by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Feb 1, 2019 | Lifeline
Our reading begins, “And these are the judgments…” [Ex. 21:1] The laws in the Torah described as “judgments” are civil laws, which every society must have in order to avoid anarchy. Yet the Torah emphasizes that its civil laws are of...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Nov 8, 2018 | Lifeline
The Torah spends a great deal of time discussing the life of our forefather Avraham, and that of Yaakov. By comparison, Yitzchak receives relatively short shrift. The offering of Yitzchak as a Korban, a sacrifice, is primarily told as a test of his father. It is...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Nov 1, 2018 | Lifeline
Readers know that I have written about anti-Semitism for a long time. Our hearts reel at its manifestation in a Pittsburgh synagogue last Shabbos morning. The Medrash says that Sarah passed away when she believed that her son Yitzchak had indeed died at HaShem’s...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Aug 10, 2018 | Lifeline
Is it easy to make a moral choice? Moshe, our teacher, tells us that it is, at least in principle: “See that I have placed before you today ‘blessing’ and ‘curse’. The blessing, if you will listen to the Commandments of HaShem your G-d...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Jul 27, 2018 | Lifeline
In the Talmud, the Sages tell us to study the skies, or more specifically the calculations of the calendar: “says Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmeini in the name of Rebbe Yochanon: from where do we know that it is a Mitzvah to calculate the seasons and the months? For it...
