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![]() Lazer GurkowThe Times of Israel (Blogs) |
The kohen (priest) plays many central roles in this week’s Torah portion. Primary among them is the priestly blessing. G-d endowed the kohen with...
Every Jew is a letter in the Torah; the question is, are you a kosher letter? The Torah tells us that 603,550 Jews came out of Egypt.[1] Kabbalah...
One of the most popular antisemitic tropes is that Jews are all about money. But is there perhaps some truth to this? After all, when the Jewish...
Can there be charity without poverty? The world is on a warpath to eradicate poverty. Many billionaires, and wealthy developed countries, are...
The current unrest in Israel is not about the state of its democracy or the role of its judiciary. As many analysts have correctly surmised, the...
Did you know that every Jew is a High Priest? I don’t say this tongue-in-cheek. According to the great commentator Rabbi Yakov Bal Haturim, this is...
Because I said so, was a common refrain when I was young. We knew that we were more competent than all adults combined, and we constantly challenged...
Do you trust in G-d? Is that your first go-to option when you experience a setback? Suppose your car breaks down, you lose your job, or your dental...
When things happen to me, good or bad, I often think that G-d is calling. It is a mantra that I took up in life. It reminds me that nothing is random....
The entitlement generation claims whatever they want as their entitlement. Let me tell you a story: Tim Hortons, a coffee house chain, runs an annual...
The buck stops here, was a sign on the desk of President Harry S Truman. It is a spin off the aphorism, “pass the buck”—punting responsibility...
Moses’ birthday was on the seventh of Adar. The Shabbat before Purim is almost always in the week of Moses’ birthday so let’s use this...
G-d instructed our ancestors to construct a Golden ark topped by two golden cherubs. Only several months earlier, the Jews were severely punished for...
Clean up the mess is what our Torah portion is all about. G-d made a messy world. One in which humans steal from each other, abuse each other, and...
If you are honest and speak with integrity, people will respect you and enjoy your company. If you charm people and tell them what they want to hear...
If G-d knows what we will choose before we choose it, do we have free choice? We discussed this question several times, but I want to deal with it...
Do we have the courage to be free? As we read about our ancestors leaving Egypt, we realize that they took a huge leap of faith. In retrospect it...
This week we are introduced to the ten plagues. Seven plagues appear in our Torah portion and the last three appear in next week’s Torah portion....
Is there a uniquely Jewish cry or do Jews cry like everyone else? On the surface, the Jewish cry is no different than the non-Jewish cry. But the...
This week we are introduced to the diaspora Jew. Until this point, the Torah was concerned with holy people who lived in holy places (except for...
Today, I want to talk to you the time Joseph instructed his father to, “Come down to me.” Joseph was viceroy of Egypt—the only country with...
The Chanukah lights broadcast a simple message: you are good. Sometimes we think that if we lose our jobs, our relationships fail, succumb to...
Since the Renaissance, the traditions of Western civilization were rooted in scripture. Western values derived their meaning and authenticity from the...
Sometimes it is hard to feel that G-d is in our corner. It feels as if Murphy’s Law is G-d’s Law. Everything that could go wrong, does, and G-d...
On his deathbed, King Yanai warned his wife Shelomtziyon to beware of the hypocrite. Fear not the Pharisees, though I have waged war against them all...