of me Rashi points out that this means the knot of the tefillin . Meaning the tefillin represents the idea of rememberance. The reason why a person sins is because he forgets Hashem. By remembering Hashem this will prevent a person from sinning and this is alluded to the tefillin that moishe was shown

Why was there ink left over didn't Hashem know exactly how much ink was needed? When we deal with holiness, holiness comes without limitation so there is always going to be something left over. And that extra ink is what Moshe used to smear upon his face

The giving of the half shekel was an atonement for the sale of Joseph. The sale of Joseph was a result of the hatred that the brothers had towards him. We rectify that by giving a half a coin that symbolizes that we are incomplete and only when we join and become one with another Jew can we be considered complete

Moshe was shown a coin of fire. He was unsure how by giving charity could this spring atonement. There are two ways of removing impurity One by immersing it in water. The other by placing it in fire. By placing it in fire it becomes a totally new entity. Likewise when one gives charity in a manner of a fire it creates a totally new entity