Parsha

He implored the talmid to come up with a way he could return the money without implicating himself.

In politics as in business, the ability to deliver matters.

Being examined by a doctor was causing his patients to be nervous, and that was contributing to the rise in their blood pressure.

In last week's parsha, it looks like the people finally began to trust in God. But now, suddenly, idolatry? What happened? How did the people fail so quickly?

Pinchas fulfilled the halacha of kana’im pogim bo whereby a kana’i (zealot) is granted permission to kill people performing specific aveiros.

The fact it was specifically Midianite and Moabite women involved with Jewish men {Moshe and men involved with Ba'al Peor) shows that an existential bond existed between these nations and Israel.

It is only G-d’s Hand in guarding our continued existence and our dedication to Torah that has allowed us to endure.

For the first time in a while, the main characters of the parsha--Bilaam and Balak-- are NOT the people of Israel.

Our worst enemy convinces us that we can only be led from the top, rather than recognize that a real leader lifts up each individual so that he can stand with him in the heavens

How is it possible that anyone could see Pinchas as anything other than a hero?

Bilaam not only doesn't appear to be great, he seems to be base as well as foolish (outsmarted by his own donkey!). So how can the midrash claim he was really at least as great a prophet as Moshe?

Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking. -Kahlil Gibran

This week, we get even more complaining from Israel - this time, about the lack of water. How can they continue to complain after...

So even if their parnassah was dependent on their listening, how would they be motivated by something so mundane as earning their daily bread?

The Zohar says that only someone who dies of natural causes was killed by the malach hamaves. People who are killed by others were not killed by the malach hamaves.

It is well known that each month is aligned with one of the tribes of Israel, with Tammuz being aligned with Reuven. What is Reuven all about?

The essence of Torah is to guide us in mastering a life of back and forth, inside and out, up and down; a life riding on the hinges for those seeking to find their voice, courage and inner greatness.

Moshe was ideally suited to the role of an intermediary between God’s immanent presence and Israel but not so well suited to leadership in front of a hidden God

G-d is the only “force” that is completely sovereign and independent. The rest of creation, however, requires a dynamic giver-taker relationship.

Korach wasn’t approaching Moshe to seek the truth; his sole intention was to mock and discredit Moshe.

The Vilna Gaon argues that that there is even more reason to permit doing pidyon haben via a shliach since pidyon haben is essentially repaying a debt.

The communication gap here is really two-sided. It certainly starts with Korach and his group, but it subsequently infects Moshe as well.

We’ve seen Israel complain over and over, but never before have they tried to undermine and dispose of their leaders. Join us as we...

I definitely don't want even those who hurt me to be swallowed up by the earth, but I do wish a different place for them, just enough displacement for them to able to objectively look at themselves.

The "enemy" has a mind of its own.

How could the spies have doubted God? How could they have sinned so egregiously?

There were far too many consequences of their rejection of "super" vision, and they understood the price of choosing to not see, epitomized by the spies "not seeing" their destiny in Israel.

Clearly, they were lacking in bitachon. Their faith in Hashem was deficient. But they weren’t guilty of speaking lashon hara.

If that is the case, though – if a mechallel Shabbos is toned because he is like one who is ovdei avodah zarah – why, Rav Akiva Eiger asks, is a person who desecrates Shabbos in private stoned?

The incident of the spies was a completely new and problematic transgression, it was not toward the rarified wilderness, but rather toward the earthly existence promised in the Land of Israel.