We Don’t Know the Story
In this week's reading, we are told "you shall be 'simple' with Hashem your G-d" [Deut. 18:13]. As you might suspect, "simple" is a very incomplete translation of "Tamim," which also means pure and unsullied. Our forefather Yaakov is called "a simple man, dwelling in...
An Active Response to Tragedy
The Ninth of Av, which this year begins on Monday evening, is a national day of mourning for the Jewish people. 3329 years ago, we mourned needlessly on this day, responding to the report of the spies that we would be unable to overcome the Canaanites and move into...
Transfer of Leadership
What grew Jewish communities in America was not the Rabbi of the synagogue, but those who built day schools to educate the next Jewish generation, as Moshe taught Yehoshua. Giving our children a strong Jewish education remains the singular way that we preserve a Jewish future.
You Couldn’t Pay Me to Do the Impossible
Someone shared with me a fascinating story this morning (from the sefer "MiShulchan Gavohah"). The Brisker Rav, Rabbi Yitzchok Zev Halevi Soloveitchik, served as Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of Brisk (Brest, Belarus) prior to the Holocaust, under the hostile Communist...
The Limits of Human Comprehension
This week's reading begins with the Commandment to prepare a red heifer for a special purification ritual. The calf was slaughtered and burned and its ashes mixed with water. Any person who came into contact with a dead person had to undergo a seven-day purification...
The Eye of the Beholder
When Moshe sent the spies into the Land of Israel, he did not anticipate two wildly disparate reports regarding what they would find. An argument breaks out between the spies upon their return: only two of them, Kalev and Yehoshua (Joshua), say that Israel should...
