The idea that the prohibition against lashon hora, “speech of evil,” includes speaking negatively about a thing, not just a person, is surprising. But the sin of the meraglim, the scouts who were sent...
Happy the elephant isn’t a person. That seeming truism was the official ruling of New York’s highest court last week, necessitated by a suit brought by the Nonhuman Rights Project aimed at freeing the...
A bracha we make several times daily has an etymological connection to the nazir, the laws for whom are included in the parshah. It lies in a word in the second pasuk of that...
Residents of Israel and Gaza dodged a bullet on Sunday (May 29) — in fact a slew of bullets, and bombs and missiles. Sunday was “Jerusalem Day,” an annual celebration that commemorates Israel’s capture...
The reference in the parshah (Bamidbar, 3:4) to the fact of Nadav and Avihu’s childlessness can be read as a simple explanation for why further generations of their lines are absent from the Torah’s...
Do people not see what seems so apparent? How can the Flag March scheduled for this Sunday, Yom Yerushalayim, not lead b’derech ha-tevah, to Jewish deaths c”v at the hands of Palestinians who have...
It would be silly to claim a “favorite” Rashi, but one comment made in rare places, including in this week’s parshah, by the author of perfectly succinct yet brilliant glosses to not only Tanach...
Rabbi J. David Bleich [Editor’s note: It is not every day that we are privileged to get a perspective on a current issue from one of the gedolei Yisrael that deals masterfully with both...
The first of the Torah’s two cases of imprisonment – that of the mekalel, the blasphemer, is in the parshah (Vayikra, 24:12). The second is in parshas Shelach (Bamidbar 15:34), regarding the mekoshesh eitzim,...
The story is attributed to many people. Could be that all of them are true. Someone gets out of a cab in Rome, walks over to Titus’ Arch, and shakes his fist. “Titus, Titus....
