The essence of teshuvah is limited to a single point: the resolve to mend one’s ways from now on. As soon as he resolves to live as a servant of Hashem, he is a tzaddik, regardless of any blemish that may still remain.
The name of this month Menachem Av hints to both "comforting" and "showing compassion". Comforting indicates that the problem is still intact. Compassion removes the pain. During this month we have the combination of both.
If a person is constantly involved in worldly pursuits, even if he does them lesheim shamayim, he will inevitably be affected by the materialism always there before him.
It should have bothered the Bnei Yisroel: How can it be that we will have to wait until we enter Eretz Yisroel to fulfill this mitzvah?! Moshe and Aharon were willing to forgo the great revelations they would experience, all so that the Jews’ discredit should be minimized.
Just as today, seeing physical objects doesn’t require any unique miracle or Divine intervention, so too in the times of Moshiach, seeing Elokus will be a natural phenomenon.
When Hashem split the Yam Suf, every body of water in the world split as well. This means that every concealed level, no matter how sublime, was open to all.
Both he who possess proofs and he who lacks them are in fact equal in their disconnect from the actual matter. To be persuaded of something is to be detached from it, bereft of the straightforwardness of plainly seeing it.
Moshiach’s legs are described as “standing atop the Mount of Olives,” demonstrating that Moshiach’s legs are higher than the wisdom represented by oil.
The departure from Mitzrayim is compared to the birth of a child. Although the Yidden actually left Mitzrayim on 15 Nissan, their “birth” began earlier, on Yud-Alef Nissan.
When one Yid harms another, the Torah obligates him to give compensation. This is not merely a technical obligation or a mitzvah. It should truly bother a Yid thathe mistreated someone else, and accepting full responsibility.
