When, thousands of years ago, our Sages instituted the annual cycle of Torah readings, they established the calendar such that this week's reading, Devarim, opening the Book of Deuteronomy, universally comes during the week of the Ninth of Av. 9 Av, of course, is the...

The Torah says that "the nation shall judge," and a verse later, "the nation shall save" [Num. 35:24-25]. The Talmud learns from the juxtaposition of these verses that the Sanhedrin, the High Court, should side with saving the accused, try to find merit for him, and...

"Pinchas, the son of Elazar, the son of Aharon the Priest, has turned away My anger from the children of Israel, by being zealous for My vengeance amongst them; and [thus] I did not destroy the children of Israel in My vengeance. Therefore, I say, behold I give to him...

Several years ago, one of the writers for Torah.org reached out to me in a hurry. He had made a mistake, and wanted to stop distribution of the email he had just sent. What was his mistake? He had identified the weekly reading as "Parshas Bila'am" — this was, of...

As happens every so often, an organization made an innocent mistake, and was condemned by those anxious to find fault. In this case, the organization made the unfortunate choice of quoting one of the most evil figures of modern history. It is recorded that Hitler said...

This week's reading includes a very difficult chapter in the story of the Exodus, that of the spies. These twelve spies, one from each of the twelve tribes, entered the Land of Cana'an to see what awaited the nation. With two exceptions, Yehoshua and Kalev, they...