“And G-d said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your land, your birthplace and the land of your fathers’” (…
Noach: A Man For All Generations
As we move through the different stages of life, the challenges we face tend to change, with the…
Breisheet: The Creation of Man
"And G-d saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. It was evening and it was morning…
Shemini Atzeret: Three is Not a Crowd
Unlike our other holidays, the holiday of Sukkot does not celebrate a particular historical…
Beitza 16: Preparing for Shabbat
Debates between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai are the bread and butter of Mishnaic discourse.…
Shabbat Chol HaMoed: A Long Journey
It is hard to imagine a more impactful ritual than that of our weekly Torah reading. While its…
Beitza 6: Nothing New Under the Sun
It is on Sukkot that we read sefer Kohelet. A devar Torah on masechet Beitza is not the…
Sukkot: The Season of Joy
"On the first day, you must take for yourself a fruit of the citron tree, an opened palm frond,…
Haazinu: The Lessons of History
Despite our long and frequently miraculous past, the actual study of Jewish history is an oft-…
Yom Kippur: Far and Near
“With the approval of Hamakom, the Omnipresent, and with the approval of the congregation, in the…
Beitza 5: Two Days of Yom Kippur
The State of California today is voting on whether to recall and remove its governor from…
Beitza 4: Fresh Eggs
As most investors know, there is little that rattles the markets more than uncertainty.…
Nitzavim: What Do You Do?
Rare is the person who measures his success by looking only at themselves, trying to determine how…
Vayelech: Time for a Change
"And G-d said, 'My spirit shall not continue to judge him forever; he is nothing but …
Beitza 2: It's Better to Permit
In our last post, we noted the principle milta d’lo schicha lo gazru ba rabbanan,…
Rosh Hashanah: Sounding the Shofar
The blowing of the shofar is a most enigmatic mitzvah. The reasons we eat matzah,…
An Introduction to Masechet Beitzah
One of the manifold changes of modernity is manifest in the modern methods of food preparation. No…
Sukkah 41: Offering Comfort on Sukkot
Those who have sat shiva know that the weeks after shiva can be much harder than the shiva…