A women should encourage her husband to set fixed times for learning Torah, and for doing so they are rewarded. If a person is too busy to do the daily task in learning he set for himself during the day, he should complete it in the evening because the task he set for himself is…
Chazal and Commentaries from later generations speak at length of the great importance of saying Tehillim with concentration and from the heart. They tell us that it can save a person from all kinds of troubles, including diseases of the body and the soul, as it says in the midrash (Shocher Tov on Tehillim), “Everything…
It is a positive commandment to take Trumah from dough that is made from the five grains and to give it to a Cohen. This tithe is called Chalah. According to most Poskim, the Mitzvah of taking Chalah in our time is Rabbinic even in Eretz Yisrael since the majority of the Jewish People do…
Those who teach righteousness to the multitudes will shine like the stars (Daniel 12:3). According to the Gemora (Baba Basra 8b) the verse applies to rebbes in chadarim and Talmudei Torah. Rashi explains that those who teach righteousness are those who educate their students to the right path in life. The Maharsha explains why a…
If something is added to water to give it a fragrance, it remains fit for use for washing before meals, for we don’t consider the water to have been used because fragrance was added. The fragrance was added solely for the purpose of improving the water. For this reason, it is seems to me that…
A person should be even more careful to keep the fixed time for learning at night than during the day. The obligation to set a fixed time to learn Torah is in addition to the basic obligation to learn Torah. When fixing a time to learn Torah, a person should also determine the amount of…
The Sefer Hachaimi, written by the Maharal’s brother, writes that there are people חרדים לדבר ד’ and despising the ארץ העמים for whom the joy they feel in anticipation of the coming of the Redeemer is not as great as it might be because they realize that it will be an awesome and terrible time,…
It is permitted to say words of Torah and kiddushah before a garbage can from which there issues no bad smell if it is ten tefachim high (which sets it apart as a separate domain) and if the garbage is not visible, as when it is contained in plastic bags. The garbage can itself is…
The Torah forbids stealing. This prohibition applies also to stealing from a minor or a gentile if his ownership of the object was confirmed by the person from whom it was acquired. Accordingly, the Biblical prohibition would not apply to an object found by a minor or a gentile. But we are commanded to conduct…
Chazal tell us that the world exists because of the merit of the children learning Torah with their Rebbe. From this we learn that the spiritual reward for teaching children Torah is very great. The Shechina dwells wherever children learn Torah with their Rebbe. Rebbe Shimeon Bar Yochai once said, when going to visit a…