In the first of this week’s double portion, Matot-Mas'ey one verse catches my attention: “Avenge the Israelite people on the Midianites after which you will be gathered to your kin.”  (Numbers 31:2)  Once Moses completes this task, he will die.  Read more...

In conversations and/or written communication, there can easily come a moment when a single word makes all the difference in the world. One missing word, one wrong word, one misused word – one word can change the entire conversation, and even at times, stop the conversation. So it makes me think of words more closely – how we choose words in general, what is intended through words, and how words communicate what we want to say. Read more...

A recent conversation I had with my son as we drove to his day's activity comes to mind in regards to this week's Torah portion of Matot-Masei. The drive took us through the much of the West San Fernando Valley and along several of its main arteries. As we passed a row of thrift shops, a wet suit that hung in the window caught his attention. Read more...

This Shabbat’s Torah reading includes Chapter 32 of the Book of Numbers, in which the men of the tribes of Gad and Reuven ask Moses to give them the land east of the Jordan River rather than the land west of it that the Israelites were going to invade and occupy.  When Moses gets angry with them for abandoning the common effort to conquer the land of Canaan, they agree to fight for the land with the other tribes but would still like to settle in trans-Jordan: Read more...

As I read this week's parashah, Matot, I was struck anew by one particular verse. Says the Torah: "Avenge the Israelite people on the Midianites after which you will be gathered to your kin." (Numbers 31:2) Reading the Torah in any moment, I believe, is a reflection of and reflects towards that which we are experiencing in that moment in time. So, the truth is I was struck by two completely different ideas within the verse itself. Read more...