G-d created the world through speech, and the words with which He created us are very much like flames. “Behold, my words are like flames” (Jeremiah 23:29). Flames don’t burn unless they have fuel to consume. The same is true of G-d’s words. “For G-d your G-d is a consuming …
Read the full story »Terumah: Food for Thought at your Dinner Table
Sunday: Take and Take Again
We have many motives to give charity. Some give out of peer pressure. Some give for purposes of self aggrandizement. Some give out of a sense of duty. Some give out of a sense of shame. In all the above examples the motive is self-centered; seeking …
Mishpatim: Food for Thought for your Dinner Table
Sunday: A Sacred Trial
When a Torah portion begins with the word and we assume that it is a continuation of the previous portion. This portion begins with “And these are the laws.” The previous portion speaks of the Ten Commandments. The message is that the laws discussed in this portion …
Yitro: Food for Thought for Your Dinner Table
Sunday: The Proof is in the Action
This Torah portion begins with the words, “And Jethro heard.” Our sages asked what did he hear that made him come? He heard of the miracle at the Reed Sea and of the Manna. When he heard about these miracles he felt compelled to …
Beshalach: Food for Thought for your Dinner Table
Sunday: Oy Vey
“And it was when Pharaoh sent the nation.” The Hebrew word vayehi, “and it was” is, can be divided into two words. The last two letters spell G-d’s name and the first two letters spell the word Vey. In other words, G-d exclaimed, Oy Vey. Why would G-d express …
BO: Food for thought for your Dinner table
Sunday: The Missing Warning
G-d instructed Moses to rebuke Pharaoh for his refusal to release the Jews from Egypt. Moses delivered this rebuke and then informed Pharaoh of the upcoming plague of locust. Why does Torah neglect to mention that G-d informed Moses of the upcoming plague?
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Vaeira: Food for Thought at Your Dinner Table
Sunday: Believe
So burdened were the Jews in Egypt by their workload and fatigue that when Moses announced they would soon be liberated, they barely took notice. Moses complained to G-d, “if my own brothers won’t listen, how can Pharaoh be expected to listen?” The argument seems curious. His brethren didn’t …
Shemot: Food for Thought at your Dinner Table
Sunday: Commitment at all Costs
When Pharaoh’s astrologers predicted the birth of a child, who would liberate his brethren from Egypt he instructed the Jewish midwives to kill all Jewish male newborns. Disregarding the danger to themselves, the midwives defied the royal decree and set a tone for future generations of …
Vayechi: Food for Thought at your Dinner Table
Sunday: Jacob Lived
Many Torah commentaries have concluded based on the verse, “And Jacob lived in Egypt for seventeen years,” that Jacob’s best years, the years that he truly lived, were the ones he spent in Egypt. How did Jacob, a man devoted to G-d, enjoy living in so depraved a …
Parsha Insights »
Vaetchanan: Does it Permeate?
An Echo
This week’s Parsha recounts the Ten Commandments. The Torah tells us that the commandments were delivered in “a powerful voice that was never repeated.” Our sages explain that this voice did not have an echo. Why is the absence of an echo important?
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Yearly Cycle »
Miracle of Miracles
The greatest miracle of our times, on par, perhaps, with that of the Six-Day War, occurred last Saturday night. More than 360 missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles were dispatched by Iran to Israel. The intention was to destroy defensive infrastructure, wreak mayhem and havoc, and destroy Jewish lives.
Some of the …
Concepts »
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 …
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 …
