Partners in Crime

The Midrash says that there were two reshayim who were partners in crime their entire lives. One of them died and went to Gehenom. He was suffering there for many months, and then he saw his former partner’s neshama being escorted into Gan Eden. So he calls over the malach appointed over Gehenom and says…

Two Paths to HaShem

The Midrash teaches that HaShem used the Torah as the blueprint for creating the world; meaning that whatever exists in the world exists in the way it does only because it first of all exists in the Torah. By the same token, whatever is found in the Torah has its concrete expression in the physical…

Appreciating Life

Two questions: Why is it that these parshiyos, which are almost entirely concerned with tsora’as, begin with the parsha of laidah, of giving birth? Secondly, the opening phrase, isha ki tazriah v’yalda zachar, makes it sound as if conception is followed immediately by birth. Why doesn’t the Torah mention the nine months of pregnancy in…

Two Kinds of Mishkan

The Gemora says that HaShem told Moshe to make the Mishkan, and afterwards the keilim; but when Moshe transmitted the instructions to Betzalel, he reversed the order, putting the keilim first, and then the Mishkan. Betzalel objected, that that’s not the way of the world; first a person builds a house, then puts in the…

The Three Weeks

Hilchos Aveilus reflects the normal emotional process that a person should go through when a loved one dies. Until the burial, a person has the status, from the Torah, of an onen. The first day of aveilus, after the burial, is according to some also min haTorah. After that, essentially the rabbis added another six…