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 […]
Category Archives: Parsha
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 […]
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 […]
Don’t Follow Your Heart? — By Ben
“Only do what your heart tells you.”— Princess Diana“Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.”— Braveheart“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”— Confucius“Follow your passion, follow […]
Three Wrongs Make a Backwards Nun — By Ben
You may notice something odd about the block of text above. If you have some experience with Hebrew, it surely jumped out at you. But even to the unfamiliar, the […]
Naso – Expelled from Camp — By Ben
Verse 5:1 the book of Bamidbar reads; God spoke to Moses, saying; “Command the Children of Israel that they must expel anyone from the camp with tzaraas, anyone who is […]
Six Degrees Of Kosher Bacon 