Over the past week, we have seen anti-Israel college takeovers with protestors openly declaring their desire to kill Jews and to render Israel—from the river to the sea—Juden Rein. The brazen tactics and bullying have left many Jewish students and faculty members afraid to venture onto campus. As we approach …
Read the full story »Ki Tavo- Food for Thought at Your Dinner Table
Sunday: Humbling Fruit
“When you will come to the country that G-d . . . has given you and you will inherit it and settle in it.” Is Israel a gift from G-d or a land that we have inherited and settled in our own right? This question lies at the …
Ki Teze: Food for Thought for your DinnerTable
Sunday: Internal Conflict
“When you go out to war against your enemies and G-d will deliver him into your hands.” There are two anomalies in this verse. First, why does the Torah use the phrase, “go out to war” when it would be sufficient to say go to war? Second, why …
Shoftim: Food for Thought for your Dinner Table
Sunday: Local Judges
“Judges and guards you shall set for yourself at all your gates.” Judges were placed at the gates of every Jewish community both inside Israel and outside. Why were the Jews from abroad not brought to Israel for trial? Why were courts established outside of Israel?
A judge must …
Unity – A Mile High
A Celebration of Unity
The Democratic Party has recently held a deeply emotional convention with an overriding theme of party unity. Coming off a highly charged primary campaign that was both hostile and divisive, campaign aides and party leaders identified their primary task as mending the fissure and reuniting the party.
Events …
Shadows and Light
It was one of those frustrating mornings when the sun seemed unable to decide whether to shine or not. It was quite frustrating, you know sunglasses on, sunglasses off, I’m sure you have all been there. The sunshine brings joy to the heart, the promise of a day that looms …
Reeh: Food for Thought for Your Dinner Table
Sunday: Fortune
Not every country is a superpower nor is every country at the bottom of the totem pole. Mostany are somewhere in the middle; comfortable, but not powerful. Jews, however, are never in the middle; we are either at the very top or at the very bottom. This is because …
Eikev: Food for Thought for Your Dinner Table
Sunday: The individual
“You should observe and fulfill every Mitzvah that I command you today so that you may all live, multiply, arrive and inherit the land that I promised to your forefathers.” This verse begins with an exhortation to the individual, but concludes with a blessing to the nation. This …
Va’etchanan: Food for Thought for Your Dinner Table
Sunday: Pray to Pray
“I have beseeched the Almighty at that time . . . saying.” These words introduce Moshe’s heartfelt plea, later denied, to enter the Land of Israel. The last word of this verse, “saying,” seems superfluous, what does it mean?
Tweet
Parsha Insights »
On the Question of Human Shields
The question of human shields has been in the news a lot these past few weeks. As Israel responds to the heinous massacre of innocent civilians, men, women, and children, perpetrated by the sub-human Hamas terrorists, it is being accused of targeting innocent civilians.
Some of these accusers are the very …
Yearly Cycle »
Chanukah: A Basic Overview
The Chanukah Story
In the year 3616 (around 140 BCE) Syrian Greek King Antiochus Epipanes engaged the Jewish nation in war. He marched into the holy city of Jerusalem and desecrated the Temple. For six long years Antiochus’ army raped, pillaged and decimated the Jewish nation both spiritually and physically.A small …
Concepts »
Shavuot: How To Celebrate An Anniversary?
Ani-Very-Sorry
Shavuot is the anniversary of the day we received the Torah. Almost every year before my anniversary my friends ask, so what are you going to do for your anniversary? I submit that a much better question would be what is your anniversary going to do for you? And if …
Rabbi’s Desk »
What Can We Do?
These past two days have been the most difficult for our people in the last fifty years. It was Simchat Torah, a time for rejoicing, yet it was a time of horror. Nearly a thousand members of our family were brutally murdered, more than a hundred were taken hostage, and …
