As is true by Shabbos and all Festivals, on the two days of Rosh Hashana we read sections from the Torah and a supplemental reading from Tanach, the Haftorah. At first blush, the four readings of Rosh Hashana have no direct connection to the Festival. One day one, the Torah portion that we read is […]
With the entire nation gathered on his final day of life, Moshe warns the people against being seduced by idolatry. The nation, Moshe reveals, is particularly vulnerable to idolatry because of the people whose land through which we have traversed. We saw the Egyptian fascination with idolatry. We saw the various other nations obsession with […]
On the final day of Moshe’s life, he gathered the entire nation – men, women, children, and according to the Talmud, all souls of future Jews – to pass them through a final covenant with God. The parsha also contains the prophetic predictions of the Messianic times, and it ends with a simple, binary choice: […]
Our parsha contains perhaps the most difficult Torah portion to read and digest: The Tochacha (Admonition). In it we are told the consequences of our deeds. If obey the Almighty and hearken to His commandments, He will reward us with bountiful blessings. Should we deviate from Him and repudiate His Torah, however, He promises to […]
As the Book of Deuteronomy draws to its conclusion, the narrative makes a transition: Moshe finishes conveying the mitzvos to the nation, and sets up his final parting message to the people. First, he commands the nation to perform several elaborate ceremonies on the very first day that they cross the Jordan River; then he […]
The Midrash in our parsha calculates that the Torah contains 613 mitzvos, 248 positive mitzvos, where the Torah commands us to do something proactive, and 365 negative mitzvos, where we are instructed to refrain from transgressing the Almighty’s will. These figures are not coincidental. They are precisely targeted to enable us to accomplish our life’s […]
In the parsha that contains the most mitzvos of any of the 54 Torah sections (a staggering 74 mitzvos), we read about the wayward and rebellious son, the requirement to build a fence around your roof to prevent tragedy, two episodes that we are mandated to remember, and many, many more interesting and insightful mitzvos. […]
Justice is a virtue that we must vigorously pursue. Our Parsha begins by instructing us to establish a court system with judges and bailiffs throughout our gates and tribes. The judge is tasked with determining the merits of every case and the bailiff is in charge of implementation. This two-tiered model is not limited to […]
This week we learn the laws governing all kinds of leaders: The parsha begins by detailing the laws of judges, the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court, and what happens to rebellious judges; we read about the unique laws related to kings; there are more laws pertaining to the Kohanim; and we find the […]
Moshe begins our parsha by presenting the Nation with a choice: See, I have placed before you today blessing and curse. And he continues to state that the blessing is the steadfast observance of the commandments of the Almighty, while the curse is the repudiation of said commandments. In this special edition of the Parsha […]
This week’s parsha marks a transition in the Book of Deuteronomy: it is no longer primarily about admonishment and rebuke and warnings, instead we read a bevy of mitzvos – some repetitions and some new ones that have hitherto not been mentioned. – – – – – – – – – – – – – […]
The Torah contains a lot of details regarding what the Almighty expects of us. A verse in our parsha purports to get to the bottom line of what – in one sentence – does God actually want of us. But after reading the verse we emerge with more questions than answers. While ostensibly touting simplicity […]
We pick up where we left off last week amid Moshe’s speech to the nation before his passing, and as in the previous few weeks, Parshas Eikev is jam packed with insights and timeless lessons. Moshe pivots between looking back on the conduct of the nation in the preceding 40 years and admonishing them for […]
Moshe was very desirous of entering the Land. The Midrash reveals that he prayed 515 separate prayers to petition God to revoke His ban on Moshe entering the Land. But God said no. You may not enter the Land, though He allowed Moshe to visualize the Land from atop a mountain. The dialogue between Moshe […]
This week’s parsha continues Moshe’s monologue to the nation in the weeks preceding his passing. He begins by recounting his repeated efforts in trying to convince God to rescind His decree that Moshe not enter the Land; Moshe then begins the retelling of the Torah; and we read many warnings and predictions about proper behavior […]
At the end of Moshe’s life, he gathers the entire nation for his parting message to the nation. The Midrash makes a remarkable contrast between Moshe’s beginning and end of his tenure: When God initially commanded Moshe to save his brethren from enslavement in Egypt, Moshe protested by saying that he is not a man […]
5 weeks before his passing, Moses gives a three-parsha-long speech to the nation, which constitutes his last will and testament. He begins with a retrospective of the history of the nation over the past 40 years since the Exodus – subtly rebuking the nation, guiding them, admonishing them, ensuring that they don’t repeat their mistakes […]
Our parsha contains the laws regarding a person who murders someone accidentally. We are told that the accidental murderer must flee to the city of refuge and remain there until the passing of the High Priest. Although we have neither a High Priest nor a Jewish court of laws that adjudicates as per the laws […]
This year, the Book of Numbers ends with a double parsha – Mattos and Masei. We learn about the laws of vows and oaths; the miraculous war with Midian; the unusual request of the tribes of Gad and Reuben; the Torah delineates the 42 different places that the Nation encamped for their 40 year sojourn; […]
Over the course of the 40 years since the Exodus, the Nation was lead by Moshe and Aaron, the King and High Priest respectively. In our Parsha, successors are designated for both posts. Due to his valiant heroism of the end of last week’s portion, Pinchas is promoted to being a kohein. He would go […]
Pinchas was a man of action, a zealot who avenged God’s vengeance and was handsomely rewarded for it. In this parsha we read about his reward, Moses’ succession plan, the methods through which the Land will be divided, and another census is done. – – – – – – – – – – – – […]
Our parsha contains an attempted genocide. Bilaam, the prophet of the idolaters, a man of prodigious ability an skill, dedicates himself with tenacity and persistence to curse and destroy the people. Although his three attempts at cursing the nation backfire when he is compelled by God to bless the nation instead, the parsha ends with […]
After the Jewish nation trounced the mighty kingdoms of Sichon and Og in last week’s parsha, the comparatively smaller and weaker kingdom of Moab resorted to unconventional warfare to attack the nation by hiring the prophet of the nations, a wily and devious character named Bilaam, to curse the Jews. It did not work out […]
The red cow is the Torah’s most mysterious mitzvah. We are told to take a completely red cow and slaughter it, and burn it’s body together with a concoction of other ingredients, the ashes of which become the potion to purify people who have come into contact with dead people. If that doesn’t make sense […]
In this week’s parsha, we read about a highly unusual mitzvah: The Red Heifer, when an entirely red cow is burned together with a motley concoction of ingredients, and the resultant ashes are used to sprinkle on people that came into contact with dead people in order to purify them from their spiritual contamination. We […]
Korach was a very talented man with a sterling pedigree. He was wise and clever and even had a degree of prophetic clairvoyance. Yet he blundered egregiously by launching a revolt on Moshe and Aaron. When we study what triggered this rebellion we find that Korach has a seemingly legitimate grievance. He believed – and […]
In this week’s parsha, Moshe and Aaron’s first cousin, a man named Korach, launches a rebellion claiming that Moshe is guilty of nepotism in appointing his brother as High Priest. What ensued should give one serious pause before engaging in any similar sort of divisive activities. – – – – – – – – – […]
The final five verses of our Parsha contain the third paragraph of the Shema. In it, we are instructed to place tzitzis strings wrapped with a string of blue techeiles wool on the corner of our garments. Why? “And you shall see them and remember all the mitzvos of Hashem and you shall do them, […]
The Jewish people were on the cusp of entering the Land of Canaan, and made a prudent, but ultimately tragic, decision: To send a contingent of scouts to reconnoiter the Land, to examine its vulnerabilities and weaknesses in order to best plan the conquest. Unfortunately, the report of the scouts sent the nation into a […]
Aaron the High Priest held a critical leadership role in the nation. A partial list of his jobs: he offered sacrifices, he did the Yom Kippur services which included the annual trip to the Holy of Holies, and he blessed the people. But there was one job that he was excluded for: When the princes […]
