The entire cycle of human life is portrayed for us in this week’s Torah reading. The first part of the parsha deals with the inevitable reality of human mortality. The Torah teaches us the concept of Jewish burial – its simplicity and honesty, and the restorative treatment of grief. Avraham mourns the loss of his life’s companion and support. The Torah does not tell us what he said in...
For about the last century, the Arabs have played out the same script over and over again in their attempt to destroy Jewish control over the Land of Israel. And that script is basically to inspire their religiously fanatical followers to riot and kill Jews randomly with no strategic or tactical benefit to their cause. The rallying cry has always been that somehow the Jews intend to physically...
At first glance it may appear that the commitment between God and Avraham described in the opening words of this week's Torah reading is in the nature of a singular and one-off event. There are various interpretations amongst scholars of Israel and the commentators to the Torah as to the level of prophecy that our father Avraham attained. The appearance of angels in the form of human wanderers...
The patternf or the life of our father Abraham and our mother Sarah is set in the opening word's of this week's Torah reading. They, the progenitors of the Jewish people and the parents of all nations are destined to be travelers for all of their lives. The truth is that all of us are travelers on the journey of our lives. The difference is whether we have a clear idea of our destination and...
Mistakes, large and small, national and personal are all part of human existence. Nevertheless, all of us know that mistakes have a tendency to rise up and bite us at a later date. The current wave of terror, lone wolf as it may be, that has beset Israeli society, is pretty much directly traceable to a number of major mistakes made by well-meaning leaders of Israel. All of these mistakes were...
Right on schedule, immediately after the holiday of Succot and the annual prayer for rain, the Land of Israel experienced its first inclement weather of the season. One of the many wonders of the natural beauty and climate of Israel is the fact that for seven months of the year there is practically no rain that falls in our country. Everyone knows that an outdoor summer wedding can be planned...
The events described in this week's parsha only serve to confirm the diagnosis of human behavior already recorded for us in last week’s parsha – that the nature of human beings, if left alone, will invariably turn to evil behavior. Not only that but the recounting of the behavior of the family of Noach, even after experiencing the flood and the destruction of much of humankind, instructs us...
Even though the holiday of Sukkoth is the time of our happiness and joy, with the streets of Jerusalem filled with visitors and tourists, the events that took place during the holiday week saddened all of us. A young father and mother, descendants of a famed rabbinic family of leaders and educators were brutally murdered by Arab terrorists. Their four small children somehow survived the attack,...
The Torah at its onset here in the parsha of Bereshith describes itself as being “the book of the generations of humankind.” Although the literal context of this verse of the Torah is referring to the generations and descendants of the first human being Adam, it has been widely interpreted by Jewish traditional scholars, in its broadest meaning, to refer to all of the generations and the...
Supervising my somewhat willing helpers in the succah, while hanging our decorative memorabilia collected from our extensive travels all over the world, I quietly reflected to myself about the nature of this beautiful and happy holiday. Here in Israel the weather is not that much of a factor and only rarely does it play a role in our observance of the commandment of dwelling in a succah for a...
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