Latest Essays
by R. Eliezer Simcha Weisz In these difficult months, we have been reminded once again how precious every Jewish life is. We’ve seen soldiers going into danger to rescue hostages, families davening with tears for their loved ones, and a whole nation standing together — because in Am Yisrael, every single neshamah matters. We don’t count Jews as numbers. Each person is a world. This idea comes straight from this week’s parsha, Lech Lecha. Hashem…
by R. Daniel Z. Feldman Commentary and insights into the seventh portion of Parashas Lech Lecha. If you cannot see anything below, click on this link. See here for past weeks: here
by R. Gidon Rothstein Parshat Lech Lecha, “Top Five”: Bringing People to God, and to Prayer I started this year thinking I would find the five best comments I had shared in our time studying parsha together. Not going to happen—as I look back, way more than five bear revisiting. I’ll pick five that appeal to me in this moment, for whatever reason. This week, it’s because they focused on related issues. Religion as a…
by R. Daniel Mann Question: I, an elderly kohen with weak legs and poor balance, walk with a cane. I walk up to duchen with a cane, stand near a wall, and lean during Birkat Kohanim (=BK). Is that valid? Can you suggest a good plan of action? Answer: Asking your question takes bravery, as we understand that the prospect of not being able to duchen would be a great disappointment. We will start…
by Joel Rich Interesting in C”M 267 we see that originally a middling identification mark was considered sufficient to return a lost object. However, when tricksters became more numerous, the court determined that it would require witnesses as well. It makes me wonder what caused the increase in tricksters and how perceived permanent had the increase to be in order to have required such an enactment. What were the causes? Could the causes be cultural,…