The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,800 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people. Click here to…

I would like to try to explain the place of Serach the daughter of Asher in the development of Klal Yisroel. She is mentioned in Vayigash as one of the the seventy children of Yakov who go down to Egypt where she is counted as one of the sixteen descendants of Zilpah. She appears again…

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5uil1jetrm1acca/The%20Stones%20of%20Bayis%20Sheini.docx?dl=0 There is a Midrash[1] that reveals to us something special about the construction of Bayis Sheini. When Klal Yisroel came to rebuild the Bais HaMikdosh they refused to put one stone atop another till HaShem promised them that the secrets of the Torah and the name of HaShem would be revealed to them. It…

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jriiugu17j3stx9/Parshas%20VaYeshev%20Keziv.docx?dl=0 The Midrash in this week’s Parsha describes the atmosphere in the home of Yakov after the disappearance of Yosef[1]: The Shevatim are busy with sackcloth and ashes , Yosef is busy with sackcloth and ashes , Reuven is busy with sackcloth and ashes, and Yakov is busy with sackcloth and ashes. But Yehudah is…