91快播

Moments of Intimacy with God

Mar 14, 2009 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Ki Tissa | Purim

The unknown can be frightening. This week in particular, beyond the unknowns of the economic crisis that grips the world, we encounter insecurity in the Purim story, with God’s hand seemingly absent from directing the narrative. There is an uncertainty that the unknown breeds; we feel it deep within ourselves and struggle to overcome ambiguity through a search for assurance. What is and remains true is that the lesson of the day is consistent with the lesson of history鈥攏one of us is immune from the insecurity of the unknown. Even Moshe.

What God Wants From Us

Apr 7, 2009 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Tetzavveh

What is the book of Exodus about? At first glance, the answer seems easy. As the English title states, it tells the story of the exodus from Egypt, the story of how God rescued the Israelites from slavery by defeating Pharaoh and his armies. A second glance, however, shows that this answer cannot be right.

The Journey of Life

Oct 4, 2008 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Shabbat Shuvah | Vayeilekh

There is so much fundamentally wrong with the world today. As Chancellor Eisen wrote in his High Holiday message this year, 鈥淥n bad days, the problems seem utterly beyond managing. On good days, they call for a degree of judgment, sacrifice, and national unity seldom seen in our country or our world.鈥� My fear is that we have actually become too accustomed to calamity; too proficient at responding to disaster.

Your Zeyde the Pilgrim

Sep 29, 2009 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Ki Tavo

Try to imagine your zeyde, born and bred in Lithuania, dressed as a Pilgrim. I did. Like any other American schoolchild, I learned how the Pilgrims came to these shores on the Mayflower, how they celebrated their first harvest together with the Wampanoag Indians, and how this celebration became the basis for our holiday of Thanksgiving. For reasons that were not clear to me at the time, I tried to picture my Litvak grandfather as a Pilgrim, but the moment I did I started laughing.

Standing at the Foot of God’s Mountain

Aug 29, 2009 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Ki Tetzei

My beautiful daughter is no longer a newborn at fourteen weeks. Even more striking than the swift flow of time since her birth is the fleeting function of memory. I can no longer picture her in my mind as she looked in the first few weeks, just as I can no longer imagine my five-year-old son the way he looked when he was fourteen weeks old鈥攐r my little sister, now in her thirties, as she looked when we were kids. The images replace themselves, as a teacher of mine once put it.

The Religious Value of Critical Study

Aug 28, 2010 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Ki Tavo

Parashat Ki Tavo begins with a description of the ceremony for bringing the first fruits to the Temple. As part of this ritual, the following is to be recited by the pilgrim bringing the produce:

A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he descended to Egypt. There he became a great and mighty nation. The Egyptians did us harm and caused us suffering; they placed upon us the burden of hard labor. We called out to the Lord the God of our ancestors; God heard our voices, and He saw our suffering, our hard labor and our oppression. The Lord brought us forth from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, with signs and with wonders. And he brought us to this place, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now behold I have brought the first fruits of the land that You have given to me. (Deut. 26:5鈥�10)

The Jewish “Lost and Found”

Aug 21, 2010 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Ki Tetzei

Few sights are as pathetic as the mountain of lost items accumulated at a summer camp or school at the end of the season. Clothes that once were valuable to their owners (or at least, to their parents) now lie dirty and discarded in a noisome heap that no one wants to touch. Perhaps in the premodern world, where people stayed put and personal effort was required to manufacture each item, fewer things got lost.

Adhering to God’s Word

Jul 31, 2010 By Raymond Scheindlin | Commentary | Eikev

In Parashat Eikev, we hear the voice of Moses, that most eloquent of preachers, exhorting the Israelites as to how to behave in the Land that he is never to see. He reminds them of their past misconduct and warns that if it continues, they will not thrive in the Land. He devotes much of his attention to the Land itself.