![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/lovebirds-774292_640.jpg?itok=9QKf2rJp)
The power of the spoken word is enormous. Even more powerful is the desire to gossip, a vice that has been perfected in our own times, when we…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/mobile-phone-1917737_640.jpg?itok=rqaXjtQT)
Marketing can make or break a product. Get it right and you are on your way to becoming wealthy. Make a mistake and, irrespective of the actual…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/salt-1884166_640.jpg?itok=LE1Xu-3f)
Modern man finds the notion of sacrifices primitive, archaic and a form of Divine service that is no longer necessary. Yet to ancient man, nothing…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/UNITE-large1.jpg?itok=6Eu1vduy)
The Jewish people have never been a large nation. Our strength lies in quality, not quantity. Nonetheless, precisely because we are so few in number…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1237667560.jpg?itok=o2KP5jd2)
Judaism measures greatness by spiritual achievements. It should come as no surprise that many of our founding fathers suffered from physical ailments…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_520814221.jpg?itok=Wm7tNCvi)
Our tradition seems to have a somewhat ambivalent view regarding sacrifices. The Torah devotes many chapters to describing—in great detail…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_2058114950.jpg?itok=vqS2YYT0)
Sefer Vayikra serves as the “central” book of the Chumash; on one side flanked by Breisheet and Shemot, which detail the founding of the…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1033292395.jpg?itok=eXSvnSaH)
Legal loopholes are a mainstay of the legal profession. People are often frustrated when criminals are let off the hook on a technicality, perhaps…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_749875291.jpg?itok=A4x4kXO8)
"G-d spoke to Moshe at Mount Sinai saying: When you come the land that I am giving you the land shall rest a Shabbat to G-d" (Vayilkra 25:1-2). Mah…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1937890231.jpg?itok=LWDoQFVK)
A number of years ago we had the pleasure of being the Toronto coordinators of the Torah Ethics Project. Its slogan was “Some of the most obvious…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/tips-for-proper-ash-disposal-houston-tx-lords-chimney.jpg?itok=akV0u_Ns)
One of the ideological revolutions of the Zionist movement was the notion of the inherent value of physical labour. Jews traditionally like to think…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_200338943.jpg?itok=tg4g_VYK)
This week the focus of the Torah reading shifts from the construction of the Mishkan to the korbanot, one (but only one) of the purposes of building…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/field_3.jpg?itok=_G5NKflS)
The Torah was edited with great precision. This is the idea behind the notion that "there is no chronological order to the Torah". Items…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/Priestly_Blessing2.jpg?itok=ZmjicclM)
Being a kohen today is not what it used to be. While one may receive more aliyot and lead birchat hamazon on a regular basis, a kohen is…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1009843408.jpg?itok=LGCiwRCQ)
One of the features of the scientific world is classification of different species into their various groupings and subgroupings. The Torah itself…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1154297662.jpg?itok=n4ouCTva)
It is quite rare to read parshat Acharei Mot on Shabbat Hagadol. In non-leap years, it is generally parshat Tzav that is read on Shabbat Hagadol. And…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/Cow%20Hoof.jpg?itok=5FsUrMf3)
In Jewish law, it is the middle that is most important. We surround the sefer Torah with gabbaim on either side, and ideally we place the…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/forget%20past%20condemned%20to%20repeat.png?itok=NOG-cGAp)
“These are the commandments that G-d has commanded Moshe to the children of Israel on Mount Sinai (Vayikra 27:34).” Though it is the Book…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/eichah.jpg?itok=Gwvoij8b)
One of the most powerful ways to express hatred is to refuse to speak to someone, or to just plain ignore that person. We Jews are very good at…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/seven%20and%20eight.jpg?itok=kcwK-oGD)
"And it was on the eighth day" (Vayikra 9:1). While this verse is the beginning of a new parsha, the Torah clearly links it to the…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/universal%20clock.jpg?itok=cCDg9wjD)
Of all possible wrongdoings, only one does not allow for the possibility of teshuva, repentance. Causing a chilul Hashem, a desecration of G-d's…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/man%20sitting%20at%20kotel.jpg?itok=_Eleopen)
Our tradition asserts that there are 613 mitzvoth in the Torah. Among these 613 are such beautiful concepts as proper treatment of the stranger and…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/iStock_000003488141XSmall.jpg?itok=w697yr8b)
The deaths of Nadav and Avihu have long troubled biblical commentaries. The multiple suggestions put forth demonstrate that—objectively…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1728412366.jpg?itok=toycXfIY)
The line between greatness and failure is so small as to be unrecognizable, often revealing itself only after many years. This is true in the world…