A Compelling Call … “Your brothers will go to war, and you will sit here?” ~ Numbers 32:6 Moses cries out to those who wish to settle on the far side of the Jordan River. This cry is not a rhetorical question – it is a compelling call to future generations. Moses presents a stark […]
The Three Weeks: Extremism in Israeli society Pinchas ben Elazar confronts us with a profound question about extremism in Israeli society today. His zealous act saved the people from divine wrath and even earned him a covenant of peace — it seems the Torah wants us to learn from him. Yet today we know that […]
“Lo, a people that rises like a lion, leaps up like the king of beasts.” (Num. 23:24) Commenting on the verse that provided the official name (Operation Rising Lion) for the recent war with Iran, which appears in this week’s Torah portion, Rashi offers two explanations. By way of midrash, he states “When they rise […]
Recent weekly Torah portions, among them Shelaḥlekh and Koraḥ, are often read as a collection of tales of sins, of spies, and of Koraḥ and his followers. It would be worthwhile to read those passages from another angle, as stories of the development of the Israelites from a nation in servitude to a people seeking […]
A Word on the War: Thoughts from Rabbi Yoav Ende Since October 7th, we’ve been living in a state of rupture — torn between grief, anger, urgency, and determination. While we’re still deep in it, the escalation with Iran marks a turning point that can’t be ignored. For decades, Iran has made its goal clear: […]
A central image this week is the seven branched menorah, which focuses our thoughts on the land of Israel. The menorah is unusually botanical: “There were six branches stemming from its sides, each with three almond shaped calyxes with knob and flower.” (Exodus 25: 31-38 and 37: 17-24). A plant native to Israel resembles the […]
In folk medicine there is a belief in the efficacy of leaves from the bush known as trigose bugloss or prickly alkanet, which is common around the Eastern Mediterranean. Skin wounds can be healed by placing beaten leaves on the wound. Burns and infections on skin can be treated with a salve made of beaten […]
The weekly portion, Be-midbar, begins with taking a count — counting the male Israelites able to go to war, divided according to tribes. Today we are in the midst of several counting activities at once: We are counting the days between Passover and Shavuot, the“counting of the omer,” and we are almost finished. We are […]
“And the man Moses was very humble, more than any person on the face of the earth.” (Num. 12:3) Thoughts in advance of the Festival of the Giving of the Torah We are used to regarding humility as a moral attribute in interpersonal relationships, but one can also take note of intellectual humility, expressed through […]
Mishnah for This Hour: A Timely Take on Pirkei Avot 5:10 “There are Four Types of People:” This applies to every man and every woman — from a flower vendor to a prime minister. “One who says, ‘What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours’ — this is the trait of an average person.” […]