The Weekly Torah Insights of Rabbi Shimshon Dovid Pincus, Zt”l

Every week, Jews around the world can choose from dozens if not hundreds of Torah-oriented parsha sheet emails to prepare either before the Shabbos seudos (Sabbath meals) or to read to your family guests or even just yourself at the Shabbos table. My favorite is a recent Torah email – Nefesh Shimshon, which offers Divrei Torah on the weekly parsha and holidays from the teachings of Rabbi Shimshon Dovid Pincus, zt”l.

Rabbi Shimshon Dovid Pincus (1944 – 2001) was raised in Brooklyn where he learned in the Beis Hatalmud yeshiva in the Bensonhurst neighborhood where he was greatly influenced by Rabbi Aryeh Leib Malin. He learned in Yerushalayim in the Brisk Yeshiva under Rabbi Berel Soloveitchik, the son of the legendary Brisker Rav (Rabbi Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik).

After his marriage, he lived in Bnei Brak until accepting the position of Chief Rabbi of a small Jewish community in the Negev town of Ofaqim. A popular Torah lecturer in both Hebrew and English, Rabbi Pincus in addition to delivering shiurim (lectures) throughout the Holy Land, was also in demand for speaking engagement in the Americas and South Africa.

Rabbi Pincus was tragically killed in a car accident that also took the lives of his wife Chaya and his 18-year-old daughter Miriam. Fortunately, hundreds of Rabbi Pincus’ lectures were recorded and to date many of those shiurim have been transcribed into seforim (books) in both Hebrew and English.

In English, Feldheim Publishers has published transcribed books of Rabbi Pincus’ Torah teachers – three volumes of Moadei Hashanah on the different Jewish holidays, and books on faith, Shabbos Kodesh, how to attain Torah, and prayer.

The new Torah email – Nefesh Shimshon – is a project of Kollel “Nefesh Shimshon” in Jerusalem as an illui neshama for Rabbi Shimshon Dovid Pincus, zt”l. The Kollel is headed by his sons – Rav Yosef Dov Pincus and Rav Shmuel Pincus.

It is a beautifully edited and produced Torah email that would enhance the Shabbos or Yom Tov table of all English-reading Jews across the entire spectrum of the Jewish community – whether one is hareidi (ultra-Orthodox) or Modern Orthodox, whether one is Ashkenazi or Sephardi or one is Yeshivish or simple of a “simple” baal habayis.

The average Nefesh Shimshon weekly Torah email consists of seven easy-to-read pages of Divrei Torah that one can enjoy regardless of the level of one’s Torah education. In the most recent email of Nefesh Shimshon for last week’s Parshat Shelach there were three items, which could have been read at the Shabbos table on Friday night, Shabbos day meal and at the Shalosh Seudos (third Sabbath meal). The titles of the Parshat Shelach email of Nefesh Shimshon were: “Hashem is Alive,” Don’t Forget that Hashem Loves You” and “Think Good.”

If you would like to get a free subscription of the Nefesh Shimshon email, you can email your request to [email protected]