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 …
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You count, we each do. But the question is, for how much? Do you count for one, do you count for more than one, for less than one? Compared to everyone around you, what is your value?
When G-d instructed Moses to take a census of the Jews, he arrived at …
Have you ever seen a stubborn ox? The Haftorah this week tells the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel. It was approximately 740 BCE and idol worship was rampant in Israel’s Northern Kingdom. Wanting to demonstrate the fallacy of idolatry, Elijah challenged the prophets of the idols to a contest …
Before Pesach we have a flurry of rituals aimed at ridding our homes of Chametz. One ritual layers over the next creating a labyrinth of overlapping traditions that leaves one dizzy. The following article is intended to make sense of the seeming chaos.The Torah prohibits not only eating but also …
Living is giving is one of the themes of this week’s Torah portion. Joseph rose to prominence in Egypt because of his ability to interpret Pharoh’s dreams. He accurately predicted a seven-year period of plenty when all harvests would be bountiful. The Middle East would enter a phase of incalculable …
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 …
