Articles in Parsha Insights
Chukat: Dancing Flames – Dancing Souls
This article is presented here to mark the anniversary of Rabbi Josef I. Schneerson, the former Lubavitcher Rebbe’s, liberation from prison, which falls this week on the twelfth of Tamuz. His crimes against Soviet Russia consisted of teaching torah and Judaism.
As the Bombs Fell
On September 27’th, 1939, (14”th of Tishrei …
Korach: Wealth as a Status Symbol
Aspirations
What is your aspiration? To live a healthy and honest lifestyle, to raise happy well adjusted children, to contribute something of lasting significance to humanity, to live a life of piety, to master a subject and become a scholar; are all worthwhile causes, but accomplishing any of them requires money.
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Sh’lach: Never Stop Loving
LOL
When you see the popular texting term LOL do you read Lots of love or Laugh out Loud?
When you hear that Jews were sentenced to forty years of wandering the desert for believing the terrible report about Israel from the ten spies, you have to wonder, should we Laugh out …
Pinchas: A Living Incarnation
Act of Courage
Shortly before our ancestors crossed the Jordan into Israel they were approached lewdly by Midyanite women, who used their charms not only to seduce the Jewish men, but also to bait them to idol worship. So pervasive did this unholy alliance become that Zimri, a prince in the …
B’haalotcha: Live every Moment
An Invitation
Just before the Jews departed Sinai, Moses invited his father in Law to join them. Jethro wasn’t a Jew from birth; he was a priest, who had converted first to monotheism and later Judaism. Moses was somewhat hesitant about his invitation as apparent from the following text.
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Naso: Judaism Is Egalitarian
Equal Access
When the words religious egalitarian are spoken they usually refer to gender equality, but I have something entirely different in mind. I am referring to the absence of a caste system in Judaism. Jews don’t subscribe to a pyramid scheme that requires the laity to access G-d via priests …
B’har: Going on Holiday
Sabbatical
I love the Sabbath, I really do. It’s a twenty-four hour break from monotony. The tedium of routine that constitutes our week can wear us down. The Sabbath is like going on holiday. It rides in on Friday evening, like a knight in shining armor, to save us from ourselves.
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Why Doesn’t G-d Make Miracles Anymore?
A Holiday for Every Miracle
Almost every miracle in Jewish history has a holiday. It is an ingenious way of keeping history alive. Jewish children don’t need a history lesson to tell you when G-d gave the Ten Commandments or when our ancestors left Egypt. They don’t need to learn it, …
