Beyond The Curtain
So long as we are alive, we have the ability to strive for higher and greater levels.
Predestination And Human Effort
Clearly, creating the menorah was beyond human capacity. Why did Moshe need to have a clear image of what it was to look like?
Walls of Hesitation…and Walls of Beyond
We can achieve if we only reconnect to that belief that we can succeed only when we reach beyond ourselves rather than hide behind walls of fear-- and hesitation.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Terumah: Pythagoras and the Menorah
Seven is possibly the most significant number in Jewish Thought.
Parshat Mishpatim
The Torah (22:27) prohibits people from cursing a leader. Rav Levine argues that people don't just point out the obvious and evident flaws of leaders; they tend to exaggerate them.
Our Creator’s Infinite Love
Hashem is more concerned for my good than I am. Hashem looks out for my interests more than I do myself.
A Different Wedding
Each prayer, each Shabbat, each festival, each mitzvah, is an opportunity to reconnect to that very different wedding at Sinai
Does Judaism Recognize the Notion of Systemic Injustice?
The path from moral principle to moral policy is rarely straightforward. But the path from lack of moral principle to immoral policy often is straightforward.
TORAH SHORTS: Parshat Yitro: Women’s Candle Power
May we each brighten the world in our own way and may we merit having and seeing children whose light will both burn brightly as well as kindle the light of others. Shabbat Shalom
Learning To Enjoy This World
Hashem created those sacs so that there would be another dimension to our enjoyment. The sensation of eating an orange would be different without this feature.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Yitro: Is That What I Said?
The art--and history--of Jewish communication.
Parshas Beshalach: Singing Of Emunah
So why sing it? If the second shirah does not add any new ideas or even words, what was its purpose?
The Merit Of Trusting Hashem
The difficulty with this Rashi is that he lists all three reasons in same breath as if they are equal, and clearly they aren’t.
AlephBeta: Beshalach: What Does It Mean to Have Faith?
After Israel sings a song of thanksgiving, curiously, Miriam then leads the women of the nation in a second song. Why?
Reframing the Debate Over Women’s Religious Leadership
The religious state of nature does not enable the building of a religious society. Since human beings are social creatures, it follows that the state of nature does not enable human fulfillment. We therefore need a religious social contract. Cue Sinai; enter, the Torah.
From A Friend
They knew that if they performed acts of kindness with each other G-d would perform kindness with them.
Should All Midrashim Be Taken Literally?
We must struggle to understand, says the Rambam, the greatness and wisdom in the words of Chazal.
I’m Never Wrong
Even if the Egyptians prided themselves on ingenuity and advancements, they had to know they were most likely wrong when it came to accurately knowing when midnight was.
Why Do We Light Shabbos Candles?
What growth can we achieve through the mitzvah of lighting special candles for Shabbos? What lesson does Hashem want us to learn from this mitzvah?
TORAH SHORTS: Parshat Bo: Self-inflicted Escalating Punishments
Pharaoh's stubbornness dooms Egypt. Had he let the Jews go at the first request, Egypt would have been spared from all the pain, death and destruction--the blame is his, neither Israel's nor G-d's
What to do with IT
Understanding time, tefillin, and Torah and how they inexorably lead to: Empowerment
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Bo: When the Lights GO OFF
How did the Jews find grace in the eyes of the Egyptians, receiving gifts from their Egyptian neighbors as they left, when they were perceived as the source of all the plagues and destruction?
Parshat Vaeira
The Civil War was a conventional war with large massed armies arrayed against each other in set battles. These battles were more or less governed by accepted rules of war.
Being Like Hashem
This story is compelling because Ford didn’t care about anyone but himself. He didn’t choose to be kind.
IF A FROG JUMPED INTO A FIERY FURNACE, WOULD YOU JUMP TOO?
How seriously should we take frogs as halakhic authorities? On one level the answer is clear: not at all. Frogs do not have free will, or moral responsibility, and anyone one who thinks this midrash believes otherwise defames Chazal. Froggish martyrdom cannot teach us proper Jewish behavior, any more than froggish diet can teach us that insects are kosher.
Your Middos Are Killing You
A therapist will show the child a picture of a person’s face and then help her identify the emotion that person was most likely feeling.
You Count
A devar torah you can 'count on.' Shabbat Shalom from the Foundation Stone
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Shemot: When to Bring the Family and What to Share on...
In our day of media over-reporting, we often think that we should know everything about our leaders. Perhaps it is better to know too little than too much. For when it comes to ethics, the Torah spares no one in reporting what falls short of the mark.
Parshas Vayechi
Each one of us has his own role and path - so there is no reason to be jealous of another person.
Gedolim Had It Easy
For the next twenty years Yaakov was an unwelcome intruder in a culture alien to his nature, eating at the very table of a father-in-law who attempted in any way possible to swindle and cheat him.