Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Vayeshev: The Rhymes and Rhythms of Biblical History
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?
Redeeming Relevance: The Importance of Being Alone
" I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
Henry David Thoreau
When There Are No Halakhic Responses to the Elimination of the Iranian Threat
The theological questions from October 7 appear to be answering themselves in a way we can more readily understand.
Follow the Leader: The Legacy of Nachshon Ben-Aminadav
Leading by example must be calculatedly visible, not only from a point of view of where it is done, but even when and how it is done. Doing something privately is not an act of leadership.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Miketz: Yosef’s Descent
We generally assume that Yosef, as a victim of cruelty and not its perpetrator, had nothing to regret. Yet a careful reading shows he had a significant role in creating the tension with his brothers
The Benefits of the Evil Amongst Us
Exposure to evil prevents us from an illusion of pleasant stability--and stability is the very thing that prevents the good from getting better.
Why Can’t God Get More Involved?
The experience of the generation that came out of Egypt shows us that the clarity we think we so much want from God would actually hurt us more than it would help us.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Yitro: Good Failures and Bad Failures
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: Sukkot: When Shul is Meant to Be Annoying
Irritation leading to growth...
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Re’eh: Spilling Blood and Spilling Water
In view of the seeming sanctity that the Torah imparts to blood, why would it tell us to spill animal blood indiscriminately?
Wisdom of the Longer Path
This is not to say that there is no such thing as a wrong turn. Though we can even learn from a mistaken path, we have good reason to want to avoid it.
Redeeming Relevance: Women, Beauty and Religion
The easiest way out of my problem would be to say that the Mishkan was designed based on people’s need to be impressed
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 on the Weekly Parsha: Kedoshim
Putting parents before oneself is a step toward putting the more abstract concept of God before self
Knowledge and Wisdom
it seems hard to understand how the rabbis could come right back with the conclusion that Nadav and Avihu were greater than Moshe and Aharon
Redeeming Relevance: A People Chosen for Opposition
While there is plenty of room for cooperation and interaction with other larger cultures, it is important for the Jewish people to remember that a key role God wants it to play is to often stand on the other side and follow our own path.
Redeeming Relevance: Mishpatim
"Hamas" means "violent," via undue human pressure on a process not meant to be controlled by humans
Bar Kappara’s ‘Off-Color’ Jokes
By using humor, he could bring home what simple study in a beit midrash could not.
Redeeming Relevance: Moshe’s Sober Consolation
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.
Redeeming Relevance in the Weekly Parsha: Vayishev
Yehudah, more suited to the role, became leader and not Yosef- the very public candidate for the job
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Vayigash: Yosef‘s Invitation in to Exile
Yosef wanting to see his father Yakov again is understandable. Perhaps Yosef could not have left Egypt to do so. But did Yosef’s desire to see him justify making his father leave Israel for Egypt?
Redeeming Relevance: Chaye Sarah: What Happened to Yitzchak?
Yitzchak, did not go to Be’er Lechai Ro’ee to pray or meditate. Rather he was on a mission, and that mission was to return Hagar to Avraham in marriage.
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 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 on the Weekly Torah Portion: BaMidbar
From Bemidbar on and in Nevi’im, the nation is viewed primarily by its component parts, the tribes
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Emor: The Challenge of the Rearguard Mother
Long before the Danites’ penchant for connection with gentiles would reach its climax in the days of Shimshon, the Torah warns them of its great dangers
Celebration in the Shadow of Death
Rebbe Akiva. He is the Jewish hero par excellence, which means that, on some level, his life story encapsulates the values and ideals of the Jewish people. And yet, perhaps not coincidentally, he lived in the shadow of death.
Redeeming Relevance on the Weekly Parsha: VaYeishev
Tamar initiates the process, opening Yehudah’s eyes to her essence; “clothes don’t make the (wo)man"
What to do When Our Decisions Bring Casualties
When God gets angry at the people, all Moshe can do is fall on his face in grief at his own responsibility about what was happening--
But Moshe doesn’t stay on his face for long.
Redeeming Relevance: Parshat Metzora: Flesh
That man is more than flesh is obvious to the Torah, but the Torah’s task is to make it obvious to man.