Jewish Blogs

Dvar Torah Tetzave: Biblical Stereotyping

There’s a popular stereotype that fathers are strict, harsh, demanding, exacting and authoritarian while mothers are relaxed, mellow, flexible, carefree and altogether sweet. That may not be how it was in your family (or mine), but when that’s presented as the case in, let’s say, a television show like The Wonder Years, well…let’s just say that it doesn’t generate the need for ...

Dvar Torah Tazria-Metzora: Inclusion Criteria

The notion of there being ten commandments — that is, theTen Commandments — permeates Judeo-Christian religious philosophy, despite the fact that the Old Testament is, for the most part, full of many more directives. In addition to the Jewish opinion that, like the rest of the laws of the Old Testament, these Ten Commandments do not apply to gentiles, we also ...

Dvar Torah Shoftim: (Mis)Direction

We find in this week’s parsha one of the most poorly understood verses in the entire Torah. In fact, it’s so misunderstood that it makes heretics smile with satisfaction and the people who watch the heretics smile wonder why they themselves never became one.“Lo sasur min hadavar asher yagidu lecha yamin u’smol” — “…do not deviate from what they [the ...

Dvar Torah Shmos: Biblical Editorializing

Unlike what we may all have been taught to presume as necessarily true from 3rd grade and onward, the fact that the Torah says very little and the biblical commentators say very much is of great import — in other words, there is a difference between the two and just because Rashi says something doesn’t mean we should accept it ...

Dvar Torah Shmini: A Hair’s Breadth’s Perspective on Wrongdoing

Imagine the most awesome and splendid of occasions accompanied by the most fabulous and incredible fanfare and it would approximate the scene that was when Moses had nearly completed the week-long introductory period of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). Before this preliminary phase had finished, though, tragedy hit: Nadav and Avihu, the two eldest sons of Aaron, were struck down by a ...

Dvar Torah Rosh Hashana: Heads and Tails

We are taught that we eat the head of a fish so as to enter the year on a positive note, rather than a tail, which would suggest a year of inferior quality. How is this different from sticking pins into a doll and hoping that my belligerent boss winds up dead as a result?Judaism promotes itself as a religion ...

Dvar Torah Parshas Bo: Divine Obstruction

The concept of the Ten Plagues is a difficult one to understand, and I refer here to the theological issue that arises from what is clearly stated in the early verses of Exodus — God promises to harden Pharaoh’s heart, thereby bringing about a greater destruction upon Egypt (Exodus 7:3).How can we reconcile this with our claim that the God ...

Dvar Torah Mishpatim: Chukim, Chukim and More Chukim

For a really long time, now, I’ve had a special fondness for Mishpatim. That’s why, in 8th grade, when Assistant Principal Rabbi Binyomin Yablok asked that each male student pick a parsha to lein (for, without motivation, it was really just the same Lubavitch guy who leined every week), I picked Mishpatim. Little did anyone realize at the time that ...

Dvar Torah Ki Setzei: Fate

Fate is a difficult thing to discuss because there are many conflicting sources regarding Judaism’s position on predetermination.Last week’s parsha discussed the incidence of conspiring witnesses who are executed should their ruse be discovered prior to their conspiracy succeeding. Thus, if the execution they testified in favor of was indeed carried out, the Talmud (Bavli Makos 5b) dictates that the false ...

Dvar Torah Ki Seitzei: Hanging Out with God

This week’s parsha opens with perhaps the most famous trifecta of storylines — the captive woman, the two wives and the wayward son (Deuteronomy 21:10) — that, according to the teachings of the Akivan school of thought, tie into one another as a sort of portentous play-by-play of things to come should one choose a path of wickedness. But we ...

Dvar Torah Chukas: Unrevealed Revelation

Someone approached me to tell me how nice of a piece I had written about this week’s parsha, and I responded that I hadn’t written anything yet! But when they told me that they had thoroughly enjoyed my tie in of the snake on a pole and kiddush and running around trying to make money during the week, it was ...

Dvar Torah Bo: Moses’ Innovation

Last week we introduced the notion that, unlike all other prophets, Moses received revelation in Dolby Digital TrueHD. In other words, the reception was so clear that Moses was able to transcribe the data with ultraprecision, providing the basis for our exacting attitude towards biblical exegesis based on such things as choice of vocabulary and grammar, as well as even ...