Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

I am often amazed that a seemingly innocent phrase or word recorded in the Torah can generate a rabbinical debate that covers the globe and lasts over 2000 years. The controversy over Noah’s essence as a person is a paradigmatic example of this phenomenon. The conversation created below, based on ancient, medieval, and modern commentaries, is an attempt to bring that debate to life through time and space. Players:  Torah - God  Midrash Bereshit Rabbah Midrash Devarim Rabbah Read more...

Ever since I left home to serve two years of “National Service” in Tzfat and Jerusalem, and then off to university, I’ve been paying rent, every month of my life. A lot of rent, and thank God, many months. Read more...

It is two o’clock on Yom Kippur afternoon and all I can think about is what I am going to use to top my bagel and whether the kugel will be as tasty as my mom’s. That thought is usually followed by guilt. Sound familiar? Jews can enjoy food and physical pleasure almost every other day of the year, and on this holy day, one specifically dedicated to releasing our dependence on the physical in favor of the spiritual, I just can’t get that kugel out of my thoughts. Shame on me, right?   Read more...

One of the sorry attributes of most adults is the routinization of the soul. We become complacent, taking for granted our daily routines, our closest relationships, and our familiar possessions. What we see, we frequently fail to notice - an odd form of blindness indeed. So it is that even residents of the most luxurious mansions fail to marvel when they wake up in the same magnificent bedroom they have used for the past two decades, just as we all fail to be truly moved by the miracle of having a bed at all. Read more...

Over the next two weeks, Jews all over the world will gather together, spending many an hour in communal prayer.  Finding one’s own voice of prayer, however, can sometimes seem like an insurmountable task. Read more...