ב"ה

Tammuz 17, 5766 - July 13, 2006

Squeezed

What happens when all the pain and torment, all the sins and sorrows of a 4,000-year-old people are squeezed into a space of three weeks?
Parshah
Pinchas in a Nutshell
Pinchas is rewarded for his zealotry. Another census, the laws of inheritance, and the division of the Land of Israel. Moses appoints Joshua as his successor.
Story
The Damaged Diamond: A Parable

Abruptly, the perfect, flawless diamond fell to the ground and became deeply scratched...
Finding G-d in the Details

If you’ve ever had this experience, you have unwittingly stumbled upon one of the core spiritual secrets of Creation: a three-fold pattern of vision-breakdown-transformation, or light-darkness-light.
Shoelaces

I saw the craziest thing in the Code of Jewish Law. It tells you how to tie your shoes!
Parenting
Controlling the Control

The hardest part is not relying or resorting to a solution that may appear harmless, is cheap, convenient, easy, mobile and works. Kind of.
Lotto Land

Pinchas gets promoted, a certain obnoxious muppet proposes a scratch-off version of the biblical lottery of the Land of Israel, Moses appoints a successor, and Jono sacrifices his shoe
"All her pursuers overtook her between the straits" (Lamentations 1:3)--this refers to the days of trouble and stricture, from the 17th of Tammuz to 9th of Av
— Midrash Rabbah, Eicha 1:29
Print Magazine

Naturally, we think of the Jewish people as a conglomerate of many Jews. But the Baal Shem Tov saw the Jewish people as a single, indivisible whole.

Think of a geometrical point. A point is indivisible, but not because it is too hard, too big, or too small to cut up. A point simply has no area to be divided. That’...