Recorded on Rosh Chodesh Elul, just after the first shofar blowing of the month, Rabbi Liff opens with family simchos from a trip to Romania and an engagement in his home, then turns to Parshas Shoftim for chizuk in the new season of teshuva. He brings a vort from the Maggid of Kelm on sinas chinam as the root of Klal Yisrael's suffering, a story from Rav Yisrael Salanter tracing the roots of eglah arufah, and his father's mesorah on judging oneself objectively through the parsha's opening call for shoftim v'shotrim. This episode is for anyone looking to enter Elul with practical chizuk on ahavas chinam and honest self-judgment.

Rabbi Liff shares his father's mesorah, going back to Rav Yisrael Salanter, that the Torah's call for judges and officers is first a call to judge oneself. He explains negios (personal biases) as the true shochad that cloud self-judgment, and the lifelong work of becoming objective rather than subjective. A short dvar Torah clip from the Parshas Shoftim episode, for chizuk in the month of Elul.

Rabbi Liff tells the story of Reb Shmuel Rozovsky, Rosh Yeshiva of Ponevezh, who secretly cleaned the beis medrash himself when the yeshiva's workers went unpaid. On his deathbed he revealed to family that this hidden chesed, not his years of shiurim, was the zechus he hoped to bring before the Heavenly court. A short story clip from the Parshas Shoftim episode, for anyone looking for chizuk in quiet, uncredited chesed.

Rabbi Liff shares personal bein hazmanim musings recorded while traveling with his family in Romania, tying the closing days of the summer break to the pasuk “Re’eh anochi nosein lifneichem hayom” and the theme of perspective — re’iyah — as Klal Yisrael moves toward Elul and teshuvah.

Key stories and sources:

Parsha connection: Parshas Reeh opens with “Re’eh anochi nosein lifneichem hayom” — Rabbi Liff connects the lashon of re’iyah, seeing with depth and perspective, to using the final days of bein hazmanim well as Elul approaches.

A short dvar Torah from Rabbi Liff’s Erev Shabbos shmuess for Parshas Reeh.

A vort from the Toras Chaim of Kosov on the Gemara’s instruction to bring the yetzer hara into the beis medrash.

A short story from Rabbi Liff’s Erev Shabbos shmuess for Parshas Reeh.

Rabbi Liff’s bein hazmanim encounter with Rav Chaim Kanievsky ztz"l at the beach in Netanya, and the shmiras einayim lesson he drew from it.

An Erev Shabbos chizuk shmuess for Parshas Ekev, on the 17th of Menachem Av, in the week of Tu B’Av — and on the Shabbos of the bar mitzvah of Rabbi Liff’s grandson, Naftali Tzvi. The central theme is chius: “Lo al halechem levado yichyeh ha’adam” — bread only sustains, but the dvar Hashem, the Torah, is life itself. Rabbi Liff carries that into bein hazmanim (“there’s no such thing as in-between life”), the yirah the parsha asks of every Yid, and the chesed and shidduchim of Tu B’Av.

Key stories and sources:

Parsha connection: Parshas Ekev’s themes — Eretz Yisrael, the Torah, anavah, and “Mah Hashem Elokecha sho’el mei’imach ki im l’yirah” — are all aspects of the etzem hachaim, the essence of life itself.

A short dvar Torah from Rabbi Liff’s Erev Shabbos shmuess for Parshas Ekev.

On the pasuk “Lo al halechem levado yichyeh ha’adam,” Targum Onkelos translates “yichyeh” two different ways within the same pasuk — miskayeim at the beginning, chaim at the end. Bread is only a hechsher, the means by which a person is sustained, while the dvar Hashem — the Torah — is the etzem hachaim itself. Everything the parsha speaks of — Eretz Yisrael, the Torah, anavah, yiras Shamayim — are aspects of that essence of life.

A short story from Rabbi Liff’s Erev Shabbos shmuess for Parshas Ekev, said over in the week of Tu B’Av.

Rav Moshe Shapiro said over how his parents’ shidduch was made. His father traveled a long way to the town, and the girl who was the meduberes looked through the window and could not bring herself to open the door. Her younger sister said that a Jewish bochur who had traveled so far could not be left standing outside — she opened the door, and that became the shidduch, and from it came Rav Moshe Shapiro.

Rabbi Liff explains Moshe Rabbeinu’s 515 tefillos and what they teach about staying connected to the penimiyus of Eretz Yisrael. Even in galus, our tefillos and our calling out bring us close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.