Why To Shed Tears for the Ukraine
Natan Sharansky got my head and heart to work in synch again, regarding the terrible tragedy unfolding before us in the Ukraine. It didn’t start off as a dilemma, but as an email a...
Category: General
Putin, Explained
It couldn’t be simpler. Putin is a despotic tyrant without conscience, who seized upon perceived Western weakness to enlarge his empire. All true – but there is much more than that. As the saying...
Bishalach – A Decisive Divorce
Shalach, the root of the word of the parshah’s title, is used elsewhere regarding the exodus from Mitzrayim (e.g. shalach es ami). So are the words yetziah (e.g. Shemos, 20:2) and geirush (e.g. ibid...
Parshas Bo – Enticing the Wicked Son
When the Torah (Shemos, 12:26) recounts the question the Haggadah attributes to the “wicked son,” it states that, when our ancestors heard it, they responded by bowing down in thanksgiving. What were they thankful...
Some Good News
There are always people who do more than complain. They contribute to rectifying bad situations. Sometimes it takes a little time to find them, or for good ideas to gel into action. Here are...
Chaim Walder
[Author’s note: Tragically, the prediction that I made in the penultimate paragraph has already become a reality with the suicide of one of the victims. No one need to attribute any prophetic powers to...
Vo’eira – History’s Foundation
It is interesting that the concept of hakaras hatov, “recognition of the good” that one has experienced, appears not only in the parsha, at the beginning of the Sefer Shemos saga whose apogee is...
Omicron – A Nisayon Ha-Seichel/Test of Rationality
I am triple-vaccinated, follow COVID rules, strongly reject anti-vaccination talk and especially the many conspiracy theories surrounding COVID – yet I am totally baffled by the measures taken by many local governments and institutions...
Shemos – Against Your Grain
My rebbe, Rav Yaakov Weinberg, zt”l, often spoke of how each of the Jewish forefathers was challenged by Hashem to act in opposition to the very characteristic that defined him. Avraham, whose middah is...
Mikeitz – Small, Not Inconsequential
Yosef, who reaches the height of temporal power in this week’s parshah, was originally presented as unimpressive, even vain, the favorite of his father but the lesser, at least as they saw things, of...
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