I still don’t know how he made it into Infantry Officer’s course, but I do know how difficult it was for him. Overweight, and far from being an athlete, the physical challenges he … more

There is war, and then there is madness. In war, one often has to fight, but when madness sets in, sometimes  one simply has to run. Such was the question on a dark October afternoon in 1973, … more

The Korach rebellion was not just the worst of the revolts from the wilderness years. It was also a direct assault on Moshe and Aaron. Korach and his fellow rebels in essence accused Moshe of … more

Sefer Bereishit is all about our role models: Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Sarah, Rivka, Rachel, Leah and more. We learn from them our most basic values: Loving kindness and justice, truth and … more

T he Yalkut Shimoni’s opening comment in his Midrashic exposition on Parshas Vayakhel is translated as follows: Vayakhel Moshe, and Moshe gathered: Our Rabbis, the master Aggadists, said … more

The beginning of Parshat Bechukotai paints an image of the kind of blessing we hope to receive from G-d. There are three conditions that Israelites must fulfill before they can enjoy G-d’s … more

Again this year, there is evidence of a polarization in Israeli society. Jewish men purporting to represent what Judaism is meant to be, describing themselves as “religious” or … more

Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal, author of Eim Habanim Semeichah,  described a Kol Nidrei during the Holocaust, Yom Kippur 1942. He was in Hungary, from which mass deportations wouldn’t … more

We all nod in agreement when we hear the phrase. We chuckle when we hear the anecdote about the Jew who was discovered after years of living alone on a desert island. His rescuers noticed that he had … more

One of the more fascinating family relationships in the Torah surrounds that of Yaakov with his wives, and that of the wives themselves with one another. The following discussion of parsha Vayetze is … more