Have you ever resolved to go to bed early only to wake up with a headache because you didn’t put that book down? Have you ever resolved not to take a second helping, but walked away engorged because your portions were too numerous? Have you ever resolved to attend morning services, but chose instead to sleep in?   more »

The Midrash teaches that all physical phenomena have a parallel in the spiritual realm. What is the spiritual parallel to infertility?   more »

where do we place the emphasis of a Mitzvah? Is it on our decision to perform the Mitzvah or is it on the fact that G-d has allowed us the opportunity to perform it? Is it an offering to G-d by the Jew or a offering to the Jew by G-d?   more »

“And he afflicted you, he made you hunger and he fed you the Manna” (Deuteronomy 8:3) To describe the Manna experience as one of hunger and affliction seems a bit curious, what did the Torah have in mind?   more »

The desert that our ancestors traveled was arid and infertile, inhospitable to all forms of life. Despite their forty-year sojourn in the desert our ancestors survived and even thrived. G-d provided Manna, fresh water and a protective canopy of clouds, thus creating a miraculous oasis, a rare climate for life.

Overturning the desert climate to create a climate hospitable to life was a deliberate miracle. It is an axiom of Jewish faith that G-d does not perform a miracle in vain. Was this forty-year transformation of the natural order really necessary when G-d could have simply led our ancestors directly into the promised land and thus obviate the need for a miracle?    more »