Ki Seitzei – A Dangerous Double Standard — By Ben
It’s two weeks before Rosh Hashanah (Can you believe it? Ach!). Clearly Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. Except in Judaism we have two New Years (actually four, but […]
Author Archives: eltram
Elul – It’s Your Move — By Ben
Shortly after I had started becoming observant, I was with my family at an event. As a whole my family has always been supportive of my choices, whether that has […]
Don’t Change the Torah. So What are Rabbinical Mitzvahs? — By Ben
In this week’s Torah portion Re’eh, we get the paramount instruction from God to, “Be careful to observe everything which I am commanding you, you shall not add to it […]
Eikev – Why Shema Is So Long — By Ben
Shema isn’t a prayer. Colloquially we tend to refer to any words meant for God as prayer. That can mean requests, praise, or gratitude. But None of those sentiments are […]
Why God Told Moses To Stop Praying — By Ben
Va’eschanan is a jam packed Torah Portion. There’s shema, which includes the mitzvahs of loving God, wrapping tefillin, and mezzuzah. There’s the retelling of 10 Commandments and the whole revelation […]
Tisha B’av – Whose Fault Is It Anyway? — By Ben
This Sunday we observe the “holiday” of Tisha B’Av. I put holiday in quotes because the day is anything but a time for celebration. Regarded as the worst day in […]
Masei – The Torah’s Fugitive — By Ben
Let’s say Guy A and Guy B are at work, maybe they’re on some construction job. Guy A is on some scaffolding several floors up and Guy B is down […]
Pinchas – Peace From Hatred — By Ben
On the drive back from Mother’s day brunch my brother has accused me of lying about my car’s gas mileage. A discussion about fuel reimbursement started just before getting into […]
Hitler Could Have Saved Six Million Jews — By Ben
As I have pointed out previously, I find it fascinating that almost all of the Torah portion of Balak follows the perspective of the wicked prophet Bilam. I get that […]
Snakes On a Cane – By Ben
If you’ve dealt with health care before, you’ve probably seen some form of this symbol. Maybe it looks like this… Or this… The former being the Staff of Asclepius the […]
Six Degrees Of Kosher Bacon 