What is the mitzvah of sanctifying the bechor (the first-born)? How does this mitzvah teach us about beginnings, birth, the significance of tefillin, and entering the Land of Israel?
Parashat Bo (2007)
Why is Rav Binny’s favorite plague the plague of darkness? How was the darkness a reflection of the world that the Egyptians had created for themselves? What does it mean that only the Jews had ‘light’?
Parashat Beshalach (2007)
Why now, after coming through the split Sea of Reeds, and having seen all of the Egyptians drowned, do we ‘believe in G-d’? Does that mean that we didn’t believe before? What was so significant about the splitting and crossing?
Parashat Yitro (2006)
Is this parsha where we experience receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai, Rav Binny looks at the nature of the shofar, the last commandment of ‘do not covet,’ and the connection between healthy relationships and healthy life desires.
Parashat Mishpatim (2007)
Why does this legalistic parsha dealing with business laws and damages appear here? It seems like such an anti-climax from the intense spirituality of receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai. What can we learn from such a juxtaposition?
Parashat Terumah (2006)
Why did the donations to build the Mishkan (Tabernacle) only come from those who voluntarily donated? Why does the mitzvah of building require kavana? What is the significance of the Mishkan in a post-Golden Calf world?
Parashat Terumah (2007)
Why do we yearn for the Beit HaMikdash (the Holy Temple)? Rav Binny takes us on a tour of the Temple, looking at its three architectural spaces and the avodah (service) done in each space. How does the Temple achieve its goal to bring people closer together?
Parashat Tetzaveh (2006)
In this second parsha on the Mishkan, Rav Binny looks into the clothing of the Kohanim. Why is it important that the externals (the clothing) be exact? Isn’t it what’s inside that’s truly important?
Parashat Tetzaveh (2007)
This week, Rav Binny focuses on the mitzvah of lighting the Menorah in the Temple, including all of the attendant preparations of the wicks and the olive oil for lighting. Why does the Torah need to mention the preparations? Isn’t just the actual lighting the crucial act?
Parashat Ki Tissa (2006)
How could the Jewish people make such a massive mistake? Why does simply hearing about the sin of the Golden Calf prompt Moshe to begin to pray? Why does Hashem tell him to ‘lech, reid’ (go, descend)?
Parashat Vayakhel (2005)
After the mistake of the Golden Calf, how do the Jewish People start over again? Rav Binny explains why Moshe ‘gathered the people’, the significance of the day of the gathering, and the connection between Shabbat and Yom Kippur.
Parashat Vayakhel (2008)
In this week’s parsha, Moshe somehow finds the exact right words to console the Jewish People, after the tragedy of the Golden Calf. What was the mistake of the Golden Calf all about, in its essence? How is mitzvah of Shabbat the precise antidote to the mistake?
Parshiot Vayakhel & Pekudei (2006)
Very similar to Vayakhel (2005). How does Moshe give the Jewish people comfort after being forgiven of the sin of the Golden Calf? By giving us the mitzvah of Shabbat! What was the Golden Calf all about that makes Shabbat such a tikkun (fixing)?
Parashat Pekudei (2005)
On this week’s parsha, Rav Binny makes a great observation: Why does the Torah have to restate everything that we did in actually building the Mishkan, when we already heard it all in the instructions to build the Mishkan? What can we learn from this ‘redundancy’?
