Post The Unconditional Acceptance of the Torah When Moses presented the Jews with the prospect of receiving the Torah at Sinai, they respond: “All that Hashem has spoken we will do!” (Exodus 19:8). This expression of acceptance… Read More
Post Three Steps to Achieving Greatness “You’re a lot shorter in person than I expected.” That is the phrase that actors hear most often. It is the flip side of the “larger than life” perception of… Read More
Post Three Things We Must Renew Daily We have all made New Year’s resolutions: to eat healthier, to get to sleep earlier, to make up with an old friend, etc. That is because the new year is… Read More
Post Tzaraat: Leprosy or the Messiah’s Affliction? The Torah portion of Tazria (Leviticus 12–13) deals with tzaraat, a disease usually mistranslated as leprosy. Tzaraat is a malady that afflicts the body, clothing, and the walls of houses…. Read More
Post Midian: Cradle of the Exodus or Israel’s Enemy? After killing an Egyptian taskmaster, Moses fled Egypt and ran to Midian where, according to the sages, he lived in exile for 40 years. While in Midian, he married Zipporah,… Read More
Post Lessons from Jacob on Forming a Government Israel just held its fifth election in three years. For a while now, Israel has been struggling to find a leader who can form and maintain a coalition made up… Read More
Post When Moses Saw God’s Back There is no doubt that Moses was close to God, even speaking with Him “face to face, as one man speaks to another” (Exodus 33:11). But Moses wanted even more… Read More
Post What is so bad about slandering a land? Imagine you walk into a room full of people and as soon as you step in, everybody stops talking and looks directly at you. How does that make you feel,… Read More
Post Why the Broken Tablets Matter? As part of building the Tabernacle, God instructed Moses to place the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments into the Ark of the Covenant. But, as we know, there were… Read More
Post The Small Aleph at the Start of Leviticus The Hebrew names of the books of the Torah are named for the first word that appears in each book. The Hebrew name of the the book of Leviticus, therefore,… Read More
