It seems to me as though everyone is running around like a chicken without a head at the moment.

I know I am.

Usually, I get to read Shivivei Or etc on Shabbat, and then come here and translate some stuff that speaks to me. The last few weeks, I have barely had time to do that, as we’ve been having a ton of guests.

So, today I was going to try and translate a piece from last week, where the Rav was talking about the little 5 year old boy, Moshe Galinski, who got killed in a horrible bus accident in Modiin Illit a couple of weeks ago.

The Rav said his death was another of those that atoned for the nation, and ‘sweetened’ the very harsh decrees of destruction that are still hanging over Am Yisrael (like Leah Singer’s did, when the war really did stop…)

Except… I can’t find that newsletter anywhere, and so what I could find is this one.

It’s actually very funny.

And in typical ‘Rav’ fashion, it brings the parsha alive in ways that no-one else can manage.

So, enjoy!

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Excerpt of shiur from Thursday July 2, 2026

So, everyone should say ‘Amen’ [during the Ma’ariv davening at the Rav], ‘yehai shmaya raba’, barchu – this brings wealth!

Just the ‘Amens’.

Now, I have a very sad story, that I’m ashamed to say it, that I had a great argument with Moshe Rabbenu. I wanted a slice of onion, because I can’t eat salad without some onion, it’s an allergy, maybe it’s one of my defects, I don’t know.

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[I said to him]: A slice of onion! Bring me an onion, tomorrow! Remember!

Tov, so this was already arranged, good. So, I request forgiveness from everyone. B’kitzur, I went to Korach, and I told him the whole story, that Moshe Rabbenu had hurt my feelings, personally.

[What did I want from him?] I wanted a slice of onion. I said to him: Bring onions down from the sky, what’s the problem?! You are bringing down water, you are bringing bread from the sky, the clouds of glory – bring down an onion!

He said to me: Under absolutely no circumstances, no! This, I am not going to do!

I can’t tell you the reasons why, I don’t know. Maybe, he wanted to take revenge against me, I don’t know what, exactly.

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But, I had onion seeds.

When I left Mitzrayim, I had seeds. I said to myself: Let’s sow onions, here in the desert!

So I wanted to take a little water from Miriam’s Well, just a little water, what do you care?!

[Moshe Rabbenu said:] Don’t you dare touch Miriam’s Well! I don’t give you permission! This is not for planting onions, this is just for drinking! Not for sowing onions!

So, how am I meant to grow onions? In the end, I went to Korach, and I told him my whole problem, and how much I’d been hurt.

He said to me: What, you were hurt by that?! See, me, he cut my payot off! He cut off my beard! Did he also cut your payot off? You aren’t a Levite, there’s no problem.

But Isaac[1] is a Levi. Who here is a Levi? Are there Levites, here? So, then you don’t have a problem. Baruch Hashem, they didn’t cut your beards off. But for those who had their beards cut off – Hashem yerachem! (Hashem should have mercy).

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[Korach said]: My wife left me, she ran away from the house. She said: ‘I am not coming back to the house’, until my beard grew back again, and I regrew my payot. I didn’t eat for three days, already, that’s what he told me.

I think there was someone’s bris, so then I ate a little bit, but in the evening there was no-one to cover me up.

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In Sinai, we are talking about Sinai, we aren’t talking about Eretz Yisrael, and not about New York, and not about San Francisco, and not about Los Angeles, we are talking about Sinai.

The temperature goes down in the winter, -40, and in the summer, it’s -20 [at night]. People freeze to death from the cold. People go for a tiyul, they make a mistake in the mountains, they simply freeze. And it’s impossible afterwards to revive them.

He said to me: There was no-one to cover me, there was no-one to make the bed. That’s what he did to me!

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B’kitzur, he started to cry, mamash, he cried a river of tears, he was full of tears.

He said to me: And on top of that, I have other complaints.

I don’t want to tell you all of the complaints [of Korach], but one complaint is from the parshat hashavua, a very difficult complaint. He said: See, Moshe doesn’t know halachot, he doesn’t know Shulchan Aruch, he doesn’t learn Rambam.

[The Rav turns to someone next to him]: You do learn Rambam? What halachot escaped Moshe Rabbenu’s mind, in the parsha? It’s good that you don’t know, that’s the best. You do know, what halacha escaped him? That they took his head off. Whose head did they take off? You also don’t know?!

What, so what are you learning in yeshiva for? Even a simple Rashi. Except, I don’t learn Rashi, because he hit me in the cheder, when he learnt Rashi in the cheder [the teacher hit him]. He gave me such slaps, that now I can’t even touch a Rashi.

But you, he didn’t hit, so what do you care, to learn some Rashi?!

All of this, Korach explained to me…open the parsha! See what’s written there.

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Excerpted and translated from Rasisei Tal, #74.087

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] It’s not clear who the Rav is talking about here.