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...
Messages From the War – Oct 16
Yerushalayim has been uneventful for the last few days. Services are pretty much at normal levels, except for the public schools, which are still closed. Still hard to find bottled water, after the stupid...
Messages From the War – Tuesday
Tuesday It’s been a quiet day in Yerushalayim, at least insofar as the sirens going off. In the skies above, it’s been non-stop bombing runs. Government schools will again be closed tomorrow. Busses are...
Beraishis – Marriage Medicine
The first marriage in history, which we reference in the Birchos Nesuin recited under the chuppah, differed in a fundamental way from all marriages to follow. According to one Midrashic opinion, Adam and Chavah...
Messages From the War – Monday
Monday. Haazinu ha-shomayim/Heavens, give ear! (Devarim 32:1) The heavens over Yerushalayim complied, with a pall that hung over the city, reflecting back the mood of shock, disbelief, and foreboding of the people. Roads were...
Messages From The War: Israel is our Motherland and not our Playground
[Editor’s Note: It seems appropriate to gather some of the observations of English speakers here. BE”H, I will publish them as I come across them. If I don’t come up with enough, I’ll write...
Senate Bipartisan Resolution Supports Rambam Over John Fetterman
Conversation in shul, while they were rolling the (single) sefer Torah from one Chumash to another: Me: I understand you had a rough week. Former Senator Joe Lieberman: How’s that? Me: Well, I know...
The State Triumphs, and a Patient Dies
Once again, life imitates art. The result is not pretty. Doc Daneeka, a fictional character in Joseph Heller’s modern classic, explains its eponymous Catch-22. A flyer can escape combat duty if he is insane....
Nitzavim – Turning Pain to Gain
The Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni) at the start of parshas Nitzavim sees in the parsha’s opening words, “You are standing today” the message that, despite the sins and travails of Klal Yisrael up to that...
Ki Savo – Schrödinger’s Moon
Seizing on the fact that the Hebrew word for a granary – osem – shares two letters with the word for “obscured” – samui – Chazal make an intriguing assertion: Blessing [i.e. increase in...