Parshah and the Moadim with Rabbi Aryeh Shulman

Episode Notes Notes go hereRabbi Shulman explains why the Torah—after already giving the time and place—adds that Moshe spoke to Israel only *after* defeating Sichon and Og. Drawing on Chazal and Rabbi Tzadok, he presents Sichon and Og as spiritual forces of the יצר הרע that block a person’s mind (preventing חשבון הנפש) and heart (hardening it like stone), making תוכחה unable to penetrate. The repeated emphasis on “בעבר הירדן” then becomes a conceptual map: the “east bank” represents מוחין (חכמה, בינה, דעת) that must be “brought down” into action as the nation enters Eretz Canaan. Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/devarim-struck-the-two-kings-20260717-030330-outline-20260717-030407.pdf

Rabbi Shulman contrasts the “lived” experience of the Nine Days—darkness, mourning, and absence—with a deeper Torah view in which this time is paradoxically called a **מועד**. Drawing from Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen (Pri Tzadik), Rabbi Shulman explains how Rosh Chodesh (especially Rosh Chodesh Av) contains hidden קדושה and “light,” even amid טומאה and חורבן, and how the very experience of rock-bottom can become the fuel for transformative תשובה מאהבה that retroactively reveals good בתוך החושך. Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/av-the-light-of-darkness-20260716-130634-outline-20260716-130733.pdf

Episode Notes Notes go hereRabbi Shulman addresses the apparent tension in the Torah’s treatment of נדרים and שבועות: Chazal often criticize making vows, yet the Torah opens Parashat Matot with the laws of nedarim and even allows for their annulment. He explains (based on Rav Tzadok and the Zohar) that vows are spiritually valid only when a person’s רצון is profoundly aligned with רצון ה׳—to the point of “זה הדבר,” where speech becomes a vehicle for דבר ה׳. Hatarat nedarim then functions as a corrective mechanism when vows emerge from confused or misguided רצון rather than authentic דבקות. Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/matos-speaking-a-vow-20260710-030333-outline-20260710-030404.pdf

Rabbi Shulman uses the Mishnah in Ta’anit—“חמישה דברים אירעו… וחמישה”—to argue that the tragedies of י״ז בתמוז and תשעה באב are not merely ten historical events but ten *categories* of national breakdown. He develops a Maharal-based framework in which the “first five” are openings—reversible cracks that make destruction possible—while the “second five” are the irreversible completion. Through imagery of two hands (right/left), weapons, and the halachic notion of רשות היחיד vs. רשות הרבים, Rabbi Shulman explains how spiritual presence, national unity, and Torah itself are progressively compromised—and why the Three Weeks are meant to stop the process before the “ending” lands.

Rabbi Shulman explores the famous דרשה of Reish Lakish that Torah only endures in someone who “kills himself” over it, derived from the pasuk “זאת התורה אדם כי ימות באהל.” He addresses the tension between the pasuk’s פשט—death and טומאה in a literal tent—and the דרוש—life-giving devotion in the tent of Torah. Rabbi Shulman then reconciles an apparent contradiction in חז״ל about whether the human body can be purified in this world, arguing that intense immersion in Torah creates a temporary “Har Sinai” state where physical drives fall silent and the זוהמה is functionally suspended. Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/chukas-the-bright-side-of-death-20260626-031631-outline-20260626-031657.pdf

Rabbi Shulman raises Rabbi Tzadok’s fundamental question: how can the Torah—*divrei emet*—record the falsehoods Korach spreads, especially when they fuel machloket rather than peace? He explains that Korach’s claims are not “random lies” preserved as history; rather, they express a profound truth that applies in a different spiritual mode: moments of “circular” revelation (like Kriyat Yam Suf and Matan Torah) and the future world, where every Jew relates directly to Hashem without hierarchy. Korach’s error was weaponizing that truth prematurely—using a real ideal of equality in a world that still operates by process, gradation, and necessary distinction. Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/korach-the-truth-of-equality-20260619-141019-outline-20260619-141057.pdf

Rabbi Shulman focuses on the Torah’s instruction that all seven lamps of the menorah must shine “אל מול פני המנורה,” and he raises two questions: how this applies to the middle lamp, and why this detail appears here rather than earlier in the construction of the Mishkan’s vessels. Drawing on Rav Tzadok, Rabbi Shulman explains that “מול” hints to the north side of the Mishkan—the spiritually vulnerable “opening” associated with the hidden yetzer hara (“הצפוני”). The menorah’s light (Torah) must therefore shine “into the north,” elevating the שולחן (physical eating and enjoyment) into holiness and providing the only real antidote to modern excess and indulgence.

Rabbi Shulman explains the well-known Chazal on the juxtaposition of *Sotah* and *Nazir*: seeing a *sotah* “in her disgrace” should motivate a person to abstain from wine. Beyond the simple concern of avoiding moral desensitization, he highlights a deeper link—both *sotah* and *nazir* are defined by hair: her hair is undone as shame, while his hair becomes *נזר אלוקיו* (a holy “crown”). The broader מוסר: when a person “sees” spiritual failure that truly registers, it is not enough to avoid the wrongdoing; one must actively elevate and sanctify that very area as a תיקון. Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/naso-see-something-do-something-20260529-031901-outline-20260529-031933.pdf

Rabbi Shulman presents a teaching from Rav Tzadok (in *Machshavot Charutz*) that the three regalim align with the three life-areas described as dependent on “mazal”: children, life, and sustenance. He develops how Pesach corresponds to מזונות/פרנסה and why the Omer process refines human physicality from “animal food” (barley) toward “human food” (wheat), culminating in Shavuot as the “עצרת”—the internalization of revelation into lasting vessels. The centerpiece is the linkage of Torah and בנים: children represent a person’s eternity, and new souls require new expansions of Torah (especially תורה שבעל פה) as their spiritual “place” in the world. Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/shavuos-torah-and-children-20260521-032651-outline-20260521-032743.pdf

Rabbi Shulman frames the final week of ספירת העומר as the culminating עבודה that leads directly into שבועות: the מידה of מלכות. Unlike the earlier weeks’ focus on “doing” (active character refinement), מלכות is about “receiving”—aligning oneself with the singular רצון of הקדוש ברוך הוא and recognizing His unified dominion in all events. He connects this to קבלת עול מלכות שמים through שמע ישראל, explaining that Hashem’s oneness and kingship are mutually defining, and that this awareness is the core of אמונה. Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/malchus-short-version-20260515-031226-outline-20260515-031255.pdf

Rabbi Shulman explains that the final week of Sefirat HaOmer corresponds to **מלכות**, the divine attribute of “kingship,” rooted in the pasuk recited when the Torah is taken out: “לך ה׳ … לך ה׳ הממלכה והמתנשא לכל ראש.” He develops מלכות as **רצון**—the unifying will that gives direction and cohesion to all reality—and shows why its historical manifestation is the ultimate defeat of **עמלק** and the confrontation with **גוג ומגוג**. Along the way, Rabbi Shulman uses the Ramchal to address the tension between Hashem’s absolute will and human free choice, and concludes with how מלכות is lived personally through **אמונה**: receiving, recognizing, and unifying life under Hashem’s purpose. Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/malchus-one-will-20260514-031632-outline-20260514-031744.pdf

This dvar Torah continues a series mapping the sefirot/middot through a Gemara in Berachot, focusing on **יסוד** as the “hidden” middah embedded in the phrase **“כִּי כֹל בַּשָּׁמַיִם וּבָאָרֶץ”**. It develops Yesod as the power of **hashpa’ah and kabbalah** (influence and receptivity), the discipline of **discernment** (channeling energy only where it belongs), and the stance of **faithfulness to one’s source**—modeled by Yosef. The outline ties these themes to **Milchemet Sisera** (where the heavens and earth interact), to the Yamim Nora’im as “shamayim/aretz,” and to **Tu BiShvat** via the **olive/oil** as the seventh-species symbol of Yesod. Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/yisod-unity-of-expression-20260507-211329-outline-20260507-211426.pdf

This dvar Torah uses the Maharal (in the third introduction to *Gevurot Hashem*) to frame the seven weeks of Sefirat HaOmer as a progression through seven divine מידות, anchored in a sugya in Berachot that maps them onto the pasuk “לך ה׳ הגדולה...” The focus is on מידת ההוד: its connection to hiddenness (צפון), to הודאה/תודה as “admitting” what could have been denied, and to healing as restoring balance. Through the episode of נַחֲלֵי אַרְנוֹן and the role of אהרן הכהן, the talk develops Hod as the capacity to reveal and acknowledge inner truth—whether in Hashem’s hidden salvations or in the hidden goodness within people. Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/sefiras-haomer-sefiras-hahod-20260430-111533-outline-20260430-111625.pdf

Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/pesach-embittered-learning-20260327-042005-outline-20260327-042048.pdf

Outline: https://danielggordon.github.io/ateresami/haggadah-sheli-13-20260327-041547-outline-20260327-041704.pdf