Parshah Columnists

Our life experiences are not random but significant—too important to be regulated by mere chance.

Is it OK to sneak a peek behind the veil that shrouds the commandments and attempt to unravel their mysteries?

Are you hero or victim? The hero who never cries nor feels the fear, the panic, the regrets that are part and parcel of his condition? The victim who never encounters his bravery nor feels the transcendent power of rising above death, if only for a moment? Neither have bitachon...

Being a Jew requires forcefulness and a commanding nature—qualities seemingly incompatible with humility . . .

We have a responsibility not only to help others and protect their dignity, but also to ensure that we refine and develop a sensitive, compassionate and respectful identity for ourselves.

Unlike other sciences, Torah study is not about accumulating knowledge. Unlike other self-help books and religious manuals, the Torah is not only about learning “how” to observe . . .

Why is it that two people can witness the same event but have opposite accounts of what transpired?

In order to get some intimation of the Infinite One Who is beyond all conception, the mind naturally fills in what is inconceivable with ideas that are logical and comprehensible. A still deeper appreciation of Infinity thus requires a certain hollowing out of the mind.

What is Judaism’s economic system? Is there one? In promoting free enterprise, the Torah is clearly capitalistic. But it is a conditional capitalism, and certainly a compassionate capitalism.

Are converts looked down upon in Judaism?

Metaphorically, the seven-year shemittah cycle corresponds to the seven millennia of history.

It’s a fundamental question that has been debated endlessly.

Our Parshah gives us a insight into the nature of freedom. Perhaps it challenges some of our assumptions

In a few brush strokes, our Parshah outlines two pictures: one of "Redemption" -- national and individual wholeness; the other of Galut -- fragmentation and conflict

We tend to start out with rosy ideals or images of how good everything is going to be. Then, at some point, for many of us, we are challenged by situations which seem almost unbearable...

Faith is measured by actions, as is demonstrated by the Shemittah year—and the weekly Shabbat.

A courtroom. A judge reads off the charges. The defendant took his victim, drugged him, called in several of his assistants and methodically, with forethought cut the man's stomach open, removed organs, put in foreign substances...

In my humble opinion—and apparently, Joel, you concur—this is the most difficult of G‑d’s promises to swallow and act upon. But He really means it, and that’s why He is so disturbed by the lack of trust.

A deeper examination of the nature of humility and self-assertion reveals that not only are they not mutually exclusive qualities, but that indeed one cannot operate without the other.

Demanding obedience is a card parents often pull as leverage in a power struggle. But have the children learned anything meaningful?

What is the greater wonder—G‑d’s ability to perform miracles, or our ability to trust in them?

G‑d is omnipotent. He can simultaneously be within and yet remain aloof. But we, His children... how can we be expected to suffer through exile while retaining our exalted status as G‑d's children?

Why does the Torah forbid lending money with interest? The "Culture of Dependency" created by many welfare states can provide some insight in this area...

It is a little known lowlight of history that the Nazis were avid Judaica collectors. Rather than destroy the artifacts and objets d'art they had captured, they preserved them and actively added to the collection...

Two of the seemingly least-related concepts in the Bible are found side by side in this week’s Torah reading.

The Yovel (Jubilee) year took place every 50 years. The fields were left fallow, slaves were freed, and land was returned.

Is a person who built a beautiful marriage, raised healthy children and did his best to pay the bills, but whose bank account is in the four digits (or overdrawn by four digits), worthless?

On the fifth day of the crisis, when all but the Jewish hostages were released, the Israeli government realized that Jews were once again alone in the world. History was repeating itself.

The recipe to Bring Shabbat into the entire week

The celestial benefits are the greatest motivators. Is it not curious that the Torah employs promises that are trivial by comparison as motivation for the performance of the statutes?

Obviously, the Egyptians did some really bad things, and something had to be done to free the children of Israel. But couldn’t G-d have found a more humane way to deal with the situation?

Granted, Mount Sinai was no Everest. But G-d was coming down all the way from the heavens—couldn’t He have descended another few thousand feet, instead of making an octogenarian sage climb a mountainside?

The king commanded his coachman to halt at the peasant's door. "How are you enjoying my gift?" he inquired of his beloved subject

For several years now, positive thinking has been in vogue. But the New York Times reports on a group of psychologists who are “worried that we’re not making space for people to feel bad” and advocate a return to the psychologist’s original role of “focusing on mental illness and human failing . . .”

There are those critics of the Twelve Steps who say that personal humility along with submission to a Higher Power degrades alcoholics and makes them feel spiritually bankrupt...

Word resounded throughout the supernal worlds: "Because Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov has forced the hand of heaven to overturn the laws of nature, he has forfeited his portion in the World to Come"

It was in 1950, after we had completed our army service. At first we lived in tents, in the middle of a barren wilderness. At that time, there were not yet water pipes reaching our moshav. We had to content ourselves with what could be grown in dry, rugged fields.

The Torah did not abolish slavery, but it set in motion a process that would lead people to come of their own accord to the conclusion that it was wrong. How it did so is one of the wonders of history.

Leviticus 25 sets out a number of laws whose aim is to correct the tendency toward radical and ever-increasing inequality that result from the unfettered play of free market economics.

Among the most searing curses ever to have been uttered, the sages found a fleck of pure gold.

For me, ALS has not been so draining because I really can’t do much . . .

When there are multiple meanings of a Hebrew word, they must be connected in some way.

The mind and the heart have trouble communicating simply because they don’t speak the same language, and they don’t respond to the same stimuli.

The Torah discusses two categories of holy animals which must be offered in the Temple.

In my humble opinion—and apparently, Joel, you concur—this is the most difficult of G‑d’s promises to swallow and act upon. But He really means it, and that’s why He is so disturbed by the lack of trust.

Cheese is a metaphor for what you want, whether it is a good job, a loving relationship, money, health or peace of mind.

Word resounded throughout the supernal worlds: "Because Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov has forced the hand of heaven to overturn the laws of nature, he has forfeited his portion in the World to Come"