Our parshah states that Moses sent emissaries to a foreign king, “on behalf of Israel” (Numbers 21:21). According to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, this teaches us that true and authentic leaders always conduct themselves “on behalf of the people.” Many of us today, feel that there is a chronic paucity of great leadership in the world, […]

Our community is in mourning this week for the passing of our communal pillar, Mr. Jebb Levy. I sense a great coming together of our community this week, in honor of Mr. Levy. So much has been said about Jebb this week. About his philanthropy and personality. I’d like to share with you two brief […]

Our parshah contains the tragic story of the twelve spies whom Moses sent out from the desert, in order to check out and survey the Promised Land. Ten of the twelve spies came back to the people with a defeatist attitude. They stated that because the cities of the land are so well fortified, and […]

Golda Meir contemplated suicide in the opening days of the Yom Kippur War. Yitzhak Rabin suffered a breakdown, shortly before the Six-Day War. Menachem Begin retired as Prime Minister midterm, exclaiming, אינני יכול יותר “I can’t take this anymore.” And Winston Churchill, the greatest statesman humanity had known in the 20th century, suffered from recurrent […]

בס”ד Judaism and the Lust for Life Irving stone called his biography of Vincent van Gogh “The lust for life.” The same title can be used to describe Judaism. Many religions shy away from, and categorically prohibit, some of life’s chief sensuous pleasures as sinful and unworthy. For example, in Islam alcohol is strictly prohibited […]

Irving stone called his biography of Vincent van Gogh “The lust for life.” The same title can be used to describe Judaism. Many religions shy away from, and categorically prohibit, some of life’s chief sensuous pleasures as sinful and unworthy. For example, in Islam alcohol is strictly prohibited under any circumstances. A Buddhist monk may […]

 In our parshah, The Torah states: “These are the descendants of Moses and Aaron.” But lo and behold, the parshah then goes on to only mention Aaron’s children, and not a word about Moses’ children. What can we learn about the fact that the Torah has nothing meaningful to tell us about Moses’ children, except […]

בס”ד Keeping the Faith There are different ways to conceptualize the 613 mitzvoth in Judaism. One such way, is to divide the mitzvoth between the mitzvoth between G-d and a human being, and the mitzvoth between one human being and another. An example of a mitzvah between an individual and G-d is the obligation to […]

בס”ד Between Slavery and Freedom It is shocking to think that only 154 years ago, slavery was a living reality in this country. Lamentably, even today, millions of people still live and work in slave-like conditions around the world. Our parashah stipulates that slavery must be limited in time, and conditional. But why didn’t the […]

בס”ד It’s Not About Islam Last October, during Shabbat services, when word got out that a terrorist murdered Jews in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, one of our congregants approached me and asked “It was a Muslim, right?” I answered: “No, he is not a Muslim. He is a white Christian.” Our congregant looked very confused […]