by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | May 23, 2014 | Lifeline
This week we begin Bamidbar, the Book of Numbers. This, the fourth book of the Torah, acquired its Latin/English name because it begins with a count of the Children of Israel. This, though, is not the first such census — we find repeated counts of the Jewish...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | May 16, 2014 | Lifeline
My cousin’s daughter is celebrating her Bas Mitzvah this weekend, and as they studied this week’s reading in preparation, they came across one of the classic questions of Jewish philosophy: why do we do what we do? The parsha says that if we follow...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | May 9, 2014 | Lifeline
At the end of this week’s reading, we are told not to set up idols. “You shall make no idols, and a graven image or pillar you shall not set up… You shall keep My Sabbaths, and revere My Sanctuary, I am Hashem” [Lev. 26:1]. The Medrash, quoted...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | May 2, 2014 | Lifeline
The story is told of the uninformed Jewish fellow who desired to be a Kohen… a Priest. He went to a Rabbi, who told him that that’s impossible: a child is a Kohen at birth or not at all. But the fellow persisted, even offering huge sums of money if the...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Apr 25, 2014 | Lifeline
Exercise more! That two-word synopsis of what the doctor told me is probably familiar to many readers. What differs from patient to patient is which muscles and bones need the exercise, but by a certain age most of us are told to work on something or other to stay...
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken | Apr 11, 2014 | Lifeline
In the Haggadah, we recount the Ten Plagues that G-d inflicted upon the Egyptians. The Toldos Adam quotes the Medrash which says that these plagues, like all of G-d’s rewards and punishments, were done “measure for measure.” The Egyptians made the...
