The Census. More statutes and laws. Adventures of the Hebrews en route to Canaan through the desert.
:Lessons from a 90-Year-Old Skydiver and Parshas Balak This week in Salisbury, North Carolina, a 90-year-old man did something extraordinary: he jumped out of a plane at 14,000 feet. But that wasn’t even the most daring part—Ray Schehr later admitted he hadn’t told his wife he was going skydiving. Let’s pause for a moment and admire this […]
Look Up and Wake Up: The Snake, the Soul, and the Gaze That Heals In one of the more surprising episodes in the Torah, G-d instructs Moses to craft a copper snake and place it on a pole. When the Jewish people, suffering from deadly snake bites after complaining about the manna, looked at it—they […]
Hold On to Your Staff: Hold On to Your Dreams Life happens; we get busy, tired, distracted—and many times discouraged. Dreams that we once felt were in our reach slowly fade until, sometimes, we forget we ever had it at all. But in Jewish consciousness there’s a surprising lesson this week about holding on to […]
Israel at War—And the Inner War We Must Win First וַנְּהִ֤י בְעֵינֵ֙ינוּ֙ כַּֽחֲגָבִ֔ים וְכֵ֥ן הָיִ֖ינוּ בְּעֵינֵיהֶֽם and we were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we appeared in their eyes. (Num. 13:33) Sometimes the hardest thing isn’t believing in G-d—it’s believing in ourselves. That’s exactly what went wrong in one of the darkest moments of […]
Because You Matter: What Leviim Teach Us About Community In the 1920s, an electric company called Hawthorne Works in Illinois ran a series of experiments to see how they could help their workers be more productive. First, they tried changing the lighting in the factory—and productivity went up. But after the experiment ended, the improvements […]
You’re Not a Failure — You’re in the Middle of Becoming You In this week’s parsha, the Jewish people complete the Mishkan — a sacred, beautiful space they carried with them through the desert to connect with G-d. But here’s something surprising: for seven days, Moses built the Mishkan each morning — and then took […]
Imagine a huge kiddush in the synagogue after services. There’s everything from Kosher Sushi to kugel, from Cholent to chopped liver. There’s pushing and shoving, especially from the younger crowd, to get to the tables loaded with food. However, when it comes time to attending services in shul, the younger crowd has no problem giving the front […]
Delta Force and You The following incident about the unique training required by the Army’s most elite special forces unit was recorded by Eric Haney in his book Inside Delta Force. I had covered just slightly over thirty miles by now, but still had more than twenty to go. It was getting more and more difficult […]
Great Days, not Dark Days Choni HaMaagal, a Jewish sage who lived two thousand years ago, once passed a man planting a carob tree and asked how long it would take for the tree to bear fruit. When the man responded that it would take 70 years, Choni asked, “are you certain you will live another seventy years?” […]
Israel: The Great Light We Call Home The IDF has fought wars for Israel’s survival since the inception of the State. Syria, Lebanon, Jordon and other Nations who are in close proximity to Israel could have easily chosen to live in peace but chose war. Thousands of years ago Balak, the king of the Moabite nation, […]
To Life!An unpleasant topic we all must deal with is death. Two years ago, I lost my mother and father within three months of one another. No amount of logic soothed my emotions. They were both in their nineties and had led full, active, and productive lives. They were generous and we had a wonderful […]
Good—or Bad and Ugly: How to ArgueOver thirty years ago Sara shared a story with me she heard from one of the marriage counselors who trained her. He was called late at night by a neighbor in an apartment building who heard a couple yelling at one another and it seemed to be getting progressively […]
Master Your Surroundings or They Will Master YouThe time had come for the Israelites to send spies to the Land of Israel to make a reconnaissance mission. Before entering the Land, they needed to know about its inhabitants and terrain. There were twelve spies in all, two of whom (Joshua and Caleb) came back with […]
Turn Yourself into a LeaderLeaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile. Vince LombardiHow does one become a leader? Let’s take a look at one of Judaism’s best; Moses. In addition to his many […]
Seizing the Moment of Inspiration Imagine a college freshman away from home for the first time; the feeling of freedom sets in immediately. He can finally party, drink, and do other activities whenever he likes but he isn’t mature in how he uses his new autonomy. After a month or two he begins to see the […]
Finding Meaning in the Journey Why does the Torah contain a detailed travelog of the journeys of the Jews in the desert? Beginning with the exodus from Egypt, it lists the name of each destination along the way as well as some recollections. Being as the Land of Israel was their ultimate and final destination, […]
What quality must an authentic Jewish leader possess?When the people saw that Moses was late in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron, and they said to him: “Come on! Make us a god that will go before us, because this man Moses, who brought us up from the land of Egypt […]
Leon Fleisher was one of the 20th century’s greatest pianists. At the peak of his career, he developed a rare hand condition due to his 7-8 hours of practice each day and was no longer able to play with his right hand. “I was desolate, my life fell apart, and this mysterious debilitating condition destroyed my […]
Korach felt slighted that Moses didn’t select him for a prominent communal position and found 250 leaders to join him in a rebellion. And they rose up before Moses with two hundred and fifty men, princes of the congregation. (ibid. 16:2)One of the conspirators was Ohn ben Peles. The Midrash says that his wife convinced him to separate […]
Can You Pray for Someone Else to Make Good Life Choices?G-d promised the people that they would have their own land flowing with milk and honey but the people were afraid and asked Moses to send a reconnaissance mission with the following goals:See what the land is and the people living on it; are they […]
“Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.” Vince LombardiHow does one become a leader? Let’s take a look at one of Judaism’s best; Moses. In addition to his many accomplishments, he had a […]
Getting Up When Life Knocks You Down The Mishkan (Tabernacle) was the portable place of worship for the Jews in the wilderness and the precursor to Solomon’s Temple, which was built hundreds of years later in Jerusalem. After its completion, there was a seven-day ceremony; at the end of each day, Moses dismantled the Mishkan and then reassembled it […]
You shall designate cities for yourselves, cities of refuge shall they be for you, and a murderer shall flee there—one who takes a life unintentionally. (Numbers 35:11) Involuntary manslaughter is something we take seriously. If an axe head becomes dislodged and kills an innocent bystander, the chopper/killer must quickly escape to one of the three cities of refuge […]
These days, we all find ourselves living in a new and different world. It was just this past Purim that we sat together in shul, next to one another, listening to the reading of the Megilla and sat in close physical proximity to our friends, and the phrase “social distancing” was not part of our vocabulary. We felt secure […]
Does Education Make You a Moral Person? The past century, the bloodiest in all of human history, should have lain to rest two of the most cherished theories about humanity postulated by the Enlightenment and Secular Humanism. One was the idea that all moral questions, all issues of right and wrong, good and evil, were […]
Rabbi O’s Weekly Parsha: Chukas (Numbers 19:1-22:1) How to Become a Peacemaker in 2 Easy Steps And the entire congregation saw that Aaron had died and they wept for Aaron 30 days–all the house of Israel. (20:29) “ALL the house of Israel” refers to both men and woman. When Moses dies the verse doesn’t mention “all the house of Israel,” […]
We are introduced to the mitzvah of tzitzis (strings attached to a four cornered garment) at the end of this week’s Parsha. The following remarkable incident occurred in the 3rd century and is recorded in the Talmud (Menachot 44a).Once a man, who was very scrupulous about the mitzva of tzitzis, heard about a prostitute who charged four hundred gold dinars for her […]
At this point in the Exodus story, things seem to be going well. After being enslaved for 210 years, the Jews had miraculously been freed and were now living in the desert and receiving protection, food, and water in a miraculous way. Sounds good, right? Let’s see.And the people complained and it was evil in […]
Last week’s Parsha described the census that was taken of the tribe of Levi, starting with those 1 month and older. This week’s Parsha continues with another census of the members of the tribe of Levi, this one only of males between the ages of 30-50. In both counting’s, we find a surprisingly low number: […]
When the cycle for the weekly Torah readings was established centuries ago, this week’s Parsha was designated specifically to be read this Shabbos. I.e. the reading is from the first few chapters of the Torah’s fourth book, Numbers, and always precedes the holiday of Shavuot. What connection is there between this week’s Parsha and Shavuot, the festival commemorating the […]
