Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

Everybody in America knows that April 15 is a special day.  And, aside from a few IRS agents, no one likes it.  Even though we are aware of all the important services and goods our tax dollars provide (from feeding hungry children to caring for the elderly to maintaining roads to defending the nation) we still don't like to pay taxes.  We complain, we find ways to lessen our tax burden, and we even make a political movement out of paying less.  Nobody likes giving taxes.   Read more...

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It is a well-known truism of the rabbinic/Jewish approach to reading the Torah that this text is of such a level of holiness and significance that every word and sentence must carry meaning. Finding that meaning, however, isn't always an easy task. Sometimes a text is full of strange details and vocabulary and events that are hard to comprehend. Sometimes a text challenges us ethically or seems difficult to relate to the radically changed circumstances of our lives and societies compared to those of our biblical ancestors. Read more...

Parshat Shelach-Lecha contains a justly famous description of the Land of Israel as a "land flowing with milk and honey."  The riches of Eretz Yisrael have endowed our people with a sense of home and of promise from our earliest ages.  But why should a contemporary Jew, at home in America and comfortable with English, care about Israel?  What has Israel done for us lately?    Read more...

Welcome to the world of medieval Jewish debate.  The subject: the purpose of the 'mitzvot,' the commanded deeds of holiness that constitute Judaism.  At the core of the discussion, to whom is religion  directed?  Should Judaism exist to meet the needs of human beings, or should it exist to meet the needs of God?   Read more...