Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf

Redeeming Relevance in the Weekly Parsha: Pinchas

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

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

Redeeming Relevance: Egypt’s Great Snake

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

According to the Baal haTurim the snakes created by the magicians represented Phaorah himself

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Chukat: Why Didn’t Miriam Cross the Jordan?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

The water supply in the wilderness had been dependent on Miriam’s presence. Hence, as soon as she dies, the Jews had no water. In turn, that lack brought about Moshe's disastrous interaction at the boulder.

IS HIS NAME YA’AKOV, YISRAEL OR BOTH?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

People have 1 name because it supposedly reflects identity. What if a person has a double identity?

Redeeming Relevance: Ki Tetzeh: Remember Not to Keep People Waiting

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

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

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Vayelech

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Moshe's message lives on forever: Life's potential is a very lofty goal that we must strive to reach

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Ekev

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

In the Shema, Jews sense personal address but know deepest expression of loyalty to God is communal

Redeeming Relevance in Parshat Tzav

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Rambam warns that a festival meal without taking care of the needy isn't fulfilling simchat yom tov

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Yitro: Good Failures and Bad Failures

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

No one is surprised that the Torah wasn’t given immediately after the Jews left Egypt, even though it was the first logical time for such an event to happen. But why not earlier or later on the trek?

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Ki Tavo: Moshe’s Speech to Jews Living Today

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Moshe saw all the Jews as one whole, it was the ones in front of him who served as the representatives for all those who had lived and would live in the future.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Korach: When There is no Communication

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

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: Parshat Re’eh: Spilling Blood and Spilling Water

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

In view of the seeming sanctity that the Torah imparts to blood, why would it tell us to spill animal blood indiscriminately?

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Ekev: Making Gratitude Count

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Is the source for saying Birkat HaMazon as obvious as we normally assume?

Redeeming Relevance: Shmini: Fathers and Sons; Uncles, Cousins, Brothers…

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Events that took place after the sin of Nadav and Avihu elucidate the real issue behind whatever sin or sins they actually committed: They challenged the traditional hierarchy of children following their parents and juniors following their seniors. It is presumably this issue more than any individual sin that the Torah wants to bring to our attention.

Redeeming Relevance: Just Get it Done!

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

To what extent is a prophet of God allowed to improvise?

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Tzav: A Misplaced Parsha?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Vayikra, unlike Shemot, is not really about revelation. It's about the daily struggle to raise man above his own physicality.

Redeeming Relevance: The Art of Seeing God When We Don’t

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

The retelling of the exodus at Pesach is meant to deepen our faith; and the excerpt from the Mishnah towards the beginning of the Haggadah presents a model for how to do that. It teaches us to follow the example of R. Elazar

Redeeming Relevance: The Loneliest Jew and the Universal Torah

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Tzipporah is largely invisible & almost entirely silent, we hear her only when she rebukes Moshe

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Yitro: Is That What I Said?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

The art--and history--of Jewish communication.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Haazinu

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Haazinu encourages Jews in times of national emergency & documents our eternal connection to God

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Terumah: How Many Israelites Does it Take to Build an Aron?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

If we truly want to be involved in Torah study, than we, ipso facto, are involved in Torah study.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Mishpatim: The Torah’s Superior Strategy for Brotherly Love

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

But the Torah was given to real people, for whom love of the outsider would not always be so obvious.

Redeeming Relevance: Ending Poverty, the Torah Way: Parshat Reeh:

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

How does contemporary Judaism deal with the great challenge of Torah laws no longer practiced?

Redeeming Relevance in the Weekly Parsha: Lech Lecha

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Hagar grossly miscalculated her own merits and demonstrated a serious lack of gratitude for Sarai.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Noach II

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

The remarkable gift of unity should be a powerful tool to further mankind and to further God’s will.

Redeeming Relevance: To Forgive is Divine… but not Exclusively

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Did you ever wonder if Yosef and his brothers ever conclusively put their past friction to rest?

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Pinchas: Are We All Sinners?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

In Judaism, since sin is not a foregone conclusion, we hold ourselves fully accountable for it. Likewise do we hold others accountable – if not to us, then certainly to God. And so the daughters of Tzelophad put this out about their father – and about everyone else.

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Balak: The Perspective of Prophecy

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

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: Parshat Haazinu: Why Did Yehoshua Repeat Haazinu?

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

“If God only commanded Moshe to present Haazinu, what was the need for Yehoshua to join in?”

Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Korach: What to do When Our Decisions Bring Casualties

Redeeming Relevance / Rabbi Francis Nataf Rabbi Francis Nataf

Many of the commentators find a disturbingly strong rationale in the Jews’ complaint mentioned above. The complainers were essentially blaming Moshe for setting up a murderous trap for the two hundred and fifty men that contested the choice of Aharon and his sons as priests.