Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi

  Mayim Aḥaronim Sod HaParasha As part of our ongoing series “Simplifying the Sod,” Join us for this thought-provoking exploration of Torah’s hidden wisdom—and discover why you may never look at quite the same way again.    

  Shvilei Pinchas In this fascinating Sunday morning , we journey through four generations—Dor Enosh, the generation of the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and Sedom—whose souls, according to the teachings of the Arizal and the Megaleh Amukot, were given repeated opportunities for spiritual correction. We follow their journey into Egypt, the iron furnace, and discover why their tikkun remained unf...

  But the most intriguing question may be why Avraham waited at all. The Gemara teaches that Avraham observed the entire Torah centuries before it was given at Sinai. If so, why didn’t he perform Brit Milah on his own? The answer takes us to one of Judaism’s most profound principles: — greater is the one who fulfills a commandment than one who acts voluntarily. There is a fundamental differen...

What does it truly mean to be a mother? And what can Rachel Imeinu teach us about compassion, sacrifice, and the extraordinary power of a single act of kindness? In Thursday morning’s Breakfast & Class, we share a beautiful insight inspired by Chantelle, who had prepared a presentation for a challah bake honoring Rachel Imeinu’s yahrzeit on the eleventh of Cheshvan. She noticed that this is th...

  Gam zu letovah Ve’anokhi afar va’efer From Avraham’s miraculous victory over powerful armies to Rabbi Ḥanina’s fearless encounter with a sorceress, and the remarkable faith of the Brisker Rav while escaping Nazi Europe, we explore the extraordinary power of — there is nothing besides HaShem. What does it really mean to recognize that our intelligence, strength, accomplishments, and even our...

What if someone could tell you your future—would knowing it help you live better today? A surprising encounter at a Laniado Hospital dinner, a family story from India in 1948, and an astrological recording made for my eighteenth birthday open this journey into the less familiar chapters of Avraham’s life. We revisit Teraḥ’s idol shop, Nimrod’s furnace, Haran’s fatal hesitation, and Avraham’s retur...

  “Lech Lecha — Go forth from your land, your birthplace, and your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.” nisayon betoch nisayon Along the way, we encounter two remarkable stories from the Gemara. Rabbi Yosef returns from a glimpse of the World to Come declaring, His father responds, And Rabbi Elazar ben Pedat, suffering in terrible poverty, asks HaShem why his life must be so dif...

  THE RAINBOW — WHEN HEAVEN PUT DOWN ITS BOW Parashat Noaḥ  In this morning’s , we explore the Ramban’s beautiful explanation of the rainbow as a weapon turned away in peace, the extraordinary merit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai, and the mystical significance of the rainbow’s three principal colors, representing Avraham, Yitzḥak, and Yaakov. We discover why unity does not require uniformity,...

  Why do we light two small Shabbat candles when our dining rooms are already brilliantly illuminated by chandeliers and electric lights? What are those little flames actually illuminating? In this morning’s , we began with this simple question and discovered an extraordinary world hidden within one of our most familiar mitzvot. Drawing upon the Gemara, the Ben Ish Hai, the Zohar, and the tea...

  Thursday Morning Breakfast & Class | October 15, 2026   “Mei Noaḥ” “Mah lecha nirdam?” But perhaps the most astonishing revelation concerns Pharaoh himself. According to a remarkable Midrash, the Pharaoh who refused to listen to Moshe Rabbenu was given another opportunity to repent as the king of Nineveh—and this time, he listened! How do these extraordinary journeys intersect, and...

  When the world around Noaḥ was collapsing into corruption, violence, and moral chaos, Hashem did something extraordinary. He gave Noaḥ a construction project—complete with precise measurements, compartments, three levels, and a source of light. But why would the Creator of the universe, who could have saved Noaḥ with a single word, require him to spend years building an enormous wooden vess...

  “I wanted to sit in the corner and let other people run the synagogue. Somehow, I was becoming my father.” In Monday morning’s Breakfast & Class, marking the second day of Rosh Hodesh Heshvan, we explore how the example we witness as children can become the responsibility we accept as adults. Through the Zera Shimshon’s explanation of why Noach’s children were saved, Rabbi Abittan’s mem...

  FROM SEVEN TO EIGHT   Rosh Hodesh Cheshvan — A New Beginning   We have just completed an extraordinary month of spiritual elevation. From the shofar of Rosh Hashanah to the forgiveness of Yom Kippur, the embrace of the Sukkah, and the joy of Simhat Torah, Tishrei surrounded us with opportunities to draw closer to Hashem. But now comes Cheshvan, a month without a single holiday. Is...

 UNITY WITHOUT UNIFORMITY     There is a question in this week’s parashah that belongs at every family’s Shabbat table.     According to one teaching of our Sages, Adam and Ḥava were originally created joined together. Hashem then separated them into two individuals.     But why?     If He wanted them separate, why create them togeth...

  BEFORE THE FIRST MITZVAH — Why the Torah Begins with People   Through the lives of Avraham, Yitzḥak, and Yaakov, we discover why Bereshit is called —the Book of the Upright. Avraham pleads for Sedom, Yitzḥak makes room for peace, and Yaakov works honestly for a dishonest employer. Their stories bring the lesson into our own homes, businesses, and relationships: devotion to Hashem must...

 In our Tuesday morning Safra Class, three years after October 7, we step back from the individual headlines and ask a larger question: What happens when we stop looking at each event separately and begin looking at the pattern? From the extraordinary turns in Israel’s war to Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon’s idea of the “Divine puzzle,” we explore a world in which every individual event may have a perfe...

  tohu vavohu BERESHIT — THE LIGHT HIDDEN IN THE DARKNESS meraḥefet

  “Esh Dat Lamo” — a Torah of fire Esh Dat Lamo For me, this teaching became deeply personal. My mother was Adele, and she lived to 98. At 95, she was still working out and teaching women a fifth of her age how to train safely with weights—and there is a photograph I treasure of her at that age holding her tiny great-granddaughter, Orly Adele. This week, another Adele in our family celebrates...

  The Secret of the Lulav, the Circle, and Hoshana Rabbah   הוֹשַׁע נָא — “Please save us!” In this class, we follow the Ben Ish Ḥai and the teachings of the Arizal into the hidden meaning of these movements: the of the sukkah that surrounds us, the we spread outward with the lulav, and the holiness we draw back toward the heart. From the walls of Yericho to the protective circle of a ma...

  Shir HaMa’alot Simḥat Beit HaSho’evah This holiday Breakfast & Class became much more personal than I expected. We journey from the waters that cried at Creation, to David HaMelekh and the fifteen Songs of Ascent, from a childhood memory of hearing my neighbor hammer together his sukkah immediately after Yom Kippur, to a Holocaust survivor riding endlessly on a Madison Avenue bus—and fi...

  Step Into the Cloud   Ananei HaKavod And according to the Vilna Gaon, Sukkot does not merely celebrate the cloud that protected us in the desert. After the sin of the Golden Calf, the clouds disappeared—and after Yom Kippur, they came back. Yom Kippur tells us, “We are forgiven.” Sukkot tells us something even more intimate: HaShem still wants us close.   Sukkah Amen Or Makif sukk...

  Every Yom Kippur we are tempted to make enormous promises—to change everything, fix everything, become someone completely different. But HaShem asks us to open an opening —as small as the eye of a needle—and He promises to open the rest. Maybe this year we don’t need the twenty-dollar kabbalah that disappears a week later. Maybe we need one silver dollar: one small, specific change we can r...

  This week, Chantelle and I found ourselves climbing the narrow mountain roads into Peki’in, walking through a place where the world of our Ḥakhamim suddenly felt very close. There I was reminded of the story of Rabbi Yossi of Peki’in and the child who refused to accept that the story was over. It may be one of the most powerful lessons we can carry into Yom Kippur: as long as there can be a...

  We can fast for twenty-five hours. We can beat our chests, cry through Kol Nidrei, confess every sin and remain in synagogue until the final . But the Mishnah teaches that there is one door Yom Kippur cannot open for us: —the hurts that remain between one person and another. Before we ask HaShem to forgive us, there may be a phone call we need to make, an apology we need to offer—or perhaps...