Parshah and the Moadim with Rabbi Aryeh Shulman

Episode Notes Notes go hereRabbi Shulman addresses the apparent tension in the Torah’s treatment of נדרים and שבועות: Chazal often criticize making vows, yet the Torah opens Parashat Matot with the laws of nedarim and even allows for their annulment. He explains (based on Rav Tzadok and the Zohar) that vows are spiritually valid only when a person’s רצון is profoundly aligned with רצון ה׳—to the p...

Rabbi Shulman explores the famous דרשה of Reish Lakish that Torah only endures in someone who “kills himself” over it, derived from the pasuk “זאת התורה אדם כי ימות באהל.” He addresses the tension between the pasuk’s פשט—death and טומאה in a literal tent—and the דרוש—life-giving devotion in the tent of Torah. Rabbi Shulman then reconciles an apparent contradiction in חז״ל about whether the human b...

Rabbi Shulman raises Rabbi Tzadok’s fundamental question: how can the Torah—*divrei emet*—record the falsehoods Korach spreads, especially when they fuel machloket rather than peace? He explains that Korach’s claims are not “random lies” preserved as history; rather, they express a profound truth that applies in a different spiritual mode: moments of “circular” revelation (like Kriyat Yam Suf and...

Rabbi Shulman focuses on the Torah’s instruction that all seven lamps of the menorah must shine “אל מול פני המנורה,” and he raises two questions: how this applies to the middle lamp, and why this detail appears here rather than earlier in the construction of the Mishkan’s vessels. Drawing on Rav Tzadok, Rabbi Shulman explains that “מול” hints to the north side of the Mishkan—the spiritually vulner...

Rabbi Shulman explains the well-known Chazal on the juxtaposition of *Sotah* and *Nazir*: seeing a *sotah* “in her disgrace” should motivate a person to abstain from wine. Beyond the simple concern of avoiding moral desensitization, he highlights a deeper link—both *sotah* and *nazir* are defined by hair: her hair is undone as shame, while his hair becomes *נזר אלוקיו* (a holy “crown”). The broade...

Rabbi Shulman presents a teaching from Rav Tzadok (in *Machshavot Charutz*) that the three regalim align with the three life-areas described as dependent on “mazal”: children, life, and sustenance. He develops how Pesach corresponds to מזונות/פרנסה and why the Omer process refines human physicality from “animal food” (barley) toward “human food” (wheat), culminating in Shavuot as the “עצרת”—the in...

Rabbi Shulman frames the final week of ספירת העומר as the culminating עבודה that leads directly into שבועות: the מידה of מלכות. Unlike the earlier weeks’ focus on “doing” (active character refinement), מלכות is about “receiving”—aligning oneself with the singular רצון of הקדוש ברוך הוא and recognizing His unified dominion in all events. He connects this to קבלת עול מלכות שמים through שמע ישראל, ex...

Rabbi Shulman explains that the final week of Sefirat HaOmer corresponds to **מלכות**, the divine attribute of “kingship,” rooted in the pasuk recited when the Torah is taken out: “לך ה׳ … לך ה׳ הממלכה והמתנשא לכל ראש.” He develops מלכות as **רצון**—the unifying will that gives direction and cohesion to all reality—and shows why its historical manifestation is the ultimate defeat of **עמלק** and t...

This dvar Torah continues a series mapping the sefirot/middot through a Gemara in Berachot, focusing on **יסוד** as the “hidden” middah embedded in the phrase **“כִּי כֹל בַּשָּׁמַיִם וּבָאָרֶץ”**. It develops Yesod as the power of **hashpa’ah and kabbalah** (influence and receptivity), the discipline of **discernment** (channeling energy only where it belongs), and the stance of **faithfulness to...

This dvar Torah uses the Maharal (in the third introduction to *Gevurot Hashem*) to frame the seven weeks of Sefirat HaOmer as a progression through seven divine מידות, anchored in a sugya in Berachot that maps them onto the pasuk “לך ה׳ הגדולה...” The focus is on מידת ההוד: its connection to hiddenness (צפון), to הודאה/תודה as “admitting” what could have been denied, and to healing as restoring b...

Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/pesach-embittered-learning-20260327-042005-outline-20260327-042048.pdf

Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/haggadah-sheli-13-20260327-041547-outline-20260327-041704.pdf