NItzavim – The Holy Land Has a Name
“Hashem… will return and gather you in from all the peoples to which [He] has scattered you… and He will bring you to the land that your forefathers possessed and you shall possess it…”...
Author: Avi Shafran
Ki Savo – Discarding Despondence
The horrors of the tochacha, the parsha’s description of what Klal Yisrael will endure should it drift from heeding the Torah, left our ancestors dejected. As Rashi writes at the beginning of parshas Nitzavim...
Imagining My Unmet Grandfather’s Last Thoughts: A Grandparents Day Musing
Dark-eyed, long-bearded and posing in rabbinic cap and garb, my maternal grandfather looks down at me from within his cherry-wood frame over the desk where I write. We never met; he died 16 years...
Ki Seitzei – Principal Parenting Pitfall
A rather stark contradiction seems to lie in how Chazal describe the judgment meted out to a ben sorer u’moreh, the boy who, at the tender age of 13, demonstrates indulgences and worse, and...
Parshas Shoftim – Waste Not
The belief that Jews are cheap has merit, though “frugal” would be the more perceptive word. Valuing everything, no matter how small or seemingly trivial, is a fundamental Jewish ideal. My parents rinsed and...
Parshas Re’ei – Non-Prophet
“Can’t you jus’ see ‘im walkin’ on that water?” an elderly lady with a large hat, standing next to me on the foredeck of the Staten Island ferry and holding a bible, once asked...
Parshas Eikev – Mandate and Magnificence
Carl Sagan once observed that “If you wish to make apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” There was a long period of history when the idea that the universe had...
Vo’eschanan – No Mere Miracle
The centerpiece, if such a word can be used in the context of a parshah, of Vo’eschanan is generally assumed to be the Aseres Hadibros, the Decalogue. But I think that the even more...
A Compelling Contrast
Since my Ami column this week, “A Compelling Contrast,” has a Tisha B’Av theme, I am offering a link to it today. It can be read here.
Devarim – Starry, Starry Night
It’s rare for city dwellers to truly see the night sky. Only once, many years ago, driving on a moonless night in West Virginia, did I fully perceive the vast number of stars –...
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