Back in 1996, Rabbi Finman was asked to speak to the niece of one of his students. After spending many hours answering her questions, the woman gave Rabbi Finman her e-mail address. Rabbi Finman wrote the woman a note and included in it a short insight into that week's Parsha and a short Chasidic story.

Realizing that this was something no one was yet doing,, Rabbi Finman sent the missive to his mailing list of about 30 people. Requests from recipients friends came pouring in. The next week Rabbi Finman sent the e-Parsha to 100 people. Within a year more than 2000 people were receiving it. Today, more than 14,000 receive the e-Parsha weekly and the requests keep coming in.

Vayakhel Pekudei 5786
Ki Sissa 5786
Titsaveh 5786
Terumah 5786
Mishpatim 5786

Ki Sissa 5786

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This week's YouParsha Ki Sissa http://youtu.be/Lpn28gDzqb4 the intrinsic connection between the Parsha and Purim

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Parshas Ki Sissa - Exodus 30:11- 34:35, details the sin of the golden calf. Once the Almighty forgave the Jews, he instructed Moshe to make new tablets of the Ten Commandments. Moshe, upon seeing the people sinning destroyed the first tablets, which Hashem made. Hashem said, "You destroyed the first ones - you have to make the second ones."

The verb used is Psal - engrave. It is related to the word Posal - invaled. Had the Jews not sinned, the Torah would have comprised the Five Books of the Chumash and the Book of Joshua, which details the boundaries of Israel. A commandment such as remember the Sabbath to keep it holy would have required no explanation. People would have intrinsically known that keeping the Sabbath entails all the details we currently must learn. It would have been the same with each mitzvah. No explanation would have been required. Each mitzvah would be fully self-understood. The verse alone would have provided enough explanation.

With the smashing of the tablets, the Bible was expanded to 24 books and the wealth of the Oral Torah continues to grow. There are currently some 350,000 different titles of Torah knowledge. How can a person ingest such amounts of information? The two translations of psal provide insight. First, a person must invalidate themselves. There is a Hebrew expression that translates, "A full cup holds nothing." A person must empty/humble themselves by approaching the Torah as a brand new, never before experienced expression of G'dliness. Once this has been accomplished, they can now engrave the Torah into themselves. Writing can be erased, engraving cannot.

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One chosid of the Alter Rebbe - First Lubavitch Rebbe, though ignorant of even the simplest words in the prayer books, managed to pray with deep concentration for hours. When asked what it was on which he dwelt, he answered that he had no great meditations. Rather, he kept in mind a vort - a word he once heard from the Alter Rebbe on the verse concerning the mitzvah of keeping the Shabbos, "Shamor ve’zachor be’dibur echad, - keep and remember in one word" - for every word you say you must be sure to safeguard the echad, the unity of G'd.=========================

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