This parsha filled with many instructions for proper behavior starts with how soldiers are to relate to captured women. Recognizing the lust that often accompanies the violence of war, the Torah demands high ethical conduct once these women are part of the conquest. Knowing the potential soldiers’ desires, the enemies sometimes would send their daughters into the…
How to be a judge? Can you be knowledgeable, honest, unprejudiced, fair? The Midrash on this parsha, that begins with appointments and behavior of judges, says a judge should imagine that a sword is hanging above him and that what is below him is Gehinnom (the clearing realm of the afterlife that sometimes is visioned…
Who do we believe? Magicians are often amazing. How did they do that trick or know that fact? History is filled with magical prophets and Torah tells us to beware these false prophets who predict the future for profit, pushing us to worship superstitious alternative gods, especially when, as the Sages mention, these deceitful lying prophets make us…
Who do we believe? Magicians are often amazing. How did they do that trick or know that fact? History is filled with magical prophets and Torah tells us to beware these false prophets who predict the future for profit, pushing us to worship superstitious alternative gods, especially when, as the Sages mention, these deceitful lying prophets make us…
Moses retells the people of their rebellious behavior, the worst of which was, having experienced the revelation of the truth of the Oneness of all, they still turned back to worshiping idols making the golden calf. The Midrash compares this to an about-to-be-bride who is unfaithful beneath the chuppah. As Moses witnessed this, the letters of…
When faced with overwhelming challenges, the sages say it is like a sword aimed at our neck. Even then they say we should not abandon prayer. Can we do it? This parsha has the essential prayer of Judaism – the “shema.” It proclaims that everything is really One. This means the good and the bad…
This is the first parsha of the last book of Torah – Devarim, Deuteronomy. It concerns the final days in Moses’ life. The parsha has Moses chastising the people for rash behavior throughout their journey bringing on a series of troubles. Their behavior is compared by our sages to an impetuous student on a walk with his…
Much of this week’s parsha deals with murder and how to respond to it. In our past there was justified vengeance for the killing of an innocent and when it was unintentional there were cities of refuge where this killer was safe from the murdered relatives’ blood libel. But even then the blood of the innocent murdered,…
This parsha speaks about the dangers of making vows. These are declarations of something you say you are going to do, like stop eating meat, or end drinking, or sexual excesses. But you really can’t keep to this spoken commitment. The sages say making these vows is like stabbing yourself with a sword. These unfulfilled vows lead to emotional,…
Moses has just transferred his leadership power to his most trusted student and ally Joshua. Now in midrash on this parsha he is told to ascend a mountain to look down on the land he personally will never enter and to bless it with spiritual wisdom. Such wisdom is compared to the fruit of a fig tree…