Author: Avi Shafran

Parshas Devarim: Timeless

Sefer Devarim begins with Moshe Rabbeinu’s recounting of the Jewish People’s history since the exodus from Egypt, through the years of desert-wandering. And our communal reading of the beginning of the sefer coincides yearly...

Parshas Matos: Being There

At first read, the tribes of Gad, Reuvein and half of Menashe seem to be making an entirely unreasonable request of Moshe: Let us remain on the east side of the Jordan River, where...

An Antisemite’s Perceptive, Worthy Words

Most people, if they are familiar with the name at all, associate “Chateaubriand” with a meat dish.  But François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand was a famous French author who died in 1848.  He was not...

Sliwa’s Slurs… and some other stuff

You might find of interest Agudath Israel of America’s response to a deeply offensive and misleading speech delivered in 2018 by then-talk show host and current Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa. Video of the...

Parshas Balak – Invitation to Murder

Were a donkey to suddenly develop the power of speech and address me, I would, I’m quite sure, be flabbergasted. Faced with just such an asinine address, though, Bil’am isn’t struck silent and doesn’t...

Cowardice or Wisdom?

That any sane person could castigate Israel for her response last month to Hamas missiles is astounding. Hamas, after all, has sent booby-trapped party balloons across the border into Israeli towns in an effort...

Parshas Chukas – Snake Eyes

The bizarre image (Bamidbar 21:9) of our ancestors gazing at a graven image — a copper representation of a snake — to end a snake-plague born of their complaining about the mon, is contextualized...

Chagrined by AOC’s Reaction

I have defended Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on a number of occasions in several public venues.  But I was chagrined by her reaction to the recent Hamas/Israel war, and express why here.

Pin It on Pinterest