Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Devarim: The Torah’s Insistence that Uganda be for the Ugandans
As the Jewish nation and the Jewish state become more powerful, we have a greater responsibility to contribute more resources to developing nations. It would be a Kiddush HaShem.
Redeeming Relevance: All You Need is One Good Man
a different leader of the next generation steps up and takes action. That leader was Pinchas...True leaders like Pinchas don’t come out of leadership schools. When the time is ripe, they simply emerge.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Haazinu
Haazinu encourages Jews in times of national emergency & documents our eternal connection to God
Avraham’s Empty Altars and the Need to be Selfish
The benefits of sacrificing-but not TOO much
Guns Kill People AND People Kill People; American and Gilead
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.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Chayye Sarah: Avraham and Eliezer, Trust and Closeness Across the Gap
Avraham, saw a world where people can acknowledge a huge and intractable gap between them, know it will not go away, and also build a strong and trusting friendship across tbe gap.
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 Toldot: When a Son Confronts a Father and When a Father...
On the face of it, a conventional exchange between father and son, we see it nowhere else in Tanakh. Moreover both discussions take place at pivotal points in which the respective father-son relationships are tested to their limits.
Redeeming Relevance: Acting in a World of Doubt
Yet, if Mordechai teaches us that doubt is no reason for inaction, it is Esther that teaches us that it is actually a reason for even more effort
Redeeming Relevance: A Bad Sin and a Good Drash
For an interpretation to qualify as a good drash, it must present an insightful idea that is somehow enhanced by the original text.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Noach: A Death Penalty for Animals?
When Noach gets off the ark, there seems to be a whole new world order that surrounds him.
Redeeming Relevance on the Weekly Torah Portion: Naso
Many of us simply don’t get the need for the Torah to list the exact same gift offering, 12 times!
Redeeming Relevance in Parshat Beshalach: Pointing to God
The first 30 years of the State of Israel allowed many to see God in history
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 Vayakhel: Dr. Frankenstein’s Melacha
Perhaps in the midst of the great uncertainties created by the Coronavirus pandemic, it is all too easy to remember that we are not God. But the temptation to think otherwise still exists. And once the pandemic will be over and man will continue to build better and better tools to control his fate and his environment, that temptation will regain its strength
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Shemot: To Help is Noble, to Give a Sign is Divine
We are sorely lacking signs from God today. They are lacking, since our courage and resourcefulness often end when we have no indication of what God wants from us. This is the tragic situation of God’s hiding Himself
Redeeming Relevance: How to Enjoy this World
There is nothing wrong – and actually everything right – about loving God’s world. But to be significant, it must be a love grounded in enhanced awareness and appreciation of God.
Redeeming Relevance on the Weekly Parsha: Emor
With ubiquitous texting, social media, & email, society is mislead to think that words are ephemeral
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 in the Weekly Parsha: Vayakehel/Pikudei
Torah is written with a human bent; As the Talmud says, "The Torah speaks in the language of men."
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: 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: The Art of Seeing God When We Don’t
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
The Sukkah and Exile’s Positive Side
Sukkot is a holiday that brings a unique inner peace – a peace that would seem to resemble the messianic era, a universal acceptance of God’s moral and spiritual order; an order that is best advanced by helping the Jewish people serve God and further educate mankind.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Ki Tavo: Moshe’s Speech to Jews Living Today
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 Vayishlach: The Torah’s Mother
In one of the most mysterious verses in the Torah (Bereshit 35:8), we read about the death of Devorah the nursemaid, a character so minor that we have never really heard of her before
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Lech Lecha: Avoiding Too Much Virtue
While we read of tests of Avraham, it is clear that Sarah endured tests of her own. According to Ramban, she failed her test in her treatment of Hagar
Redeeming Relevance in Parshat Tzav
Rambam warns that a festival meal without taking care of the needy isn't fulfilling simchat yom tov
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 Vayakhel: A Surprise Leader
From the beginning of the building project, the financial and physical contribution of all Jews was sought. There was a need to show that the Torah’s tabernacle was where all Jews stand equal before God