Should you ever happen to find yourself in an ornate, high-ceilinged room and a military-uniformed string ensemble is segueing from a flawless rendition of a Bach Concerto to an equally impressive (if considerably less...
Yosef, as an Egyptian viceroy, is so emotionally conflicted as he maltreats his brothers, who don’t recognize him, he has to leave the room to cry (Beraishis, 42:24). Why he felt he had to...
Ben Shapiro’s stinging rebuke of Modern Orthodoxy ought to be met with two reactions. The first is full-throated acclaim for his central premises, articulated with his usual clarity and incisiveness: Torah values must reign...
He refused. That is the meaning of the word vayima’en, a word used twice in the story of Yosef in this parsha, once to describe a refusal by Yaakov Avinu, the second to describe...
Avi Ciment’s recent series, The Modern Orthodox Conundrum (Part I, Part II and Part III), is an absolute must-read. The author rivetingly lays forth the issues facing Modern Orthodoxy and suggests solutions, with great...
“As surely as I have established My covenant with day and night – the laws of heaven and earth – so will I never reject the offspring of Yaakov…” (Yirmiyahu 33:25-26) There are...
What a bizarre reaction Yaakov has when he first sees Rachel, his wife-to-be: He kisses her and loudly cries. (Beraishis, 29:11). Stranger still, at least at first read, is one of the explanations the...
“I’m forty years old.” Esav said to himself (Beraishis 26:34). “Father was 40 when he got married,” he rationalized, according to Rashi. “I should do the same.” (The pasuk itself just notes Esav’s...
A riddle I like to ask people is how many times Eliezer’s name is mentioned in parshas Chayei Sara, where his being charged with finding a wife for Yitzchak and his mission’s success are...
Who won? We did! And “we” could be any of a number of possibilities. Among those possibilities are Americans in general, and Republicans in particular. And let’s not forget Israeli democracy. The first is...
