Chukas – The Marrow of the Matter
Our ancestors were divinely commanded to gaze at a copper representation of a snake. In order to end a plague of snakebites born of their complaint about the mon (Bamidbar 21:8). Chazal explain that...
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Korach- Schism and Stereopsis
His “eye,” not his “eyes.” That’s what Chazal point to with regard to how a pikei’ach (perceptive person) like Korach could undertake a shtus, a “stupidity” like fomenting a rebellion against Moshe Rabbeinu. The...
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Shelach Lecha – Meaningful Metaphor
In their declaration that the conquest of Cna’an will proceed successfully, Yehoshua and Calev employ an odd metaphor: The idolatrous residents of the land, they say, will be vanquished because “they are our bread”...
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Two Rabbis, Three Opinions New Episode
This time it really is three opinions. Join us as we host Dr Moshe Krakowski, a pioneer in the empirical study of issues in the Orthodox community. Although usually studying the charedi cohort, he...
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A Life Lesson
Mishpacha Magazine asked me to contribute, as part of a symposium, a short essay on the topic of a lesson I would want my children to internalize. The symposium was recently published, and my...
Chukas – The Marrow of the Matter
Our ancestors were divinely commanded to gaze at a copper representation of a snake. In order to end a plague of snakebites born of their complaint about the mon (Bamidbar 21:8). Chazal explain that...
Korach- Schism and Stereopsis
His “eye,” not his “eyes.” That’s what Chazal point to with regard to how a pikei’ach (perceptive person) like Korach could undertake a shtus, a “stupidity” like fomenting a rebellion against Moshe Rabbeinu. The...
Shelach Lecha – Meaningful Metaphor
In their declaration that the conquest of Cna’an will proceed successfully, Yehoshua and Calev employ an odd metaphor: The idolatrous residents of the land, they say, will be vanquished because “they are our bread”...
Two Rabbis, Three Opinions New Episode
This time it really is three opinions. Join us as we host Dr Moshe Krakowski, a pioneer in the empirical study of issues in the Orthodox community. Although usually studying the charedi cohort, he...
A Life Lesson
Mishpacha Magazine asked me to contribute, as part of a symposium, a short essay on the topic of a lesson I would want my children to internalize. The symposium was recently published, and my...
Beha’aloscha – Class-ic Complaint
Rashi, quoting the Gemara, understands the nation’s “weeping about its family” (Bamidbar 11:10) as referring to ‘matters of family’ – to the fact that relatives who were once permitted to be joined in marriage...
Preliminary Observations About the WZO Preliminary Results
There are some (pleasant) surprises, and some lessons to be learned. The results are only tentative, since thousands of votes are being challenged as possibly fraudulent. Entire slates are being challenged. Nonetheless, we can...
Naso – Chinuch 101
Haftaros always have some connection to something in the parsha, but few are as explicitly related to what was read from the Torah as the haftarah of parshas Naso, which haftarah , like part...
Two Rabbis, Three Opinions Episode 21
Is it good, bad, or both to live in a bubble? What to do when you never had to live in an echo chamber before – and now find yourself planted in the middle...
Bamidbar – No Date, No Place
We read parshas Bamidbar (Bimidbar, if one wants to be didactic) on the Shabbos before Shavuos. The meaning of that juxtaposition might lie in the word by which the parsha is known ((however one...