Sukkot provides an opportunity to think about the truly essential values of life. This week, the tottering sukkah reminds us of life’s fragility, of how ephemeral everything physical is. We do not need much help bringing all that to mind this year, as we still mourn those who were murdered or fell in battle, still […]
The Day of T’ruah: 101 Calls of the Shofar “The teru’ah which the Torah mentions … — we do not know what it is: whether it resembles the wailing with which the women cry when they moan, or the sighs which a person who is distressed about a major matter will release repeatedly, or perhaps […]
A shelter for the soul The Home Front Command urges us to properly prepare the shelters in our homes and in public places. They explain that it is a matter of saving lives—actual, physical lives. A shelter and the need to prepare it carefully it advance are not new. The Bible tells us about the […]
Our tradition places great importance on the connections we feel with other people. We note those connections through happy events, such as a wedding or Bat Mitzvah, and sad events, such as a funeral and burial. In this week’s Torah reading, Ki Tetse, we read of how we must let a captured woman mourn the […]
We are in the midst of the sheva‘ de-neḥamta, the seven Haftarot of consolation that are chanted between Tish‘ah Be-Av and Rosh Hashanah. How can we be consoled this year, in the wake of the slaughter on October 7? Ibn Ezra and modern scholars teach us that Isaiah 40–66 were written by a second author […]
“See, this day I set before you blessing and curse.” (Deut. 11:26) When the Torah commands us to see and not just to hear, we understand that we are talking about more than cognitive understanding. We are talking about an experience shared by the soul as well. In our world there are so many blessings […]
Last Shabbat we read: “You who hold fast to the Lord your God, are all alive today”. We recite this verse every time the Torah is read publicly, which implies that “holding fast” to God is expressed first and foremost by internalizing the words of the Torah and living by its commandments. Cleaving to God […]
On Tuesday of this week we observed the anniversary of the destruction of the Temples. Why did Tish’a Be-’Av fall on a Tuesday this year? The answer is that Tish’ah Be-’Av always falls on the same day of the week as seder night at the beginning of Passover. How are those two observances connected? One […]
“How can I bear unaided the trouble of you, and the burden, and the bickering!” (Devarim 1:12) The Torah teaches us: if it was difficult for Moshe — “whom the Lord singled out, face to face” (34:10) — to lead the people, then all the more so, every leader must study the solution suggested by […]
It is not in the heavens (Deteronomy 30:12) This biblical verse makes a radical claim: divine wisdom is available to all of us. We do not need heroic feats in order to make God’s word accessible. For the sages of the Talmud the verse came to mean that the authority of interpreting the Torah resides […]