Articles in Parsha Insights
Devarim: Food for Thought for your Dinner Table
Sunday: Seventy Languages
Why did Moshe translate the Torah into seventy languages when most Jews did not speak these languages? Hebrew is G-d’s tongue and is therefore a natural conduit for holiness. Accordingly, when studied in Hebrew the holiness of the Torah permeates our minds and hearts. Moshe, who gave us …
Masei: Food for Thought for Your Dinner Table
Sunday: Forty-Two Journeys
The Torah, usually so economical with words, outlines the forty-two journeys that our ancestors made across the desert. The Baal Shem Tov taught that this enumeration illustrates that we each travel through forty-two stations during the course of our lives.
The details of these stations are known to …
Matot: Food for Thought for Your Dinner Table
Sunday: The Vow
The Mishnah encourages us to take oaths against sins toward which we are inclined because “vows promote abstinence.” The Jerusalem Talmud discourages use of vows to prohibit behaviors that the Torah permits because “G-d’s prohibitions should be sufficient.” Which is the correct approach?
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Pinchas: Food for Thought for Your Dinner Table
Sunday: Commensurate Reward
For slaying Zimri, the man who committed a sacrilegious act in public, Pinchas was rewarded with the High Priesthood. What is the connection between the act and its reward?
Jewish law stipulates that a priest forfeits his priesthood through murder. Pinchas would have known this when he slayed Zimri, …
Balak: Food For Thought for Your Dinner Table
Sunday: Instant Wrath
Fearful of the Jewish nation, the Moabite king Balak, sent word to Billam, “Behold a people has come from Egypt . . . and [now] sits opposite me.” Our sages taught that G-d is angry for a millisecond every day and Billam was able to identify that moment …
Chukat: Food for Thought for Your Dinner Table
Sunday: A Prototype
The Red Heifer is introduced with the words, “this is the decree of the Torah.” This is not the only decree of the Torah, but it is a microcosm of all the Torah’s decrees. The underlying purpose of every mitzvah is twofold: to uplift the person who performs …
Korach: Food for Thought for your Dinner Table
Sunday: Ice
The name Korach shares its root letters with the Hebrew word Kerach, Ice. Korach led a rebellion against Moshe and the Divine order. What led Korach, a distinguished member of the tribe of Levi, to betray his tribesmen and his holy mission? It was his apathy. He was consumed …
Shlach: Food for Thought for your Dinner Table
Sunday: Why Joshua
Moshe prayed that Yehoshua be spared from the designs of the other spies. Why did Moshe only pray for Yehoshua and not the others? Some suggest that it was because Yehoshua was Moshe’s primary pupil and his failure would reflect negatively on his teacher.
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