Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf

One of the more fruitless political debates in the United States is whether strict restriction of gun permits would add to public safety. One of the reasons it is fruitless is that both sides muster flawed analogies to other societies.

A sense of innovation or assertion in Yitzchak’s life is found in one area – spirituality.

And so Moshe’s ultimate message here, according to Netziv, may be that even if the curses are fulfilled, that is no reason to abandon God.

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.

I believe that the Torah is telling us something more nuanced. I think it is telling us that God wants the people to listen to Moshe even when he is wrong!

we need to first discuss the logical problem posed by chametz.

Had the Jews not sinned with the spies, they would have gone into the land led by Moshe at the end of Parshat Shelach. Hence the end of Vayikra would have basically been the end of the Torah

So what is melakhah, and how is it different than avodah? And why is that only Moshe sees it that way. Finally, why is blessing something that seems to flow directly out of it?

Yosef’s tale illustrates that "clothes don't make the man"

Understanding relationships leading to understanding the parsha

There is an important teaching here for those who seek to have legitimate grievances addressed.

The delicate balance of the Jews place in the world: The impact of interacting with other cultures

When it came to the “Jewish question,” Achashverosh seemed to be completely neutral. So how could he be as bad as the man who destroyed the Temple?

Though a woman helps her partner and remains his equal, she nurtures and thereby becomes a man's superior. Paradoxically, therefore, woman may be just a bit closer to the image of God than man.

How could Ya’akov make the same 'mistake' as his father, to favor one child over another after all the troubles that plagued him resulting from Yitzchak favoring Esav?

Korach demonstrates how "charisma" can lead to a breakdown in the legitimate forms of leadership

“I have learned much from my teachers and even more from my friends, but from my students I have learned most of all” (Taanit 7a). 

Avraham showed himself to be a mentor for all peoples that God created. If he had previously kept his distance, he would now go to the other extreme of marrying a Canaanite woman, and fathering and raising her children.

Is the Torah to be read exactly as the Jews who received it would have, or, is it actually to be read in a contemporary way that can't possibly be the same as those who first received the Torah?

If everything depends on the final test, the Sacrifice of Yitzchok, why give Avraham other trials?

Shabbat Shalom

A musical perspective on Parshat Ekev...

If Ya’akov’s words to Pharaoh were just an exercise in self-mortification about what was too late to change, there would be little to learn from them. But if, as is more likely, they represented part of a strategy of how to continue improving, there is actually a great deal we can learn from them.

Because sefer Vayikra is more difficult, we tend to look at it less. But because we look at it less, we also understand it less, which – in turn – keeps it difficult and less appealing. In a nutshell, that is what I call Vayikra Avoidance Syndrome.

Paradoxically, with Moshe’s desperate act, something positive happened. When the people realized what Moshe was responding to, it shook them to their foundations.

Exposure to evil prevents us from an illusion of pleasant stability--and stability is the very thing that prevents the good from getting better.

Judges, essentially apolitical, fulfilled a temporary purpose and then returned to private life

Gad’s tremendous wealth considered with other points led rabbis to deduce Gad was very materialistic

Since not saying lashon hara is easier said than done, here is something to help you: Just remember what happened to Miriam!”

5 sisters, with no brothers, questioned an assumed law concerning land inheritance in Israel-and won