Parshat Pinchas presents us with at least three distinct models of leadership.
From Bratislava to Nikolsburg
The relationship between modernity and Judaism is perhaps the central question that Jews have…
Balak: Hope over Dispair
As I noted in my last post I had the honour of speaking at the Beit Yehudah …
Shabbat in Budapest
Kazinczy, Dohany, Rumbach. For the average Hungarian these are street names in the heart of…
Thoughts From Budapest: Past, Present, and Future
Jews first settled in Hungary in the 13th century, settling mainly in the city of Buda. In…
Torah in Toledo
The city of Toledo sits some 75 kilometres to the south of Madrid, the capital of Spain. It is a…
The Expulsion
If 1148 marks the end of the Golden Age of Spain, the beginning of the end of Spanish Jewry as a…
Chukat: From One Generation to the Next
The transition point from the generation that left Egypt to the one that entered the Land of Israel…
Some Thoughts From Spain
Jews lived in Spain for a very, very long time, possibly from as early as Biblical times. The first…
Korach: A Beautiful Tallit
Tzizit and Mezuzah are two of the most popular and easy to fulfil mitzvot.…
Shelach Lecha: You Can Quote Me
Great people are not afraid to put their name behind their convictions. “And Calev quieted…
Beha'alotcha: We Need You
“Moshe said to his father-in-law, ‘We are now on our way to the place that G-d promised to us. Come…
Shavuot: A New Torah
“Every day they [the mitzvot of the Torah] should be like new”. With the exception of Coca-Cola, we…
Naso: Confession
The Torah was given to us on at least two occasions. The first revelation, just weeks after the…
Bamidbar: Laying the Foundation
Sefer Bamidbar can be viewed as a book of missed opportunities. A small group of Jewish slaves…
Bechukotai: Toiling in Torah
“These are the things that one eats the fruit of in this world and the principal remains in the…
Behar: G-d and Man
We tend to categorize mitzvot as either mitzvot between man and G-d or mitzvot between man and man…
Emor: A Holiday Treat
“And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your…