Thoughts on Parashat Sh’lach Our Torah portion for this week tells us a story of 12 spies sent by Moses to investigate the Promised land before conquering it. They return forty days later, carrying a huge cluster of grapes, a pomegranate and a fig, to report on a lush and bountiful land. But ten of […]

Thoughts on parashat Beha’alotcha

As the old joke goes, “Ask two Jews, you will get three opinions!”. Indeed, Judaism is a religion of intellectual pluralism and it itself resists monolithic interpretations in almost any area of human life and spirituality. Our religion is fundamentally a religion of action: we are bound by the same ethical and […]

Thoughts on parashat Nasso.

One of the fundamental philosophical and at the same time practical problems underlying all religions is how to control things that are beyond our control. Therefore, throughout history intoxicants received religious, and often legal attention. One of the ways in which our religion[…]

Thoughts on Parashat Bechukotai Our Torah portion for this week is called Bechukotai, which can be translated as “in my laws”. It starts with אם־בחקתי תלכו (im bechukotai telechu – lit. ‘if you walk in my laws’) and centers on a brief but eloquent promise of blessings for those who follow God’s ways and an […]

Thoughts on Parashat Emor

Another year goes by and we have parashat Emor again. At the end of this Torah portion we find the following story:

There came out among the Israelites a man whose mother was Israelite and whose father was Egyptian. And a fight broke out in the camp between that half-Israelite and a certain Israelite.[…]

פרשת קדשים

(Wayikra 19:1 – 20:27)

Imagine a perfect morning: the smell of freshly brewed coffee, the singing of spring birds outside the window. You open the door to your apartment, you grab a fresh newspaper brought by the mailman already before dawn, you sit at the table, the paper rustles nicely[…]