by Rabbi Ysoscher Katz
Posted on October 8, 2026
Download printable pdf here > For many years, my wife and I spent summers in Israel with our two boys. On the way, we would stop in a different European country for a short family vacation. One year we chose Berlin.…
by Rabbi Ysoscher Katz
Posted on June 24, 2026
Download PDF In this week’s parsha, Parshat Balak, Bilaam says Mah tovu ohalecha Yaakov, “How good are your tents, Yaakov.” Rashi, quoting Chazal, says that Bilaam was praising the Jewish people’s tzniut. Whenever I come back to that Rashi, I think of a Chassidic story my rebbe told us when I was about fifteen years old.…
by Rabbi Ysoscher Katz
Posted on June 16, 2026
Download PDF One of my favorite fantastical childhood stories is related to this week’s parsha, parshat Korach. It is an audacious story, and for some of you, no doubt, it may sound a bit out there. But Chassidic stories are often powerful less because of their veracity than because of the religious message they convey.…
by Rabbi Ysoscher Katz
Posted on June 10, 2026
The Ponevezh Yeshivah is one of the largest and most storied yeshivot in Israel. Located in the center of Bnei Brak, it sits on a large and impressive campus spread across a hill. On one end stands the main beit midrash, with room for roughly one thousand students.…
Chatzotzrot: The Sound of Incompleteness
Download PDF In the spirit of this series, Nishmat HaTorah, whose guiding aspiration is to explore the weekly parsha through the lens of Torat HaChassidut, I want to share one of the foundational Chassidic teachings on this week’s parsha. It is enigmatic and, as we will see, theologically daring.…
A Case Study in Compassionate Halakha?
Download PDF Various Sifrei Machshava refer to Torah sh’ba’al Peh, the Oral Torah, as nishmat hatorah, the soul of the Torah. R. Moshe Cordovero, among the foremost Kabbalists of sixteenth-century Tzfat, writes: “One must, with absolute necessity, also study Torah sh’ba’al Peh; it is the interpretation of the Torah, and also its neshamah, revealing its spiritual essence through its explanations and secrets.”…
Sefer Bamidbar: Their Story and Ours
Download PDF We are starting a new Sefer this week, switching from Sefer Vayikra, the third book in the Pentateuch, to the fourth, Sefer Bamidbar. And that is of great theological significance. The five books of the Torah chart the unfolding story of klal Yisroel’s relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu (“HKBH”), with each sefer marking a new stage in that relationship.…
Yom Yerushalayim: Two Modes of Holiness
Download PDF This week’s Torah portion is Parshat Behar-Bechukotai, but in honor of next Thursday’s Yom Yerushalayim celebration, I want to share a reflection on this day, informed by Torah from the Baal Shem Tov and his disciples. As we celebrate Yom Yerushalayim, we rightfully focus our attention on Jerusalem, this sacred city that stood at the center of Jewish yearning for millennia.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on May 2, 2026
Delivered at Eshel Parent Retreat, Shabbat Parshat Emor, May 2, 2026 Parshat Emor opens with a focus on the kedusha of the Kohanim. This kedusha stands in contrast to the kedusha we were introduced to one week before, the kedushah of Kedoshim Ti’hiyu.…
The Mitzvah To Be There
Download PDF This week’s parshah, Parshat Emor, sets forth the demanding framework of kedushah for the Kohanim. The opening sections focus on tum’ah and taharah, primarily the Kohen‘s prohibition from contact with the deceased and how such an encounter affects his ability to serve.…
by Rabbi Ysoscher Katz
Posted on April 22, 2026
Download PDF The opening command of Parshat Kedoshim—”קדושים תהיו—You shall be holy”—is a foundational theme in Chassidiut. For many, this command suggests asceticism or a retreat from the messiness of human existence. But according to the students of the Baal Shem Tov, the call to holiness is not an invitation to escape life; it is a summons to deepen our engagement with it.…
by Rabbi Ysoscher Katz
Posted on April 16, 2026
Download PDF here > Earlier this week, on Yom HaShoah ve’Hagevurah, I shared a brief reflection on the Kaliver Rebbe Z”L, a childhood hero who, for me, embodied the dual themes of this sacred day: devastation and resilience, Shoah and gevurah.…
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