“The majority of the essence of the Torah is dependant upon it”. So asserts Rashi as he begins his commentary to parshat kedoshim. It is because of…

Commenting on the Torah's charge "to be holy, since I the Lord your G-d am holy" (Vayikra, 19:2) the Ramban explains that it is not enough to keep…

Knowledge is much more than the accumulation of facts. It is the analysis and application of those facts that is crucial. Underlying factual…

Why were we taken out of Egypt?  Concepts such as freedom, justice, equality, and the recognition of Divine Providence are the themes of the exodus,…

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…

One of the features of the scientific world is classification of different species into their various groupings and subgroupings. The Torah itself…

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…

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…

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…

One of the cardinal principles of Judaism is the belief in the Divine origin of our Bible. While Moshe Rabbeinu was the greatest of human beings, his…