Nitzavim – How to Perform a Miracle
As is the case with any question about nature, when a child asks why the sky is blue, the answer you give (here, that blue light is scattered more than other colors) will elicit...
Author: Avi Shafran
Ki Savo – Getting It Into Our Heads
From its opening words through many of the parsha’s laws and instructions, Eretz Yisrael is central: Bikkurim, maasros, the settings-up of the Torah-inscribed stones, the brachos and klalos on Har Grizim and Har Eival. ...
Ki Seitzei – Butterflies and Baker’s Bread
The ben sorer umoreh is judged al sheim sofo – because of where, on the evidence of the present, the youth’s life is headed. And his very existence, Chazal say, is the result of...
Shoftim – The Consequentialness of a Court
In the U.S., offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting something of value in exchange for influencing a judge’s or other public official’s actions is illegal (U.S. Code, Title 18, Section 201). The Torah’s prohibition of...
Re’ei – Killing’s Toll on Killers
Killing takes a toll – on the killed, of course; that’s pretty obvious. But also on the killers. That is something that the Ohr Hachaim introduces in his commentary on the pasuk “And He...
Agudath Israel Condemns Biased UN Tribute to Terror Victims
The omission of any mention of Israeli victims of terrorism from an International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism display at the visitors’ hall of United Nations headquarters is...
Ekev — Consumer Goods
It’s remarkable how prominent eating is in the Torah. The designation of which animals one may eat, the consumption of parts of all korbonos except olos, matza on Pesach, seudos on Shabbos and Yomtov…...
Vo’eschanan – Avodah Zarah Lite
A standard term for idols in the Torah is elohim acheirim, “foreign forces.” At one point in our parsha, though, the term elohim is used without the second word, signaling, perhaps, a less blatant...
Devarim – The Ox Whisperer… and Us
The navi Yeshayahu famously invokes a metaphorical bovine and equine at the beginning of his prophecy, which is recited as the haftarah of the parsha, “An ox knows its owner, donkey its master’s trough. Yisrael...
Mattos — Respect and Realities
For a religion derided in some circles as denigrating women, Judaism would seem to have an odd attitude. In a famous aphorism based on the list of adornments in our parsha (Bamidbar 31:50), Chazal...
Recent Comments