This week's Torah portion reads like a book of law on subjects such as property damage, personal injury and halachic jurisprudence. Yet every seemingly mundane law has a powerful spiritual meaning. Click on this link to peel away the layers of one such law.   more »

In the second chapter of the first book of Kings we read that Yoav, general of King David’s army, was convicted for the deliberate but cunning murder of two innocent men. When word of his conviction reached him he ran to the altar and clung to it. Our sages asked why Yoav, a learned man, sought refuge at the altar knowing that it couldn’t protect him? Yoav knew that if he resisted he would be executed right beside the altar and that was precisely how he preferred to die.   more »

In a sense this verse is telling us that if you are dominated by “Artzecha” i.e. your personal desire, as opposed to the will of G-d, the result might be spiritual infertility. What is the remedy? Change your paradigm   more »

Our Parsha teaches that a Jew may be sold into servitude for six years but on the first day of the seventh year the slave is automatically granted full liberty. What is it about the seventh year that automatically results in emancipation?   more »