Towards the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Va’Eschanan, we are given Moshe’s reminder that we are not to add anything to the Torah, nor to detract from it (4:2). This is … more

Fourteen years ago this week (on Aug 9, the 20th of Av, in 2001), in a Sbarro pizzeria on a beautiful Jerusalem afternoon, a fanatical terrorist entered with a guitar case full of explosives and, … more

Last week, from Tisha B’Av through Tu B’Av (July 26–31), was loaded with a particularly awful set of occurences in Israel. From the vandalism on a Conservative (Masorti) … more

How did it come to this? The headline went viral across the western world and the Middle East: Our former Israeli chief rabbi has been indicted for taking millions in bribes and faces trial for … more

When the Levush records the halakha from Shulchan Arukh 428 about when certain Torah portions are read during the year, he explains the rule that Tisha B’Av precedes parsha Va’Etchanan: … more

Ever since the blessing given to the Tribe of Gad by Yaakov in the middle of Parshat Vaychi, Gad has been considered to be the greatest soldier, and set of soldiers, known to Israel. So well known … more

What makes leaders willing to sacrifice everything? This week marked nine years since my cousin Benjy Hillman fell in battle leading his men into combat in the second Lebanon War in 2006. One would … more

This idea was born out of a learning session I had with my daughter, Aliza. She gets a lot of credit for the direction into which this thought developed. The tale of the daughters of Tzlafchad is … more

The image of his smiling, victorious face, aglow with the sense of vindication that seemed to be one step away from “I told you so,” has become the paradigm of the image of impending … more

There is no more tragic figure in the entire Torah than Moshe Rabbeinu, our ultimate teacher. And there is no part of the story of his life in the Torah that is more confounding and mysterious … more