The Complexity of Human Rights

Let’s Hear It For The Girls

Mad About You

This week’s Sedra begins with a discussion of nedarim – vows & oaths. While the world holds that an oral contract is "only as good as the paper it’s written on," Judaism & the Torah place great emphasis on the power of speech.

About Vows and Sensitivity

Take it upon yourself, without a vow, to correct one thing in your life, and these days will work their true action - to add goodness in the world.

How Vows Are Like Idol-Worship

The beginning of this week's Torah portion of Matot focuses on certain important details pertaining to the laws of vows and oaths. A Torah-mandated oath is one by which one forbids himself to engage in one or more otherwise permitted activities. This leads us to ask a very fundamental question...

Oaths and Vows

Can freedom and order coexist in the human sphere? Can there be a society which is both free and just at the same time?

The Personal Interest in Advancing the Jewish Nation

Israel National Torah

Explaining why G-d commanded Moshe to take vengeance against the Midianites and not the Moabites - the act of one woman who chose to advance the Jewish People's mission over her own physical and financial comfort.

Conflict Resolution

One of the hardest tasks of any leader – from Prime Ministers to parents – is conflict resolution. Yet it is also the most vital. Where there is leadership, there is long-term cohesiveness within the group, whatever the short-term problems.

My Vows I Shall Fulfill

Can performing a mitzvah become a liability? What does it mean that I am doing something “bli neder”? “My friend Billy Nader says bli neder on almost everything. Is this being too frum?”

Coincidence or Intentional

The combination of these two sections of the Torah constitutes the question, as to whether there is a connection between these two Parshiot, or is it just a matter of calendar convenience that unites them is one Torah reading on this coming Sabbath.

Yirmiyahu Comforts Too

Most of the p’sukim in the early sections of Sefer Yirmiyahu, which make up the first two haftarot of the Three Weeks, consist of rebuke and prophecies of doom. Yet, they also contain sections of Nechama.

From Pots and Pans to People and Places

Pouring while It’s Hot

Matot – Maasei

Where's Poppa??

Priorities

The Women of Menashe Go West

Last week we discussed to what extent Ephrayim came before his older brother Menashe, and we pledged to return to discuss the matter in the context of the daughters of Tzelofchad receiving a part in the Land.

Where do I Toivel my Keilim?

They Would Grab for Themselves

The midrash (Bamidbar Rabba 22:7) notes that there are three valuable presents – wisdom, strength, and wealth – that can be a part of a person’s downfall. The examples, one Jewish and one non-Jewish, were: for wisdom, Achitofel and Bilam; for strength, Shimshon and Goliath; and for wealth, Korach and Haman. The midrash continues that the tribes of Gad and Reuven were blessed with great flocks but because they loved their money so much that they settled outside Eretz Yisrael, away from their brethren, they were the first to be exiled.

The Prophetic Voice