Redeeming Relevance: A Bittersweet Song You Better Remember: Parshas Ha’azinu & Jewish Destiny
God’s foremost desire is to conduct a relationship with the Jewish people built on love and commitment. The song of Ha’azinu reassures us that the relationship will never die.
Redeeming Relevance: Moving On and the Sins of Omission
As we approach Yom Kippur, it is time for us to think creatively, the willingness to chart a new path, about what we can do better.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Ki Tavo: Amalek, Bikkurim and Ma’aser
Many commentators sense a significance to the placement of the bikkurim declaration, at the beginning of this week’s pasha, right after the injunction to destroy Amalek. What is the connection?
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Ki Tetzhe: Yehoshua the Conqueror
Battling Amalek presents an important warning to any Jewish military leader that there is a need to maintain a basic respect for what it means to be human, even when dealing with mortal enemies.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Reeh: The Taste for Blood and the Imperative of Relevance
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?
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Ekev: Shema and all that Jazz
A musical perspective on Parshat Ekev...
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Ve’etchanan: Why These Ten?
Understanding why these Ten Statements were chosen-as opposed to others omitted-could well lead us to a greater grasp of the essence of this venerable text.
The Book of Speech; Redeeming Relevance on Parshat Devarim
An obstacle to understanding Devarim is thinking of it as a book. Devarim literally means “[spoken] words” and should therefore be primarily considered in its 'orality'
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Matot: Menashe — The Odd Man Out
Why did Moshe include part of Menashe together with Gad and Reuven in the Transjordanian settlement?
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Pinchas: Midian, Moab and Yisrael
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.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Balak: The Perspective of Prophecy
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?
Redeeming Relevance: Moshe’s Last Chance
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
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Korach: When There is no Communication
The communication gap here is really two-sided. It certainly starts with Korach and his group, but it subsequently infects Moshe as well.
Redeeming Relevance: The Desert Bubble: Parshat Shelach
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.
Redeeming Relevance: The Wisdom of Withdrawal: Parshat Behaalotecha
If Moshe was the greatest man that ever lived, his silent partner Tzipporah deserves much of the credit for it.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Naso: Holy Negativity is Still Negativity
Enjoyment of God’s world always comes with some innate meaning – something which is lacking in the case of abstinence, the case of the Nazir.
Redeeming Relevance: Parsha Bemidbar: Follow Which Leader?
The Torah recognizes the phenomenon of leadership and brings it to our attention subtly in the Book of Bemidbar, through the way it lists the names of the different tribes.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Behar: The Torah’s First Ending
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
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Emor II: No Time to Think
The Torah is telling us something here: Though we may sometimes act too rashly, there are times when rash action is the only way to prevent a complete catastrophe.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Kedoshim: We Need to Choose
In this week’s parsha, the Torah further develops the statement that opens Parshat Kedsohim, the need to be 'Kadosh.'
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Achrei Mot: Nameless Heroes and the Holy Path
Parshat Achrei Mot represents a transition in the book of Vayikra from an emphasis on Aharon and his sons to the Jewish people as a whole
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Metzorah: Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?
Man in his ideal form is described as a speaker. Fitting that the sin most closely associated with tzaraat is misuse of speech.
Redeeming Relevance: Tazriah: The Things We Must Do To Belong
The outcast metzorah or zav, is essentially promised a quick rebirth within the Jewish nation.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Tzav: A Misplaced Parsha?
Vayikra, unlike Shemot, is not really about revelation. It's about the daily struggle to raise man above his own physicality.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Vayikra: Torat Kohanim and the Torah on One Foot
Vayikra, the Torah’s middle book, gives the critical light to the Torah's other books around it.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Pekudei: Fragmentation and the Divine Presence
Perhaps God’s own 'completeness' prevented Him from dwelling in a Mishkan waiting to be finished?
Redeeming Relevance: Vayekhel: A Personal Donation
The Mishkan's building was a situation where the process was at least as important as the result
Redeeming Relevance: Ki Tissa
Paradoxically, it is when we confront evil we have the opportunity to make the world a better place.
Redeeming Relevance: A Choshen Mishpat of our Very Own
The sages believed each of the Kohen Gadol's vestments brought atonement for a different type of sin
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Terumah: How Many Israelites Does it Take to Build an Aron?
If we truly want to be involved in Torah study, than we, ipso facto, are involved in Torah study.