Tag Archives: parshanut

“The Forest of Sadness.” That’s the last stop recorded in the Sinai travel itinerary. What is this strange place? And what pain does it hold, there in the shadows of its trees?

What’s so bad about Bilaam? Now Balak, the king of Moab - for whom our parsha is named - he’s a real villain...

This week we run into one of the classic questions of the Torah: “What did Moses do that was so wrong?”

For the next five weeks, we will be touring through some of the darkest chapters in the Israelites’ long desert journey. And one theme will dominate these parshot above all: dissatisfaction.

Asceticism - the idea that physical pleasure stands in the way of spiritual enlightenment - has a long and storied history in the annals of religious thought.

"But actually, Spielberg wasn’t too far off from the original descriptions of the dangerous power of the Ark... "

All week, I’ve been thinking about this book, “A Driven Leaf,” by Milton Steinberg.

This is the saddest story I know.

It is the worst thing that can happen. When a parent loses a child, it registers with us as the ultimate tragedy.

Seven days after we left Egypt, we reached the Red Sea. That was the day our enemies died. And, to be honest, we were happy about it.

Any fan of midrash has got to love ‘The Four Children.’

Jacob never died.

Rabbi Kasher's take on this week's parsha, Chayei Sarah.

Everybody’s wondering what Ishmael did to the baby.

This week, in Parshat Lech-Lecha, we begin the story of Avram -- Abraham. What can his story tell us about all of ours?

This week, we take a journey into the realm of Jewish epistemology. That ten-dollar word, epistemology, refers to theories of knowledge - attempts to answer the fundamental questions of how we know things and what can be known at all.

Deep in the heart of God’s sanctuary, there in the Holy of Holies, stood two golden idols...

This week King Balak seeks to curse the Children of Israel, and fails. Then he does it again. And again. Why does he keep trying?

Why do certain periods in history seem to be erupting with cultural productivity, while others are relatively quiet?

After the sin of the spies, God unleashes the most severe punishment in the whole of the Torah.

What’s the big deal with burning a flag? A flag is just a symbol of the state, after all...