G-d is Only King When...

by Rav Moshe Kaplan, meirtv.com/en

Rav Moshe Kaplan discusses when G-d is called King (He is always King, but when will the world call Him King), and this is revealed and expressed only by Knesset Yisrael, and only when? Watch to find out.

[4-minute video]

Parshat Bo: Why Jewish Holidays Are Celebrated Differently in Israel & Diaspora

by Baruch Gordon

In this week's email, Baruch Gordon looks at the concept of keeping two days of a holiday outside of the Land of Israel and keeping one day inside the Land of Israel. What is the deeper implication of this distinction and how can we apply the lessons to our lives today? 

[3-minute video]

Parshat Bo: Matzah as the Secret to our Personal and Collective Redemption

by Rav Yehuda HaKohen, visionmag.org

“You shall safeguard the matzot, for on this very day I will have taken your legions out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day for your generations as an eternal decree. In the first, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening shall you eat matzot, until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening” (Sh’mot 12:17-18).

“Matzot shall be eaten throughout the seven-day period; no ḥametz may be seen in your possession, nor may leaven be seen in your possession in all your borders” (Sh’mot 13:7).

Rav Moshe Kaplan: The Rambam on Jewish Sovereignty

by Rav Moshe Kaplan, meirtv.com/en

Rav Moshe Kaplan discusses the process of the ingathering of the exiles and the ultimate bringing of the Mashiach as the process of Jews returning to Eretz Yisrael. Will it look natural or miraculous? Watch to find out.

[4-minute video]

Parshat Vaeira: The Land Brings it All Together

By Baruch Gordon

Baruch Gordon looks at the Torah's language of redemption, which refers to the three-step process of the Exodus, the Torah, and the Land (of Israel).  

[2-minute video]

The Ten Plagues vs. the Pharaonic World View

By Rav Yehuda Hakohen, visionmag.org 

Plagues on Egypt

The culture of Egypt had dominated the world, casting its dark and oppressive shadow over all of civilization while abandoning the hope for any ethical or moral progress.

Ancient Egyptian philosophy pictured life as fixed and recurrent cycles of materialism determined by the immutable laws of nature that all human endeavors must serve. Their gods were the sun, the Nile and the animals. The sun created the cycle of the year. The Nile provided water and was the source of life. The animals represented the basic fundamental life forces. This comprehensive perspective was the very basis of ancient Egyptian civilization.

Parshat Shemot: What Israel Does to Your Mind

By Baruch Gordon

Baruch Gordon looks at the promise that Hashem made to Moshe about the Land of Israel and what it means for us today.

[2-minute video]

Rav Moshe Kaplan: Malchut Yisrael: The Significance of Jewish Kingship in Israel

by Rav Moshe Kaplan, meirtv.com/en

Rav Moshe Kaplan discusses "the goal of Am Yisrael is first and foremost, a collective, national goal to show the divine ideal in all walks of life, in all aspects of reality: government, politics, army, agriculture, industry. The individual, the individual Jew gets his meaning, significance, and value as a unique branch and extension, a manifestation of that collective divine content... "

[5-minute video]

Parshat Shemot: Fear of Hashem as the Basis for True Love

By Rav Yehuda Hakohen, visionmag.org 

Hebrew Slaves in Egypt

“The King of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the first was Shifra and the name of the second was Pua – and he said, ‘When you deliver the Hebrew women, and you see them on the birth stool; if it is a son, you are to kill him, and if it is a daughter, she shall live.’ But the midwives feared G-D and they did not do as the king of Egypt spoke to them, and they caused the boys to live” (Sh’mot 1:15-17).

Rav Moshe Kaplan: Jewish Sovereignty in the Land of Israel

by Rav Moshe Kaplan, meirtv.com/en

Rav Moshe Kaplan discusses the end of the Aleinu prayer in which we proclaim that Hashem will be one. When? When the Jews return to their land in the Land of Israel. When this ultimately happens, then the nation of Israel will be considered kings and sons of kings.

[4-minute video]

Vayechi: The Individual Blessings of the 12 Tribes

by Rav Yehuda HaKohen, visionmag.org

The 12 Tribes of Israel

“All these are the tribes of Israel – twelve – and this is what their father spoke to them and he blessed them; he blessed each according to his appropriate blessing” (B’reishit 49:28).

Just prior to his passing, Yaakov blessed his sons for the final time. The Abarbanel teaches that the patriarch bestowed a blessing upon the tribal heads according to each one’s particular task in the larger mission of building the Hebrew nation.

Rav Moshe Kaplan: Slave Mentality in Exile

by Rav Moshe Kaplan, meirtv.com/en

Rav Moshe Kaplan discusses how the slave mentality of Bnei Yisrael prohibited a whole generation from entering the Land of Israel. The slave mentality was real and caused them to have a lowly spirit, rather than a fighting spirit to rise up and be free.

[10-minute video]

Parshat Vayigash: Return to Israel the Moment It's Possible

by Baruch Gordon

In this week's email, Baruch Gordon looks at the story of how Yaakov and his sons were strangers in the land of Egypt but then eventually they and their offspring became permanent residents there. At first they didn't want to be there at all, but then they didn't want to leave to go back to the Land of Israel. What does this mean for us today?

[3-minute video]

Parshat Vayigash: The Jewish Diaspora in Egypt and Today

by Rav Yehuda HaKohen, visionmag.org

I'm Making Aliyah

“Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt in the region of Goshen; they acquired property in it and they were fruitful and multiplied greatly” (B’reishit 47:27).

On this verse, the Kli Yakar comments that the Children of Israel no longer regarded themselves as aliens sojourning in Egypt but rather as permanent residents. He further explains that “so completely settled did they become that they did not wish to leave Egypt and HaShem had to remove them by force. Those who did not wish to leave died during the three days of darkness.”