Life: Quantity Vs. Quality
Oct 23, 2013 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
“And the span of Sarah’s life was 127 years—the years of Sarah’s life” (Gen. 23:1; my translation). Whenever I read this verse, I feel a deep sadness that is only intensified by the story that follows. Let me explain.
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A Hand to Hold
Oct 16, 2013 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Vayera
Her beautiful 16-year-old Ishmael lying whimpering nearby from mortal thirst and her own death close at hand, Hagar—in Genesis 21:15–18—is about as pitiable as one might imagine.
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What’s in a Name?
Oct 9, 2013 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
What’s in a name? Quite a lot, but you need to know the story.
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Bereishit with a Capital Bet
Sep 22, 2013 By David Marcus | Commentary | Bereishit
With this week’s parashah, we once again commence the cycle of reading the Torah from the first chapter of Genesis, which begins with the Hebrew word bereishit.
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A Just and Sustainable Society
Jul 13, 2013 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Devarim | Tishah Be'av
What is your vision of a righteous city? This is an important question, because this week is known as Shabbat Hazon, the Sabbath of Vision, and the vision offered by our prophets is that of a city that has gone astray, abandoning the path of righteousness.
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Separation and Connectedness
Jul 17, 2013 By Leonard A. Sharzer | Commentary | Va'et-hannan
In Parashat Va-ethannan, Moses seems to have finally come to accept that he will not enter the Promised Land with the People, whom he liberated from Egyptian slavery and guided during a 40-year trek through the wilderness. As he concludes his first oration, he recalls his pleading with God to allow him to enter the Land, a plea that was denied because of his response to the demand of the People for water. Now, no longer pleading for a pardon, or even a commutation of the sentence, he exhorts the People to follow God’s commandments and the teachings he, Moses, has transmitted to them.
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Consolation and Repair
Jul 24, 2013 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Eikev
Here we find ourselves two weeks into the seven weeks marked ever so gently by their haftarot, the shiv’ah d’nehemata (seven haftarot of comfort or consolation)—seven weeks in which the haftarot have nothing to do with the parashiyot, and everything to do with where we are in the calendar year: heading from Tish’ah Be’Av into the season of teshuvah, and ultimately into a new year.
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Bacon in the Season of Repentance
Jul 31, 2013 By Charlie Schwartz | Commentary | Re'eh
As it becomes clear that living and dealing with “bacon mania” is part of early 21st-century life in the United States, now is a good time to reflect on the Jewish prohibition of eating pork, which appears in this week’s parashah.
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