Simply Deep

Rashi (Shemos 22:25) says that just like Hashem returns your nefesh daily, so too you should return the poor person’s collateral daily. This episode analyzes this strange analogy.

The first passuk in Yisro describes what Yisro heard that caused him to come to the Jews in the desert. The Rashis on this passuk add alot to the pshat in the passuk. This episode analyzes these Rashis.

While people often learn lessons from Hashem hardening Pharaoh’s heart, this shiur focuses more on the lessons to be learnt from Pharaoh hardening his own heart. It also discusses the confusing issue of who hardened Pharaoh’s heart after Barad.

Even though the passuk (Shmos 18:13) says Moshe judged from morning until evening, Rashi says that this isn’t literal but is teaching us a lesson. Namely, someone who judges a true din, even for one moment, it’s as if he is involved in Torah all day and it’s as if he’s a partner with Hashem in Creation (where it often says, “and it was evening, and it was morning, day x.”)

The Gemara in Sanhedrin 44a says that Yehoshua knew that the malach of Hashem wasn’t a sheid because he did something that no sheid would do…

In Shmos 11:5 and 12:29, Rashi discusses why makas bechoros extended to all firstborns, even of the maidservants and the captives. This episode discusses the justice of this and deals with the question why the makkah would have extended to Jewish firstborns but for Hashem’s salvation (as indicted in Rashi on Bamidbar 8:17).

The Gemara in Brachos 6a discusses various ideas about mazikin or sheidim. Among other points, it discusses their chicken footprints in ashes around your bed. This episode (a shiur given during COVID time) provides an approach to explaining this and similar gemaras about sheidim.

This episode analyzes the various elements of reward that Rashi (Shmos 12:28) says the Jews received for doing the Korban Pesach.

In Shmos 7:3, Hashem tells Moshe that He’ll harden Pharaoh’s heart. Why is it just to punish him if he didn’t have free will? This episode discusses various answers to this question, with a specific focus on Rashi.

The details of the mitzvah of stoning certain sinners are learned from how the Torah describes what would be done to someone who breached the boundary of Har Sinai (Sanhedrin 45a). This episode analyzes why the details of this permanent mitzva would be learned from the momentary event at Har Sinai. In doing so, we discuss some fundamental ideas about capital punishment in the Torah.