Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Mishpatim: Can an Angel Be Wrong?
Towards the end of this week’s parsha, God speaks about a malach that he will send in front of the Jewish people but it is not clear what He is referring to. We will consider one understanding
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Noach II
The remarkable gift of unity should be a powerful tool to further mankind and to further God’s will.
Redeeming Relevance on the Weekly Parsha: Chaye Sarah
At the beginning of this week's parsha, Rashi informs us that Sarah's death was no accident, but rather a result of hearing about Avraham...
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Ki Tavo
The bikkurim declaration praises Gd & distills the Egyptian experience down to its spiritual essence
Redeeming Relevance: Mishpatim
"Hamas" means "violent," via undue human pressure on a process not meant to be controlled by humans
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 in the Weekly Parsha: Yitro
Shemot relates the transition from the story of one family-Yaakov’s-to the story of a nation-Israel
Redeeming Relevance: Chaye Sarah: The Advantage of Disadvantage
Yishmael’s challenge was whether to come back at all. Having been so clearly rejected, why would he want to have anything more to do with his father Avraham?
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Korach: The Dangers of Delusion
We assume we know as well as our leaders less because they have failed to prove themselves or have shown deficiencies than because of our attachment to seeing ourselves a certain way. And, as was true of Korach and his group, we do so to our detriment.
Gad — The Tribe of the Nouveau Riche
Gad’s tremendous wealth considered with other points led rabbis to deduce Gad was very materialistic
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: Did Moshe Decide to Break the Tablets?
Paradoxically, with Moshe’s desperate act, something positive happened. When the people realized what Moshe was responding to, it shook them to their foundations.
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: To Forgive is Divine… but not Exclusively
Did you ever wonder if Yosef and his brothers ever conclusively put their past friction to rest?
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Ekev: Shema and all that Jazz
A musical perspective on Parshat Ekev...
Redeeming Relevance in the Weekly Parsha: Balak
Bil’am’s character is complex and nuanced; neither purely good nor purely evil.
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 in Parshat Tzav
Rambam warns that a festival meal without taking care of the needy isn't fulfilling simchat yom tov
Avraham’s Empty Altars and the Need to be Selfish
The benefits of sacrificing-but not TOO much
Redeeming Relevance: Parsht Shelach: When Silence is not Golden
Yehoshua and Calev's mistake was what they could have done earlier: They must have known their colleagues’ negative inclination. The Torah’s silence on whether they tried to change the mind of the other spies speaks to their own silence as well.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Chukat: Why Didn’t Miriam Cross the Jordan?
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.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Naso: The Place of the Displaced, the Replaced and the Misplaced
Three laws seemingly unconnected and out of place: theft from a convert; sotah; and nazir. Why are they here, in Parshat naso?
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: The Mother’s Sin Offering and God’s Need for Darkness
The ethics of each new birth represents a microcosm of that debate. We have good reason to hope that the education and upbringing we provide our children will ensure that they bring more good to the world than evil. But there is not a single one of us who can bring up even the best of our children to never do evil. And given that this is the case, giving birth is also an act of responsibility for the evil that one thereby adds to the world.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Vayigash: Too Much for Me, Too Much for You
Yakov realized there was a Divine plan all along; God did not inflict suffering on him for no reason
Redeeming Relevance: Pesach’s Missing Eighth Day
Appreciate that Pesach is NOT meant to end on the seventh day, but at Shavuot. With that in mind, we need to work harder to accept making the days of sefirat ha-omer into days akin to chol ha-moed
Redeeming Relevance in the Weekly Parsha: Shemot
God wants man to maximize benefit from Creation only in ways that don’t compromise spiritual health
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?
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?