By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
The Seder is the highlight of the Yom Tov of Pesach, and regardless of what is going on outside, Jewish families everywhere sit around a table and celebrate our freedom from Mitzrayim so many years ago. Regardless of our financial situation, all Jews are like kings and queens at the Seder, from the way we lean to the way we set up our tables and the way we conduct ourselves that night.
For thousands of years, it has been this way. In times of war and in times of peace, in times of depression and suppression, in ghettos and barracks, Jews have been extending themselves in unimaginable times in incredible ways to celebrate our exodus from Mitzrayim.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Here, we finally are in the month of Nissan. Pesach, the Yom Tov when we celebrate our freedom, is upon us. The weather has warmed, the days have lengthened, and we are only one week away from sitting down at the Seder to recite the Haggadah and be mekayeim the many mitzvos of that evening.
In 1948, as Israel was fighting its war of independence, people were worried about what the next day would bring. Rav Refoel Kook traveled to the Chazon Ish.
“People are asking me about what is going on now and how they are to understand the terrible situation they are in. Rebbe, I don’t know what to answer them.”

By Jonathan S. Tobin
The growing chorus of voices on the political left that have been loudly demanding that Israel’s war on Hamas be stopped have been waiting for this. After months of seeking to leverage false stories such as one about a missile attack on a hospital, downplaying or denying the way Hamas embeds its terrorist forces in hospitals, schools and civilian homes, and flogging statistics about Palestinian civilian casualties that are clearly bogus, the anti-Israel lobby thinks that it finally has a way to force the Jewish state to stand down in Gaza.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
In this week’s parsha, we learn about one of the great days in the history of Klal Yisroel. They were finally redeemed, for as the Ramban explains, the redemption from Mitzrayim would not be complete until they had set up the Mishkon and the Shechinah had a home among the Jewish people.
But the joyous day that celebrated the consecration of the Mishkon did not go as planned. The two eldest sons of Aharon Hakohein, great men in their own right, transgressed a commandment of Hashem and were consumed by a holy flame.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
If you would want to describe the Yom Tov we celebrated this week in one word, what would it be?
I would say liberation.
Purim is the day of liberation, because that is what it does: it liberates us from the things we are regularly forced to do, whether because of financial considerations or those of a social variety.
On Purim, it’s all different. Yes, of course we behave appropriately at home and in shul and don’t – or shouldn’t – run around making fools of ourselves and a chillul Hashem. But we are freed from obligations that, while they keep us and the world going around, are not always enjoyable.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Many nations have risen up to battle us, subjugate us, and torment us, yet Amaleik is singled out for eternal derision. Many of those who fought us succeeded in their battles, killing many of us, crushing us, and evicting us from our land. Amaleik, though the first to fight us, did not succeed in his mission and was beaten back by the Bnei Yisroel under the leadership of Moshe and Yehoshua.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
In this week’s parsha of Pekudei, the posuk states, “All the work necessary for the Mishkon was completed, as the Jewish people did everything Hashem commanded through Moshe. They then brought the Mishkon to Moshe, the tent and all its utensils…” (Shemos 39:32-33).
Rashi (ibid.) quotes the Medrash Tanchuma, which explains that the people brought the Mishkon and all its keilim to Moshe because when they had finished constructing everything, they were not able to set up the Mishkon. The keroshim were too heavy to be lifted into place.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
This Shabbos, we announce the arrival of the second month of Adar, granting us another opportunity to take advantage of the obligation to increase our joy as Adar arrives.
Although the obligation of “mishenichnas Adar marbim b’simcha” is only mentioned in the Gemara (Taanis 29a) and is not cited in Shulchan Aruch, it is set forth universally in seforim, which discuss this period of the year, and is commonly accepted by all.
Yet, while many discuss the obligation, less discussed is what it entails. Marbim b’simcha. It seems so easy. Be happier. Who doesn’t want to be happier? But when you begin to think about it, the obligation gets complicated.

By Jonathan S. Tobin
For five months, the Biden administration has been talking out of both sides of its mouth about the war between Israel and Hamas. It supported Israel’s efforts but also sought to hamstring efforts by the Israel Defense Forces and treated the critiques of the war by Hamas apologists as legitimate. But after much hesitation, mixed signals and considerable political damage, it has finally found a coherent message and a goal that it can get behind. It wants to end the war on virtually any terms, and it wants to eliminate one of the parties involved.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
In Parshas Ki Sisa, we learn one of the most tragic occurrences in our history, from which we suffer until today: the sin of the Eigel. Every time we learn the parsha, we wonder how the people could have gone so wrong. The same people who experienced all of Hashem’s miracles in Mitzrayim and at the Yam Suf were now ready to trade it all in for a little golden calf made from their wives’ jewelry. How can it be?
The nation that stood at Har Sinai and heard the voice of the Creator as they received and accepted the Torah so quickly wandered away from the truth and danced around a silly idol. How are we to understand their mistakes? What led them to err so quickly?