HEAD AND TAILS We have come to associate the evening meal of Rosh Hashanah with apples and honey. This sugary combination is eaten as a good omen for a sweet new year. Despite its universal appeal among Jews of all stripes, this customary dish is not...

PROTECTING LIFE, ONE FENCE AT A TIME “If you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, and you shall not place blood in your house, if someone falls from it.” (Devarim 22:8) This verse describes one of the most fascinating mitzvoth in...

BLIND TO ONE’S OWN FAULTS “Judges and officers you shall place for you within all your gates that the Lord your God is giving you for your tribes. And they shall judge the people a fair judgment.” (Devarim 17:18) The opening comment of the Midrash (Devarim Rabba...

OUR HAPPY PLACE “Rather, only at the place that Hashem, your God will choose from among all your tribes to place His Name there, shall you seek out His Presence and come there.” (Devarim 12:5) Moshe informs the Israelites that in the Land of Canaan there will...

HUBRIS “Beware lest you forget the Lord your God, in not keeping His commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes, which I command you this day: Lest when you have eaten and are satiated, and have built good houses, and dwelt in them; and when your...

COMFORT ME! I have always had the sense that the Nation of Israel emits a communal sigh of relief as it exits the gloomy atmosphere of the Three Weeks of Mourning and its dreaded climax, the fast of the Ninth of Av. This feeling of relief...

THE MASTERCLASS Devarim, the last of the five books of the Torah, accounts for only five weeks in the long history of the Jewish people. And yet those five weeks were critical for the future of Israel, both in their homeland and in the diaspora. Devarim...

BOUNDARIES A little boy had just attended his first geography lesson and was both excited and puzzled. He was fascinated by the map of the world with its array of colours, lines and figures. But he was also confused by something and his teacher, noting his...

DO YOU EXPECT ME TO TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY? The festivals are times of great joy in the Jewish calendar. Each has its own personality as unique as the mussaf (additional) offerings that were brought into the Temple on each festive day. A description of these offerings...

PLEASE DON’T HURT US “Hashem opened the mouth of the she-donkey and it said to Bilaam, “What have I done to you that you struck me these three times?” (Bamidbar 22:28) “The angel of Hashem said to him, “For what reason did you strike your she-donkey...