Two Concepts of Teshuvah The sedra of Nitzavim is always read on the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah, when our thoughts are directed toward teshuvah – the great mitzvah of the ten days that begin with Rosh Hashanah and culminate on Yom Kippur. Where, though, in the Torah itself do we find the mitzvah of teshuvah? […]
Judaism Greatest Challenge Twice in the Torah – once in the sedra of Bechukotai, the second time in today’s sedra – Moses gives voice to a series of prophecies of the sufferings that will befall the Jewish people if they fail to honor their mission as the people of G-d. They are terrifying passages. To […]
Stubborn and Rebellious Sons The law of the stubborn and rebellious son is one that generated considerable debate among the sages. What was its logic? How was it to be applied? Was it, in fact, ever applied? What does it teach us about the nature of justice, human and divine? Here is the law as […]
On the Limits of Power There is no subject on which the Torah is more ambivalent than the issue of monarchy in particular, and politics in general. The starting point of any discussion of the subject is in today’s sedra: When you enter the land the Lord your G-d is giving you and have taken […]
Tzedakah: the Untranslatable Virtue Tucked away in toady’s sedra, almost as an aside in the course of explaining the law of shemittah (the year of “release” in which debts were canceled), is one of Judaism’s most majestic institutions, the principle of tzedakah: If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the […]
Geography and Destiny The Torah is a work of wondrous depth and subtlety, so much so that we can easily miss some of its most profound intimations. There is a fine example in this week’s sedra. It concerns the character of the land of Israel. Ultimately, however, it is a haunting glimpse into the nature […]
Listen O Israel R. Jacob Leiner (1814-1878), leader of the Hassidic community in Radzyn, was the son of the Ishbitzer Rebbe, R. Mordechai Joseph Leiner, whose Torah commentary Mei ha-Shiloach has become popular in recent years. R. Jacob wrote a commentary of his own, called Bet Yaakov, and in the course of a sermon on […]
Counsel for the Defense There are times when, beneath the surface of an apparently simple interpretation, an intense drama is taking place. So it is with the opening verse of Devarim. The text seems simple enough. “These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the desert east of the Jordan, in the Aravah, […]
On Parents and Teachers Just beneath the surface of today’s this week’s parsha is an exceptionally poignant story. It occurs in the context of Moses’ prayer that God appoint a successor as leader of the Jewish people. One hint is given in the words of God to Moses, “After you have seen you also will […]
The Hardest Word to Hear The story of Bilaam, the pagan prophet, begins with a bewildering set of non-sequiturs – a sequence of events that seems to have no logic. First, the background. The Israelites are approaching the end of their forty years in the wilderness. Already they have fought and won wars against Sihon […]
