Parshas Nitzavim – The Role of Failure
Reflecting the time of year when we read Nitzavim, before the “Days of Awe,” the parshah’s major themes are sin and repentance. And while much of Nitzavim concerns potential punishments for sin, there is...
Category: Judaism
The Antisemitic Uneducated Jew
What groups like J Street, IfNotNow & Jewish Voice for Peace share in common is an unwillingness to seriously engage with Jewish history, Jewish ideas & Jewish texts. In short, they have little connection to anything authentically Jewish.
Parshas Ki Savo – Happiness Doesn’t Happen
What is arguably the most shocking pasuk in the entire Torah is in this week’s parshah. No, it’s not any of the descriptions of horrors in the portion of the parshah we call the...
Parshas Shoftim – We’re All In This Together
Why, of course the elders of the nearest city didn’t kill the man! So what is the meaning — in the case of a person found murdered on the road, where the ritual of...
Parshas Re’ei — What’s With the Wealth?
Affluence isn’t something extolled by the Torah. In Judaism wealth is neither a praiseworthy aspiration nor a meaningful achievement. Which makes Rabbi Yochanan’s homiletic interpretation of the Torah’s words “A tithe shall you tithe...
Parshas Vo’eschanan: Living Martyrdom
The Jewish credo, “the Shema,” declares Moshe’s directive to love Hashem “with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your resources” (Devarim 6:5). And, famously, Chazal understand “all your soul” as...
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...
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...
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