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![]() Mordechai SilversteinThe Times of Israel (Blogs) |
The tragic incident at Mei Merivah, which occurred towards the end of the desert trek, marked the low point in Moshe’s career as the prophet and...
There are lots of difficult biblical stories; stories which transmit societal rules and then go about breaking them as part of the storyline. We are...
In Shmuel’s parting words to the people after having inaugurated Saul as king, he expressed his grave concern for the people’s loyalty to God. He...
The Children of Israel faced many hardships in the desert and Moshe, their leader, had no shortage of challenges, but none matched the Korah rebellion...
The spies (the meraglim), who scouted out the land of Canaan and brought back a negative report on the challenge of conquering the land, caused the...
Rahab gained a prominent place in the Jewish tradition for her act of righteousness in saving the spies who were sent by Joshua to reconnoiter the...
Commentators have long been fascinated by textual oddities and Parshat Behaalotkha is home to a rare textual phenomenon. The Torah demarcates, with...
Shavuot, unlike the other holidays mentioned in the Torah, is not assigned a date. Its date is fixed as the night after the completion of the counting...
In some modern circles, the Priestly Blessing is seen as an anachronistic rite, both because it is a ritual associated with the long-gone Temple and...
Hosea saw his task as a prophet as an attempt to navigate the difficult relationship between God and the people of Israel. Their bond was filled with...
Sefer Bemidbar opens with the story of a census of the nation taken after a year has passed during its trek in the desert. The storyline then moves on...
In the second prophecy of this week’s haftarah, Jeremiah condemns Israel for its flagrant religious disloyalty: “While their children remember...
Parshat Behukotai opens with an admonition to observe God’s laws and ordinances, with a promise that this behavior will provide earthly reward:...
It should come as no surprise to anyone who has opened a Humash (The Five Books of the Torah) that the Torah is interested in social justice. That...
The Torah states as an imperative that it is an obligation for someone whose relative has fallen on hard times to redeem family land so that said land...
The Menorah, the seven branched candelabra which stood in the Temple, is one of Judaism ubiquitous symbols. Its role in the Mishkan and in the Temple,...
Ezekiel, was a prophet/priest from the elite Zadok family, which had provided leadership in the holy Temple for over four hundred years, from the days...
The rabbinic sages paid very close attention to how the characters in the Tanakh (Bible) expressed themselves, looking for potential lessons to be...
Parshat Aharei Mot contains what many might consider the most difficult of all of the mitzvot of the Torah: “The Lord spoke to Moshe, saying,...
Pesach is the festival which celebrates God’s redemption of the people of Israel from Egyptian bondage. For the Jewish people it is the symbol of...
We have now reached the final day of Pesah. We have run through tons of matzah and have abstained from hametz already for a whole week. All for what?...
What marks the Seventh Day of Pesach as the climax of the redemption from Egypt? It represents the day when the children of Israel departed from...
When the children of Israel reached the sea, they were trapped. Behind them was Pharaoh’s marauding army and in front of them the sea. With nowhere...
The Torah reading for the Second Day of Pesah, which details the mitzvot of the Omer, provides us with a perfect opportunity to ask how it is that a...
The haftarah for the second day of Pesah is separated into two distinctive parts: the first part is a description of the religious reforms of King...
The Children of Israel had a busy couple of days of preparation leading up to the first Pesah, that which is called in the tradition as “Pesah...
During the children of Israel’s forty-year sojourn in the desert, the holiday of Pesah was celebrated only twice, once in the second year, at the...
Much of the legislation in Parshat Metzora strikes moderns as, at best, enigmatic. What are we to do with a malady which strikes at one’s house or...
Eliyahu Hanavi (Elijah the prophet) has mythical standing in the Jewish tradition. Not only was he a prophet and a miracle worker, but he seems not to...
Sefer Vayikra, the book of Leviticus, is a methodical and orderly book. It is ideologically subtle, namely, one needs to read between the lines to...
This week’s haftarah is the last of the four special haftarot attached to four special additional Torah readings which precede Pesah. The special...
Parshat Shmini opens with the culmination of the dedication of Aharon and his sons to priestly service. The tragic episode of the death of Aharon’s...
This Shabbat marks the third of four special Shabbatot where we read both a special additional Torah reading and a special haftarah. Parshat Parah was...
Parshat Tzav has much in common with Parshat Vayikra. Both deal with the sacrificial order and cite many of the same sacrifices. One major...
Leave it to the Rabbis to attach a haftarah which strongly condemns sacrificial rites to a Torah parashah dedicated to the details of the same. In...
For those of you who can remember back to learning the Hebrew alef-bet and having trouble distinguishing between a hey (ה) and a het (ח). I wish to...
People are often unaware that the reader of a text is, in some sense, a second author. When we read something, we filter what we read through who we...
This Shabbat is Shabbat Zachor, the special Shabbat which precedes Purim. It is dedicated to remembering the dastardly deeds of the tribe of Amalek,...
The search for God, His place in our lives and His place in the world are not new questions. This quest is to be found in the Torah, the Prophets and...
Human beings are often uncertain of the significance of their actions. How can the human spirit triumph when all human endeavors are ephemeral? How...
Bezalel ben Uri ben Hur is renowned as the master craftsman responsible for the construction of the Tabernacle, its accouterments and the garments of...
This Shabbat begins the cycle of four special Shabbatot which precede Pesah. The first of these, Shabbat Shekalim, deals with the special Jewish...
Those familiar with synagogue practice know that when it comes time to assess whether a minyan is present, the one doing the counting will do it in...
James Kugel, in his latest book, “How to Read the Bible”, notes that some scholars hold that in the northern kingdom, Israel, Baal and the God...
In Parshat Titzaveh, the Torah seamlessly continues to outline for Moshe and the children of Israel the necessary requirements for furnishing and...
When God commanded Ezekiel to show the children of Israel a vision of the plans for His ideal Temple, He commanded him to preface the vision with a...
The “Mishkan – the Tabernacle (‘sanctuary’) ” on earth was intended to parallel on a human scale God’s creation of the world. God...
This week’s parasha sets forth the plans for the mishkan — the sanctuary in the desert. The haftarah describes King Solomon’s parallel project...