Bamidbar and the First Map
The midbar is often imagined as a place of danger and emptiness. The Torah presents it differently. The wilderness is not chaos. It is unwritten space.
The Half Full Glass
It is this choice that everyone has between faith and cynicism, between optimism and pessimism that the opening words “in the wilderness of Sinai in the Tent of Meeting” address.
And You Lifted Us Up
If we could teach ourselves to stop feeling as if we’re waiting for our “real life” to begin, but focus, instead, on what is happening here and now, not only will we, with G-d’s help, eventually reach our destination, but we will also benefit from all the gifts that await us along the way.
Cracked Skulls
If the census was a labor of love, the term Beka Lagulgolet seems incongruous. A Beka also means a crack, a rift. How does HaKadosh Baruch Hu count Am Yisrael? By counting how many "cracks in the skull" they had?! It just doesn't seem fitting.
Yerushalayim – A City the World Cannot Ignore
Religious perfection requires transcendence, an encounter with the Ribbono Shel Olam, a presence that does not conform to human categories.
Why Is Shavuos Different?
Reb Eliezer tells us that on Pesach and Sukkos it is perfectly all right for one to devote the whole of the Yom Tov to learning Torah. One is excused from the celebration of the chag if he immerses himself in Torah study.
Choose Peace
When the Satan intercedes, he is only successful when there is conflict, when everyone is confused and doesn’t know his place.
When Boundaries Become Holy: Behar-Bechukosai and the Courage to Wait for Return
It is not passivity; it is a form of faith. It is the willingness to maintain the shape of a relationship even when the relationship itself is paused. It is the refusal to force a timeline that is not ours to set.
Rainmakers
On Yom Kippur we ask G-d to waive the rights He has over us to exact retribution for our sins. Have we done for others what we are asking Him to do for us on this day?
Not Who We Are
The way we respond to every wounded soldier, every fallen life, every hostage – that is the real story. These murders were a desecration of human life, but the national response was not apathy. It was sensitivity.
Jubilee
We mistakenly think that Avraham's final test was sacrificing only Yitzchak, but it was not like that at all.
Exile, Comfort, and Its Impact Upon Religion
Creativity is natural to the human condition. When we create, we reflect our Creator. That impulse is not marginal; it rises from a deep place within the human spirit.
‘The Dead Do Not Praise G-d’
Even when we are in the darkest places and suffer terrible abuses that no other nation has ever endured, our concern first and foremost is for His Name and His Holy Shechinah, and that He should emerge from the darkness of exile that we precipitated.
What’s In It for Me
One of the great lessons of Shavuos is for us to reaffirm our commitment to being a kind, loving people.
Strong Warriors
When the Jewish people received the Torah, they had risen to a very elevated level of emunah in Hashem. Hashem revealed Himself and opened the Seven Heavens, and everyone saw that “Hashem is G-d and there is no one but Him.”
The Strangers Among Us: When Belonging Breaks Down in Parshas Emor
The tragedy of the mekallel is not only that he sinned. It is that his outcry came from a place of fracture that the community never addressed. He stands as a cautionary figure, a reminder of what happens when we fail to make room for those who are already inside our gates but do not yet feel fully held.
A Responsibility, Not a Title
Why is Shabbat listed as the first mo’ed before the mo’adim of Pesach, Shavuos and Sukkos. which we usually associate with the word chagim (23:3)?
Finding an Anchor in the Shelter
The children in the building hope to learn the laws of Shavuot at home. But this week, they taught me a lesson, too.
Small Eyes
To be a student of Rebi Akiva, you had to be extremely gifted and super intelligent. There were other yeshivot, other rabbanim, but none matched Rebi Akiva’s for level of study and for number of students.
What It Means to Be Honorable
Ultimately, the wisdom, might, and wealth of an individual are only aspects reflecting his stature, but not essential to his character; the celebrated aspect may reveal itself in some situations to be superficial and not substantive.
The Great Sefira Lesson
We need to teach our children to honor the shul rabbi. The one who, on a regular basis, warns them about the evils of lashon hara, the dangers of smoking, vaping, gambling, and addictive gaming.
The Eye of a Needle
In addition to the opportunity we have of doing teshuvah when we know we have sinned – by acknowledging the transgression, regretting having sinned, admitting that we have sinned, making a commitment not to repeat the sin in the future, prayer and charity – we are fortunate to be able to attain atonement even when we are unaware that we have sinned.
Eradicate Hate
Judaism is not like other religions – there is no turning the other cheek. You are allowed to pursue any legitimate recourse stipulated by the Torah for protection/justice/restitution.
Parshat Acharei Mos-Kedoshim: Arayos as a Torah Ethic of Power
Mussar teaches that character is not an accessory. It is a discipline. It is the daily work of noticing your impulses, your blind spots, your ego, your capacity to harm without meaning to.
Odelia’s Thank You List
Between Holocaust Remembrance Day and Memorial Day, Odelia reminds us that this is not only a private story. It is also a choice about how we tell our shared national story.
Barriers to Entry
There was another way of explaining why the Jews resorted to worshiping the golden calf so soon after witnessing the presence of G-d at the Revelation. It was not that they had become Bible critics. They were simply giving in to their human urges, even as they believed in G-d and His Torah.
Ve’ahavta and Tzelem Elokim
Avodas Hashem is shaped not only by obligation, but also by how we understand the human being, by the moral awareness embedded within us and by the way we see the world and our place within it.
Why Did the Sons of Aharon Die in the Mishkan?
It is interesting to note that all of these ideas really complement one another, and there is a unifying perspective where we can see that Nadav and Avihu did not really “fit” into the mold of their generation and to the needs of the moment.
Don’t Delay
Shimon HaTzaddik was so called because he was the most righteous person of his generation and yet, in Pirkei Avos, there is but one Mishna recording his teachings.
Another Perspective
One who foregoes his calculations with others for injustices done to him, the Heavenly Court, in turn, foregoes punishment for all his sins.