Vayeitzei – Stairway to Peoplehood
Sometimes an idea can only be possible after a certain point in history. One example might have to do with the imagery of Yaakov’s dream at the start of the parsha. The message delivered...
A Message That Should Not Be Missed
Dear Friends, We have each other and we must treasure each other. For the nation that dwells alone and has had good reason to feel alone, Monday and Tuesday were days of incredible strength...
Notes From the War – November 17, 2023
May I still use the word “exhilarated,” or has a certain Cornell professor banished it from the use of decent people? Assuming it is allowed, it describes the way everyone I spoke to felt...
Toldos – Knowing That One Doesn’t
As the tale goes, a learned non-Jewish cleric challenges the town’s Jewish populace to have its greatest scholar meet him on a bridge over a raging river, each a heavy weight tied to his...
Chayei Sara – Death and Marriage
That a man’s gifting of something of worth to a woman can effect a marriage if both parties agree is derived through exegesis from, of all places, Avraham’s purchase of a burial site for...
Messages From the War – Nov. 6
So many of the events that punctuate our days here in Yerushalayim end the same way. Case in point. My son went to a levaya of a soldier on Har Herzl. As he walked...
Vayeira – More Intimate Than Prophecy
Avraham experiences a communication from Hashem at the start of the parsha (Beraishis 18:1, 18:13). And it culminates with Hashem’s informing our forebear of the impending destruction of S’dom (18:20-21). Then, the Torah tells...
Lech Lecha – Jewish Influence
Stars aren’t visible during the day. Yosef Chaim Cara, a 17th century Polish rabbi, points out in his sefer Kol Omer Kra that after Hashem tells Avram, concerning his future progeny, to “Look heavenward...
Messages From the War – Oct 22
Anyone who is not here is missing out on an experience of Biblical proportions. You keep seeing more evidence of it, and you are all probably contributing towards it as well. This is a...
Noach — Symbols Gone Astray
It’s intriguing that two separate images from parshas Noach have been turned by contemporary society into widely used symbols – and each one is decidedly off the mark. A dove holding an olive branch...