Parshat Behar begins with the following two pasukim: “And the L-rd spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them: When you come to the … more

In the Torah, there are a number of times when G-d uses the word v’natati (and I will place or give) to indicate what He will give to the Bnei Yisrael. Sometimes it is good, and in the cases in … more

We’ll call him Gabi (not his real name), a most unlikely recruit. None of us had any idea how and why he had gotten into our unit — he was overweight, to put it mildly, and was always the … more

This week’s essay is devoted to one short chapter in the life and rich legacy of Rabbi Shlomo Goren, when the fate of Jerusalem was determined as the Jewish state … more

There was something of a motivational speaker about President Donald Trump as he welcomed Mahmoud Abbas, the gerontocrat at the helm of the Palestinian Authority for the last 12 years, to the White … more

On Shabbos, the Progressive Party in Norway, the smaller of two parties within the ruling government coalition (with 29 of 169 parliament seats), announced … more

An open road on a beautiful day, with your kids in the back seat, maybe even a picnic lunch; what could be more perfect? I will always wonder what Tali Hatuel, eight months pregnant, with her four … more

The beginning of our parasha, Emor, focuses on a variety of laws that pertain solely to the kohanim. From a purely juridical perspective, they have little to do with the majority of the Jewish … more

One of the questions which gets much emphasis nowadays is whether the Torah discriminates against kohanim who have some kind of deformity, blemish, or disability. This is an outcome of looking at the … more

On Yom Yerushalayim will be celebrated next Wednesday, May 24, the 28 Day of Iyar, the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem. The role played by Jerusalem in the Jewish religion is … more