The Lethal Challenge of Learning Torah from Others
The pernicious difficulty of keeping self-love in check and not having it warp the way in which we see others is brought to our attention in the story of R. Elazar
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Kedoshim: The Ten Commandments’ New Spin
With the 10 Commandments, G-d is described as the One who took the Jews out of Egypt. In Parshat Kedoshim, He is described simply as being "holy." Both phrases set the tone for the list that follows.
Redeeming Relevance: Women, Beauty and Religion
The easiest way out of my problem would be to say that the Mishkan was designed based on people’s need to be impressed
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Pinchas: Are We All Sinners?
In Judaism, since sin is not a foregone conclusion, we hold ourselves fully accountable for it. Likewise do we hold others accountable – if not to us, then certainly to God. And so the daughters of Tzelophad put this out about their father – and about everyone else.
Can an Angel Be Wrong?
I believe that the Torah is telling us something more nuanced. I think it is telling us that God wants the people to listen to Moshe even when he is wrong!
Ending Poverty, the Torah Way
The reward matches the challenge.
Follow the Leader: The Legacy of Nachshon Ben-Aminadav
Leading by example must be calculatedly visible, not only from a point of view of where it is done, but even when and how it is done. Doing something privately is not an act of leadership.
Redeeming Relevance: Moshe’s Last Chance
Moshe was ideally suited to the role of an intermediary between God’s immanent presence and Israel but not so well suited to leadership in front of a hidden God
How Self-Love Becomes Totalitarianism
Shabbat Shalom
Redeeming Relevance: Vayeshev: Yosef’s Field of Dreams
Yosef’s struggle with his brothers was ideological, whether we are to influence the world by example from the private and safe existence of our tent (the brothers), or whether take more risks by going outside and being heavily involved with the rest of civilization (Yosef)
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Metzorah: Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?
Man in his ideal form is described as a speaker. Fitting that the sin most closely associated with tzaraat is misuse of speech.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Chukat: How to Make Peace
History repeats itself: Israel extends the hand of peace to a neighbor and is rebuffed
Redeeming Relevance: Chukat: The 38 Year Black Hole
Precisely because the work that the second-generation did take place was less dramatic and required human participation that it created its own more organic resilience, making it a better model
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Re’eh: Spilling Blood and Spilling Water
In view of the seeming sanctity that the Torah imparts to blood, why would it tell us to spill animal blood indiscriminately?
Redeeming Relevance: Praying Responsibly
The goal is not to have God do what we want, but rather to do what He wants and thereby sanctify Him in the world. Often, that is accomplished by praying, but sometimes it is better accomplished by not praying – we are to look to halacha to tell us which situation is which
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Lech Lecha: Listening to Voices
Listening to your biblical partner's voice
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Terumah: Pythagoras and the Menorah
Seven is possibly the most significant number in Jewish Thought.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Vayishlach: The Torah’s Mother
In one of the most mysterious verses in the Torah (Bereshit 35:8), we read about the death of Devorah the nursemaid, a character so minor that we have never really heard of her before
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Veyechi: The Subversive Forefather and his Conformist Son
Ya’akov decides to prioritize the younger son, Ephraim, over the older Menashe
Finding Just the Right Gift… for God
Rather than keeping it only to herself, Chava showed her love for her husband by sacrificing her own consumption of the fruit, allowing him to eat part of it instead.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Metzora: Flesh
That man is more than flesh is obvious to the Torah, but the Torah’s task is to make it obvious to man.
Redeeming Relevance on the Weekly Torah Portion: Ve’etchanan
The 10 Statements main point was not content but the encounter between G-d & His nation, Israel
Redeeming Relevance: Achrei Mot: The Kippur More than the Yom
Wishing you a Happy Passover and a Good Shabbos...
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Balak: What You Don’t Know Won’t Hurt You?
How important are failed plans and plots, such that the Torah needs to mention any of them at all?
Redeeming Relevance: Ki Tetzeh: Remember Not to Keep People Waiting
Since not saying lashon hara is easier said than done, here is something to help you: Just remember what happened to Miriam!”
The Subversive Forefather and his Conformist Son
Shabbat Shalom
Gan Eden, The Temple, and Shushan HaBirah
Dressing up
Redeeming Relevance: All You Need is One Good Man
a different leader of the next generation steps up and takes action. That leader was Pinchas...True leaders like Pinchas don’t come out of leadership schools. When the time is ripe, they simply emerge.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Balak: The Perspective of Prophecy
Bilaam not only doesn't appear to be great, he seems to be base as well as foolish (outsmarted by his own donkey!). So how can the midrash claim he was really at least as great a prophet as Moshe?
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Chayye Sarah: Avraham and Eliezer, Trust and Closeness Across the Gap
Avraham, saw a world where people can acknowledge a huge and intractable gap between them, know it will not go away, and also build a strong and trusting friendship across tbe gap.