Balak – Run For Your Life
תָּמֹ֤ת נַפְשִׁי֙ מ֣וֹתיְשָׁרִ֔ים וּתְהִ֥י אַֽחֲרִיתִ֖י כָּמֹֽהוּ Bilam, the wicked prophet, famously wanted to curse the Israelites but Hashem changed his words and Bilam instead blessed them three times. The quote […]
Category Archives: Numbers/Bamidbar
Why Was Miriam Denied Entrance to Israel? The Real Ultimate Chok
Hashem said to Moshe and Aharon, “Because you did not believe in Me to sanctify Me in the presence of Bnei Yisroel; therefore, you will not bring this congregation into […]
Korach’s Story Is Convincing. Can You Spot the Logical Fallacies?
“Korach took…” famously starts this week’s parsha. With 250 men, Korach confronts Moses and Aharon saying, “You have taken too much for yourselves since the entire congregation is holy and […]
Shelach — The Cost of Waiting — By Ben
“Your punishment will be according to the number of days that you scouted out the land, 40 days, a day for each year, a day for each year; you will […]
Prophecy: What is it, Who gets it, and do The Simpsons have it? — By Ben
The Simpsons has predicted the future multiple times. They predicted a Trump presidency in the year 2000. They predicted the annoying autocorrect feature we’d all struggle with back in 1994. […]
Naso – Don’t Tell me To Put on A Smile — By Ben
Parshas Naso, toxic positivity, and a lesson I learned the hard way on stage.
Bamidbar – Are We Just a Number or Do We Count? — By Ben
The fourth book of the Torah is most popularly known as the Book of Numbers. As I became observant, I started referring to it by its Hebrew name, Bamidbar. However, […]
Behaalosecha – 7 Books of the Torah? — By Ben
For weeks now, the narrative of the Torah has slowed and the text primarily has focused on mitzvahs, duties of the Kohanim and Leviim, and copious census taking. From here […]
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 […]
Six Degrees Of Kosher Bacon 