Articles in Parsha Insights
Vayelech: Food for Thought for your Dinner Table
Sunday: Where Did He Go?
The first words of our parshah, “And Moshe went and spoke to the sons of Israel.” Where did he go? Taking into account that this parshah is read between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur the commentaries suggest that he went to inspire Jews to repent. No …
Nitzavim: Food for Thought for your Dinner Table
Sunday: Unity of Parts
“You stand firmly today, All together [as one], the heads of your tribes, elders, guards… young children, women, converts…” This verse begins by emphasising the unity of the gathering, they stood together [as one], then it enumerates the distinctions between the classes gathered on that day.
Unity is …
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 …
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?
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