Rabbi Ari Shvat
Rav Kook's Torah, religious Zionism, the Land of Israel & Original Songs
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Q. Tattie, how did we defeat the Yevanim?
A. With Hashem’s help! Q. So why did we need the Maccabim? A. They were just soldiers, Hashem helped them and…
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MACCABEES WERE KOHANIM and SCHOLARS!
The most quoted source by Haredim for perhaps exempting yeshiva boys from the IDF, is a “pseudo-halachic” paragraph from the Rambam…
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CHANUKA, AUSTRALIA and TODAY’S MITZVAH FOCUSOur rabbis stress that every historical period has ONE PARTICULAR MITZVA, whic
h takes upon special importance and through which that generation’s Torah and spirituality must be focused and expressed (e.g. R. Sh.…
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DEBATE ANTI-SEMITES OR NOT?!
Q. Shalom Rabbi! On our university campus, we’ve recently felt some anti-Semitic slurs, and want to know, should we report this…
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BINYAMIN’S NAME-CHANGE- And WHY Yehoshua BIN-Nun (not ‘Ben’-Nun)
When Rachel dies in childbirth, Ya’akov changes the name she chose: “Ben-Oni”, to “Binyamin” (35, 18). The obvious question is why,…
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TANACH= HEALTHY SOULS IN HEALTHY BODIES
A seemingly innocent event in this week’s parsha demands explanation: The Torah considers it important to tell us that Ya’akov Avinu…
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YA’AKOV DONS ESAV’S ARMS
Q. How can we understand in this week’s parsha that Yitzchak even considered giving the bracha of Eretz Yisrael to Esav?…
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BUYING LAND/HOMES IN ISRAEL
We see in this week’s parsha that Avraham “works hard” in a long and detailed give-and-take to buy the Ma’arat HaMachpela…
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PROACTIVE OR PLAY DUMB: AVRAHAM ACTS- AVIMELECH ‘ALIBIS’
Many don’t notice that our parsha explicitly pits Avraham Avinu as the ANTI-THESIS of Avimelech. After the Akeidah, Avraham is described:…
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ADDENDUM 👆: Similarly in the tiny Re’im shelter, about 30 young adults crammed and sought life from the attacking Hamas terrorists
Understandably, they all tried to get as far away as they could from the entrance, but only the soldier Anner Shapira,…