There is a legend regarding Moses Mendelssohn, the grandfather of the well-known German composer, who was far from being handsome (long with a rather short stature, he had a grotesque hunchback). One day he visited a merchant in Hamburg who had a lovely daughter named Frumtje.Moses fell helplessly in love with her, but Frumtje was repulsed by his misshapen appearance. more

Parshat Kedoshim begins with the charge to the children of Israel to be kedoshim, G-d is, He explains, Himself kadosh. The words kedoshim and kadosh have several possible meanings. more

The sound of the train pulling in to the Kfar Saba station filled the air on another beautiful afternoon. Hundreds of people getting on and off a second train across the platform, beneath the beautiful new glass and stone ceiling of the modern new station opened only two weeks before. more

Pesach always brings back images of blood — blood as a sign on the doorpost, that is. The Shakh, in his commentary on Parshat Bo, claims the blood that was placed on the doorposts was a combination of the blood of the lamb and blood gathered in a major circumcision festival that was necessary to allow people to partake of the Korban Pesach (Paschal lamb). more

Jerusalem, 1948. The newly born State of Israel was struggling against vastly superior Arab forces, and Jerusalem, the heart and soul of the Jewish people, was under siege. There was only one major road to Jerusalem from the west, where the majority of Israel’s population and her food and supplies production lay, and the Arabs had successfully blocked access to the capital to all but the bravest of travelers. more

My daughter and I were recently learning Metzora, and she asked me why the process of getting rid of tzaraat included a ritual of placing blood on the ear, thumb and toe of the afflicted individual, on the one hand, and why it is specifically on the right (and not the left) of all extremities. more

One wonders whether the Mashiach (messiah) and the redemption he is meant to bring still have not come because we are still waiting for him, or because he is still waiting for us. more

I recall, after my cousin Benjy Hillman was killed in the Second Lebanon War, hearing of one particular Shabbat when Benjy, a company commander in the Elite Egoz anti-terror unit, was due to go home on leave. It’s difficult to describe, to anyone who has not experienced it, just how valuable a weekend pass is in the army. more

A simple reading of the Gemara in Arakhin 16a informs us that tzaraat, a spiritual disease with a physical manifestation that is definitely not “leprosy,” could come upon a person for one of seven sins: lashon hora (slander and gossip), murder, swearing in vain, immorality, haughtiness, theft, and stinginess. Raise your hand if you might get tzaraat if such a disease were extant today. (We can all put our hands down now.) more

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to take a long-overdue vacation with my family in Walt Disney World.For our children, who had just spent the better part of a year dealing with the day-to-day challenges of living in Israel post-Oslo, and especially watching their father constantly in and out of the army reserves, Disney must have seemed like a fantasy world, and I was curious to see how they would respond to the educational challenges it would present. more