The WebYeshiva Blog

The Covenant, the Rainbow, and Noach's Vineyard

In Parshat Noah why does the Torah repeatedly describe the animals as being “with” Noach, even after they have left the ark? The Maor VaShemesh explains that human beings, through Torah, prayer, and their connection to Hashem, have the ability and responsibility to elevate all of creation. He develops this idea through the rainbow, which represents the righteous person whose spiritual work sustains the world and transforms judgment into mercy. But the story of Noach's vineyard introduces a warning: engaging with the physical world to elevate it requires spiritual preparation. Noach attempts it prematurely and falls, while Shem and Yefet demonstrate how to remain connected to Hashem without becoming absorbed in material pleasures.  

The Tower of Babel: When Unity Becomes Dangerous

What exactly was the sin of the generation that built the Tower of Babel, and why was the punishment the confusion of languages? The Maor VaShemesh offers a surprising interpretation: Nimrod sought to unite the nations under one language and purpose in order to undermine the future Jewish people. Hashem's response was to divide the nations, preventing their unified opposition to Israel. The teaching raises a provocative question about unity itself: unity is not necessarily virtuous. Its moral value depends on the purpose for which people unite.  

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Use this source sheet for further exploration of Parshat Noach, complete with footnoted sources and a concise, footnoted bio of R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein (Ma’or Va-Shemesh) to enjoy this teaching at your own pace, perfect for self-learners.  Prepared by Rabbi Shalom (Saul) Orbach The Ma’or Va-Shemesh is a classic Hasidic commentary on the weekly portions and festivals by R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein of Kraków (1751-1823). A foremost later disciple, and for years the Shamash, of R. Elimelech of Lizhensk, he emerged after his rebbe’s passing as a leading figure in the fourth generation of Chassidut and of Polish Hasidism. His Torah blends close reading of the Psukim with mystical depth, emphasizing Dvekut, heartfelt prayer, joy, and sanctifying the everyday, with a hallmark leadership ethic: the tzaddik sweetens judgment into mercy and draws people close.

In this week’s Maor VaShemesh on Parshat Bereishit, we explore three teachings about what it means to be human. The first begins with the creation of Adam and the remarkable idea that the possibility of teshuvah was built into us from the beginning. The Divine name Ehyeh, “I will be,” points to our ability to say that whatever I have been until now, from this moment forward I can become something different. A person’s failures do not have to define what comes next. The second teaching begins with the strange description of the world before rain had fallen. Rashi explains that rain waited for Adam to recognize its necessity and pray for it. The Maor VaShemesh develops this into a teaching about yearning itself. When a person truly longs to come closer to Hashem through Torah and prayer, even the breath and cry that emerge from deep within can carry what words cannot express. When Jews gather together in prayer and Torah study, those individual longings combine and become a source of blessing for the Jewish people. Finally, the Maor VaShemesh offers a striking interpretation of the serpent’s promise that eating from the Tree of Knowledge would make human beings “like G-d, knowing good and evil.” The temptation was not simply knowledge. It was the arrogance of believing that we know enough to judge another person, to decide whether their path is good or bad. We see what is visible; only Hashem sees the heart. True humility therefore means recognizing the limits of what we know about another person and resisting the instinct to define them by what we think we see. Meor vShemesh B1 Berishit 5787 Taken together, the three teachings offer a powerful picture of the human being at the beginning of the Torah: we are always capable of becoming more than we have been, our deepest yearning can itself become a form of prayer, and wisdom begins with knowing how much about another person we do not know.  

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Use this source sheet for further exploration of Parshat Bereishit, complete with footnoted sources and a concise, footnoted bio of R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein (Ma’or Va-Shemesh) to enjoy this teaching at your own pace, perfect for self-learners.  Prepared by Rabbi Shalom (Saul) Orbach The Ma’or Va-Shemesh is a classic Hasidic commentary on the weekly portions and festivals by R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein of Kraków (1751-1823). A foremost later disciple, and for years the Shamash, of R. Elimelech of Lizhensk, he emerged after his rebbe’s passing as a leading figure in the fourth generation of Chassidut and of Polish Hasidism. His Torah blends close reading of the Psukim with mystical depth, emphasizing Dvekut, heartfelt prayer, joy, and sanctifying the everyday, with a hallmark leadership ethic: the tzaddik sweetens judgment into mercy and draws people close.  

Sukkah

Why does the Torah move us from Yom Kippur towards Sukkot, into the sukkah? The Maor VaShemesh calls it the tzila d’meheimnuta, the shade of faith. After the purification of Yom Kippur, we can receive God’s light only me’at me’at, little by little. The days of preparation and the week in the sukkah lead us toward the deeper deveikut of Shemini Atzeret.

Arba Minim

Having prayed to be inscribed and sealed for life, we take the arba minim on Sukkot. The Maor VaShemesh reads their names as a way of drawing down chesed for banei, chayei u’mezonei: children, life, and sustenance. Through the Four Species, we ask that dinim, harsh judgments, be softened at their source and that Divine mercy flow into the year ahead.  

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Use this source sheet for further exploration, complete with footnoted sources and a concise, footnoted bio of R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein (Ma’or Va-Shemesh) to enjoy this teaching at your own pace, perfect for self-learners.  Prepared by Rabbi Shalom (Saul) Orbach The Ma’or Va-Shemesh is a classic Hasidic commentary on the weekly portions and festivals by R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein of Kraków (1751-1823). A foremost later disciple, and for years the Shamash, of R. Elimelech of Lizhensk, he emerged after his rebbe’s passing as a leading figure in the fourth generation of Chassidut and of Polish Hasidism. His Torah blends close reading of the Psukim with mystical depth, emphasizing Dvekut, heartfelt prayer, joy, and sanctifying the everyday, with a hallmark leadership ethic: the tzaddik sweetens judgment into mercy and draws people close.  

Parshat HaAzinu

In Parshat HaAzinu the Maor VaShemesh offers a remarkable way to understand notzer chesed, God “preserving kindness.” Sometimes God looks ahead to the teshuvah we have not yet done, the mitzvot we have not yet performed, and the person we have not yet become, and gives us kindness now because of that future. That gives these days of teshuvah a different perspective. Perhaps some of the blessings we received this past year were not rewards for who we were, but advances on who we might still become. Teshuvah, then, is not only about repairing the person we have been. It is about becoming the person God has been waiting for us to become.  

Shabbat Shuvah:

The Maor VaShemesh asks why the opening words of the Haftarah, “Shuvah Yisrael ad Hashem Elokecha,” address all of Israel in the singular. Drawing on the Gemara’s teaching that a person should see the entire world as balanced between merit and guilt, he explains that teshuvah requires us to act as though the world depends upon us. Teshuvah may begin with the individual, but its consequences are collective: our choices affect our families, communities, and people in ways we may never know. During these days we naturally ask, “What do I need to change?” The Maor VaShemesh adds another question: How might the world change if I change?  

Yom Kippur:

The Maor VaShemesh asks why the people in the Temple courtyard fell to the ground when the Kohen Gadol pronounced the Divine Name on Yom Kippur, when that Name was pronounced in the Beit HaMikdash throughout the year. He explains that on Yom Kippur, the normally hidden light of Keter was revealed, a holiness so overwhelming that the people could not remain standing. He finds this hinted in the word “titaharu,” “you shall be purified,” whose numerical value, 620, equals Keter. Yom Kippur is therefore not only a day when we reach upward toward G-d through teshuvah, prayer, and fasting. It is also a day when G-d’s normally hidden light reaches down toward us. Purification is something we struggle to achieve, but it is also something G-d bestows upon us.  

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Use this source sheet for further exploration of Parshat HaAzinu, complete with footnoted sources and a concise, footnoted bio of R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein (Ma’or Va-Shemesh) to enjoy this teaching at your own pace, perfect for self-learners. Also, source sheets for Shabbat Shuva and Yom Kippur Prepared by Rabbi Shalom (Saul) Orbach The Ma’or Va-Shemesh is a classic Hasidic commentary on the weekly portions and festivals by R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein of Kraków (1751-1823). A foremost later disciple, and for years the Shamash, of R. Elimelech of Lizhensk, he emerged after his rebbe’s passing as a leading figure in the fourth generation of Chassidut and of Polish Hasidism. His Torah blends close reading of the Psukim with mystical depth, emphasizing Dvekut, heartfelt prayer, joy, and sanctifying the everyday, with a hallmark leadership ethic: the tzaddik sweetens judgment into mercy and draws people close.  

In this week's Parsha, the Maor VaShemesh finds two lessons about spiritual growth hidden in different parts of Ki Teitzei. The first begins with the laws of Eishet Yefat Toar. Chazal explain that the Torah permits the beautiful captive as an accommodation to the yetzer hara. He asks a striking question: why would the exceptionally righteous soldiers who went to war require such a concession? Why would they even be tempted? The Maor VaShemesh sees the Eishet Yefat Toar as a mashal for the process by which we grow and overcome the yetzer hara. Sometimes we begin by doing the right things for the wrong reasons. Torah learning is his example. At first, we may not yet be capable of learning entirely lishmah, for its own sake, and so we are allowed to begin shelo lishmah, for less-than-pure reasons, because doing so can eventually bring us to something higher: mitoch shelo lishmah ba lishmah, from doing it for the wrong reasons, we can come to do it for the right ones. But there is also a danger in the success itself. Like the soldiers returning from victory, they can become caught up in the exhilaration of what they have accomplished while the motivations that brought them there remain imperfect. The Torah therefore builds in a period of waiting. We do not simply follow that initial desire. We stop, struggle with it, and begin stripping away the wrong motivations. What was initially shelo lishmah can gradually become lishmah. The Maor VaShemesh connects that process directly to Elul, a month for looking back at where and why we began, and working to transform it into something higher. His second teaching turns from our own growth to the way we respond to others. The command to return a fellow Jew’s wandering ox or sheep becomes an instruction for helping someone whose avodat Hashem has wandered from its proper path. But helping does not always mean correcting. If we know the person will listen, we should speak. If not, the Maor VaShemesh tells us to hold our words until the person is ready to seek and receive them. Together, the two teachings offer a striking perspective on spiritual growth. In ourselves, growth may mean beginning imperfectly, then having the patience and discipline to confront what still needs to change. With others, it requires a different kind of patience: knowing not only what someone may need to hear, but when they are ready to hear it.  

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Use this source sheet for further exploration of Parshat Ki Teitzei, complete with footnoted sources and a concise, footnoted bio of R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein (Ma’or Va-Shemesh) to enjoy this teaching at your own pace, perfect for self-learners. Prepared by Rabbi Shalom (Saul) Orbach The Ma’or Va-Shemesh is a classic Hasidic commentary on the weekly portions and festivals by R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein of Kraków (1751-1823). A foremost later disciple, and for years the Shamash, of R. Elimelech of Lizhensk, he emerged after his rebbe’s passing as a leading figure in the fourth generation of Chassidut and of Polish Hasidism. His Torah blends close reading of the Psukim with mystical depth, emphasizing Dvekut, heartfelt prayer, joy, and sanctifying the everyday, with a hallmark leadership ethic: the tzaddik sweetens judgment into mercy and draws people close.