Sixteen hundred Jews, mostly elderly and families with children, protected by barely two hundred fighters; the odds for the besieged Jewish quarter of the old city of Jerusalem in 1948, were beyond … more

At the recent wedding of the daughter of very old friends, I was enjoying the palpable joy at the tisch when the father of the bride asked me to lead Maariv.  I had a moment of angst as I … more

Reading through the narrative portion of Parshat Korach, one finds a number of groups complaining against Moshe and Aharon. The first is Korach, the second is Datan and Aviram’s group, the … more

In recent years we have often felt plagued by reports of Israeli and Jewish leaders whose immoral actions had been exposed. A president guilty of sexual abuse. A prime minister indicted on … more

The banishment of Yishmael and Hagar leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth. How could Sarah justify throwing them out of the house? How could G-d tell Avraham to do exactly as Sarah told him? … more

Between the Flood and the call to Abraham, between the universal covenant with Noah and the particular covenant with one people, comes the strange, suggestive story of Babel: The whole world … more

The Torah commands us twice to rejoice on Sukkot. For Shavuot it only says to rejoice one time. For Pesach “joy” is not mentioned at all: it’s hard to rejoice when you’re thinking about the … more

Rav Shlomo said: If you love someone, never ignore him. When you love someone and ignore him, it means they don’t exist. And that really hurts.” “Va’yakhel Moshe et kol adat B’nei Yisrael, vayomer aleihem: Eileh ha’devarim asher tzivah Hashem la’asot otam.” (“And Moshe gathered together the entire congregation of Israel, and said to them: these are the things that G-d commanded us to do.”) more

On July 25, Brett Stevens (not to be confused with Bret Stephens) wrote on amerika.org that the Israel-Hamas conflict shows the true nature of liberalism. more

We typically imagine that the Mishkan is defined by the beams that stood together to become its walls. After all, without walls, there is no building. While a simple view of the Torah’s … more