Hal Miller

Shabbat Parashat Eikev - 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller You will eat and you will be satisfied and you will bless Hashem your God for the good land that He gave you. [Devarim 8:10] This verse is the commandment we observe after a meal, known in Hebrew as "birchat hamazon", in Yiddish as "bentching" and in English as "grace". There is a separate commandment to say a blessing before we partake of anything of benefit, but the main blessing on a meal is our verse, and comes after be

Shabbat Parashat Vaetchanan - 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller Only beware for yourself and greatly beware for your soul, lest you forget the things that your eyes have beheld and lest you remove them from your heart all the days of your life. [Devarim 4:9] Moshe tells us repeatedly in our portion that we are to beware for ourselves, such as in our verse and also 4:15 and 4:23. Why did he need to say this many times? The importance of Moshe's point seems to be reinforced by the "l

Shabbat Parashat Devarim - 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller These are the words that Moshe spoke to all Israel, across the Jordan, in the wilderness, in the Plain, opposite the [Sea of] Reeds, between Paran and Tophel and Lavan, and Chatzerot and Di-Zahav. [Devarim 1:1] What are "the words", why does it tell us "that Moshe spoke to all Israel", and why does it list all these places? Rav Hirsch addresses our first question, "these are the words refers to the whole of the contents o

Shabbat Parashat Maatot-Maasei - 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller So Moshe gave to them, to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuven and to part of the tribe of Menashe son of Yosef, the kingdom of Sichon king of the Amorite and the kingdom of Og king of the Bashan, the land with its cities in the boundaries and the cities of the surrounding land. [Bamidbar 32:33] The tribes of Reuven and Gad asked Moshe to allot to them the lands of Sichon and Og, whom the nation under

Shabbat Parashat Pinchas - 5786 Rabbi Hal Miller The daughters of Tzelophechad son of Cheifer son of Gilad son of Machir son of Menashe, of the families of Menashe son of Yosef, drew near. And these are the name of his daughters: Machlah, Noah and Chaglah and Milcah and Tirtzah. [Bamidbar 27:1] The daughters of Tzelophechad are listed three times in the Torah and once in Yehoshua, in multiple different ways. What do these differences mean? In Bamidbar 26:33, during the