"In the midst of the day, b'etzem, Noach came, and Cham and Yefet, the children of Noach, and the wife of Noach, and three wives of his…
V'zot HaBracha: Four Giants
“And Moshe was one hundred and twenty years when he died” (Devarim 34:7). It is a beautiful, if somewhat unrealistic, custom to offer…
Sukkot: No Pain, No Gain
The Talmud classifies sukkah as a mitzvah kalla, a light and easy mitzvah. Where one must be almost deathly ill before one is permitted to eat…
Yom Kippur: 20/20 Vision
In trying to develop the potential of man, the Mussar movement[1] developed two different approaches to the sinning of man. One school of…
Rosh Hashanah: A Matter of Time
Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the new year. But strangely, it does not mark the end of the old year. That task belongs to the holiday of…
Nitzavim: Minding My Business
“Lest there be a man or a women or a family or tribe...when they hear this curse, they will bless themselves, saying peace will be to me, and I will…
Ki Tavo: Real Estate Talk
The central aspect of the Pesach seder is the mitzvah of sippur yetziat mitzraim, retelling and reliving the Exodus experience. The Rabbis chose, as…
Ki Teze: Finders Weepers, Losers Keepers
It is often hard for us to realize that concepts we take for granted are foreign to others. That helps explain why so many in the Western world are…
Shoftim: Seeking Justice
Almost always, wrongdoing requires that people work together to perpetrate such. As has been accepted in the legal systems of Western countries, it…
Re'eh: Cohesive Community
The destruction of the Temple in the Year 70 caused a major historical shift regarding the focus of Judaism. Pilgrimages to Jerusalem ceased,…
Eikev: Fear of G-d
Effort vs. result. The relative value of these two concepts is a fundamental dispute between our western worldview and Jewish teachings. The secular…
VaEtchanan: Time for Comfort
Life is so unfair. While we believe that ultimately (and ultimately can take an eternity!) justice must and will prevail—to believe otherwise…
Tisha B'Av: Greetings
“Everything is dependent on mazal, even the sefer Torah in the ark”. Certain mitzvoth just luck out, being widely observed across the…
Mattot-Massei: It's Your Land
“And Elazar the priest said: This is the law of the Torah, which the Lord commanded Moshe” (Bamidbar 31:21). The Torah goes on to…
Pinchas: Moving On
"And Moshe did as G-d had commanded and he took Joshua and stood him before Elazar Hakohen and before the people" (27:22). Moshe's role as leader is…
Balak: Religious Wars
This week's d'var Torah is sponsored by Golda Brown in honour of the yahrzeit of her son, Moshe Chanoch Brown…
Shelach Lecha: The Little Things
Sefer Bamidbar describes not only the physical locale of the Jewish people, but their spiritual state. Wandering in the desert, they could not be…
Beha'alotcha: What Goes Up Must Come Down
"It was in the second year, on the 20th day of the second month, that the cloud [of glory] rose from the Tabernacle of Testimony" (Bamidbar 10:…