This week’s Torah portion speaks of the mysterious lesions that appeared on the skin of those who trafficked in gossip. Their punishment was at once severe and precise: they were cast into isolation for up to three weeks, until their affliction healed.
The Torah enumerates many forms of ritual impurity. Some …
I grew up in the shadow of the Six-Day War. The impossible yardstick of this war measured every subsequent war in Israel. It redefined the term blitzkrieg as Israel rebuffed a three-nation attack and came away with land from each of them.
All this changed when we woke up on Friday, …
What is the secret that has enabled the Jewish survival over two thousand years of our diaspora?
Two weeks ago, we read about Jacob’s sojourn in his uncle Laban’s home. Last week we read about Jacob’s harrowing return journey home. Among many other challenges, he encountered his brother Esau, and they …
The Arithmetic of Light
Every Jewish child masters the Chanukah arithmetic long before graduating from kindergarten. We light one candle on the first night, two on the second, three on the third, till we reach night number eight. In fact every child takes special pleasure in kindling their very own Chanukiah. …
July 21, 1969
Monday July 21, 2009, marked forty years since Neil Armstrong, stepped off the Apollo 11 and set foot on the moon. Forty years is a long time; our sages taught that students do not fully assimilate lessons learned in their youth until forty years have passed. (1) Today, …
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 …
