

Welcome to Torah Lectures
A Personal Request for the Chagim
Since 2018, TorahLectures.org has worked tirelessly to make Torah available to you — free of charge.
Every week, I upload Torah from wonderful contributors on bitachon, emunah, the parsha, Hashem, and dealing with the challenges of life.
If TorahLectures.org has ever given you chizuk, strengthened your emunah, given you something meaningful for Shabbos, or simply helped you through a difficult moment, I'm personally asking you to give something back.
There are many wonderful organizations asking for your tzedakah. I know that.
But what you receive from TorahLectures.org is something unique.
There is no greater gift than giving someone the tools to deal with life.
So for the chagim, I'm asking you for one of two things:
1) Help me help families in Tzfat through Sparks to Life.
I raised $847 toward my original $1,800 goal before Rosh Hashanah. Sparks to Life ultimately raised enough overall to cover the original Rosh Hashanah need, and some of that money is now helping families for Sukkot.
But more is still needed to help everyone who needs assistance.
https://thechesedfund.com/sparkstolife/shine-on-2026/teams/vahavta
2) Or, send me a gift for the chagim.
You can support me directly here:
Or you can support me directly through this link: paypal.me/TorahLecturesInc
For example, I need about $250 just to put up my sukkah this year — that's what the poles cost.
So if you've been receiving Torah from me for years and would like to send me a nice gift for the chagim, I would genuinely appreciate it.
$36 • $50 • $100 • $250 • Whatever you can give.
I've spent years making Torah available to you.
If it has meant something to you, now I'm asking you to help me.
Thank you, and may we all have a year of simcha, bracha, parnassah and siyata d'Shmaya.
- Akiva

Haazinu
Rav Biderman, shlit"a - Torah Wellsprings
Rosh Hashana 5787
Rabbi Yehudah Mandel shlit"a - Bitachon Weekly
Rosh Hashana 5787
Zera Shimshon
Rosh Hashana 5787
Sea of Wisdom
Rosh Hashana 5787
Sweeter Than Honey
Nitzavim-Vayeilech
Living Inspiration
Rosh Hashana 5787
Chukei Chaim
Rosh Hashana 5787
Rosh Hashana that falls on Shabbos
Zichru Toras Moshe
Rosh Hashana 5787
Machon Aleh Zayis
Nitzavim-Vayeilech
Givat Ha'mivtar
Rosh Hashana 5787
Orchos Bitachon
Rosh Hashana 5787
בטחון שבועי
ראש השנה
Our site is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for our community, whether through enriching conversations at the Shabbos table or providing valuable resources. If you've benefited from our content, we encourage you not just to say thank you, but also to consider making a donation. Your support is vital, as it takes us 2-3 hours each week to keep the site updated and thriving. Together, we can continue to make a positive impact—every contribution counts!

Nitzavim - Vayeilech
הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, והנגלות לנו ולבנינו עד עולם – "The hidden matters are for Hashem our G-d; but the revealed matters are for us and our children, forever…" (29:28)
The Hovot Ha'levavot (in the Sha'ar He'behinah section) presents an analogy which captures the idea that this pasuk in Parashat Nitzavim is telling us. He describes a blind man being brought into a fully-furnished and fully-stocked home. It has beds, chairs, tables and couches, and all the food and beverages that he would need. But it also has something truly extraordinary – a doctor with a special medication that would cure the man of his blindness.
The man enters the home, and starts walking around – banging into furniture, falling and hurting himself. The doctor approaches him and tells him that he can cure his blindness so he can see again. But the blind man, stubbornly and inexplicably, refuses. He doesn't want the treatment.
He continues walking around and getting hurt. He bitterly complains and asks why he was brought into this home where nothing is in the right place, and where he can't do anything without hurting himself.
The Hovot Ha'levavot explains that many people here in our world are just like this blind man.
They find the world difficult, inhospitable and painful. Things aren't where they should be. They expect something to happen a certain way, but it happens a different way. Just like the blind man doesn't expect the stairs to be where they were, people don't expect situations to unfold the way they do, and so they "fall" and get hurt, like the blind man. They have in their mind a plan of how things should be – just like the blind man is used to his old home, and expects everything to be the same in his new home – and so they repeatedly "bump" into things and feel embittered.
All this happens because they are "blind," and they refuse to take the "cure" for their blindness, which is emunah.
Emunah opens our eyes to realize that we are in a "house" furnished and designed by Hashem, who invites us to use everything there. The "chair" might not be where we expect it to be, or where we want it to be, but when we see it through the lenses of emunah, we are able to "sit," to use it, to benefit from it. Once we "treat" our "blindness" through emunah, we'll stop getting hurt, because we'll stop expecting things to be precisely the way we think they should be.
הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו – the reasons why our world is arranged the way it is belong only to Hashem. These remain hidden for now. We believe that one day we will understand, but in the meantime, we do not have access to this information. It is not our job to explain why things are the way they are. Our job is the נגלות – to open our eyes, to cure our blindness, to accept the world and our lives as they are, and then make the most of it, by enjoying and appreciating our blessings, and by using our challenges and hardships as catalysts for growth.
Unfortunately, so many people are disillusioned with Judaism because they have unreasonable expectations. They hear exciting stories of hashgahah peratit (divine providence), of how Hashem helped people, and assume that everything is always supposed to work out. They fail to recognize the נסתרות, that there are things they aren't supposed to understand. The stories of hashgahah peratit are of course real, and they show us that Hashem is here with us, but they do not mean that things will always work out perfectly the way we want. We live in a world of both נסתרות and נגלות – of things that we aren't supposed to understand, but that we are supposed to know how to respond to.
We must not get bogged down by the נסתרות – why past events happened, and what the future will bring. Instead, we need to focus on the נגלות – on what Hashem expects of us right now, in the present, in whatever circumstances we currently face.
- Rabbi Joey Haber
https://itorah.com/weekly-inspire/the-hidden-and-the-revealed/15/31861











