By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Pesach is a Yom Tov of chinuch. The Gemara derives the concept of the Seder from the posuk of “vehigadeta levincha,” which instructs us to tell our children the story of our redemption from Mitzrayim on the night of Pesach. It is all about speaking to our children in a way they can accept and believe.
Thus, we proclaim in the Haggadah that the Torah speaks to all types of children, “Keneged arba’ah bonim dibra Torah.”

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
With the arrival of the month of Nissan, yeshivos are going into bein hazemanim, girls are being let out to help their mothers prepare for Pesach, and we are furiously making sure that we have everything we need for Yom Tov.
Our anticipation mounts for the Seder, when we will celebrate our freedom. We will sit like kings, imagining that we were in servitude and were miraculously freed.
We joyously look forward to the Seder’s drama, the family resplendent in their Yom Tov finery, gathered around the Yom Tov table, graced by the ke’arah, the Arba Kosos, and the matzos.

By Sean Durns
The Washington Post used a Jewish holiday to attack the Jewish state.
The Post’s March 7, 2023, report treated antisemites as credible sources and omitted key information about Israeli counter-terrorist operations. Indeed, the dispatch, entitled “Six killed in Israeli raid on Jenin as settlers attack Palestinian town, again,” misleads with its very headline.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
This week’s parsha of Ki Sisa contains peaks of glory and splendor, depths of catastrophe, and a cataclysmic blow, followed by the greatest message of forgiveness in the Torah.
The calamitous sin and subsequent climb back to teshuvah resound through the ages.
The parsha recounts how the Bnei Yisroel were counted and learned of the ketores and its powers. Hashem told Moshe that he had selected Betzalel to construct the Mishkon, its keilim, and the bigdei kehunah. The gift of Shabbos was granted to us and Moshe was given the luchos.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Purim was approaching and the people were apprehensive. And who could blame them? It was 1941 and they were in the Warsaw Ghetto. There were few reasons to smile. Everyone locked in the ghetto was worried about what the next day would bring, as the threat of death at the hands of the evil Nazi butchers hung over them. Hunger and disease seemed destined to be the two species of mishloach manos that year.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
As we study Parshas Terumah, we learn of the keruvim (Shemos 25:20), images of angelic young children with cherubic faces that stood on top of the Aron in the holiest place in the world. The posuk states that they faced each other, “ufneihem ish el ochiv.”

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Some people come into your life and never really leave. They make a mark on you, influencing, inspiring and teaching. Such a person was Rav Yehoshua Zvi Fishman zt”l, who passed away last week following a lingering illness.
It was some thirty-five years ago that we met…well, sort of. I had heard his name, but never had the pleasure of meeting him. One year, he was the guest speaker at the dinner of Bais Medrash Govoah of Lakewood. I listened to his speech and he took my breath away. He was so full of Torah and machshovah and conviction and heart. I had never heard anyone speak like that. Upon hearing the speech, I decided that I wanted to go work for him. And I did.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
The Alter of Kelm had a stone fence put up around the yeshiva building he headed in Kelm. The fence had a gate with a lock and key. The key was hung on a hook on the inside of the fence in a way that it was possible to reach from the outside as well. Everyone who entered and exited was obligated to take the key, unlock the gate, go in or out, and then return the key to its proper place. At the end of the learning day, a certain bochur was tasked with ensuring that the gate was locked and then taking the key with him for the night. In the morning, he would come, reopen the gate, and replace the key.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
I don’t live a cloistered life, but last week I saw something that really bothered me.
For the first time that I can remember, I saw an Israeli couple in an airport eating treif. It wasn’t plain treif. It was a burger with fries. And as they were eating their burgers, which did not look tempting in the least, they were speaking Hebrew. Words of the holy eternal language were dripping off their lips and they chewed treife meat. I was revolted.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
In this week’s parsha, we study the final three makkos with which Hashem punished Mitzrayim. The ninth makkah was that of choshech, darkness. We learned in school that for a week, Mitzrayim was frozen in a thick, blinding darkness. The  Mitzrim couldn’t see and couldn’t move; they were incapacitated. But the Jews were unaffected by the makkah and had light wherever they went.