Ki Teitzei: Outwards and Upwards
Dear Friends,
Try wearing white next week, and the fashion police will be after you—not that you should be fazed by the dictates of trend. The end of the summer season brings a shift in attitude, which affects how we portray ourselves, and more importantly, how we view ourselves.
Though the schools may be opening, on the Jewish calendar we’re not starting the new year just yet. Rosh Hashanah, which marks the beginning of the Jewish year, is still a few weeks away.
Or maybe not. Maybe we should start the year before it starts. Think of it this way: If there aren’t enough hours in your day, start the night before. If there aren’t sufficient months in your year, start the month before. Starting the new year on the right foot means starting to turn over your new leaf a few weeks before Rosh Hashanah. Elul is a time of reevaluation and recommitment, setting the stage for a spiritual and meaningful Rosh Hashanah.
So let’s take a few moments to think about where we are and where we can be.
Wishing you a sweet new year!
Rabbi Baruch S. Davidson,
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team
Moses delivers a command so counterintuitive that we have to read it twice to make sure we have heard it correctly . . .
I’ve been reading the biblical story where Miriam speaks ill about her brother Moses, and her punishment seems completely disproportionate to her “crime.”
s it true that the Torah requires rape victims to marry their rapists, and the only punishment to the rapist is a fifty-shekel fine paid to the victim’s father?
A man wearing a fez gives a man wearing a top hat a tour of his menagerie. How could you not watch that?
Modern governments use their authority to tax their constituents and pay for public works and social services. What is the Torah view on how a society can express compassion while also teaching individual responsibility?
You’ve heard of kosher food, but what about kosher clothes? Just like it is forbidden to eat a mixture of milk and meat, so too the Torah prohibits wearing a mixture of wool and linen. It’s called shatnez.
Ancient Israel had to defend itself, like any other nation. But the Torah also lays down guidelines to ensure that this horrible tool is used sparingly and compassionately.
Nothing they did could meet with the man’s approval, and it seemed as if he pursued them day and night in order to find fault with them . . .
From a group of skilled pickpockets in a Soviet Gulag, Reb Mendel Futerfas learned a powerful lesson in self-examination.
When the two pupils approached, they saw their master sitting in the snow, weeping and praying. They hurriedly departed.
We were out of water. We were out of food. We barely had any battery left on the cell phone, and had no idea where we were, other than lost in the Vermont National Forest.
“I bought some clay and tools, and even though I didn’t know how to work the clay, I kept on experimenting. Sometimes the pieces would fall off, and sometimes the figurine would explode in the kiln.”
Knowing that You are all-capable, knowing that You certainly could have arranged it that I should reap the intended benefit without needing to experience the pain, how do I justify the suffering that You inflict on me?
There’s something you brought to the world that the world didn’t give you. It’s the only thing that makes you real.
“It is a mistake to think that the Mechitzah is degrading to the honor or dignity of the Jewish woman . . .”
There are those who say that before we do any mitzvah, we must first understand why it needs to be done. Why else were we given a mind?
There are others who say we must just obey with simple faith. How else can we bond with One who is entirely beyond our understanding?
Abraham did both. He began with absolute faith,...
