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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

(Imagine) If Warren Buffet befriended you and wanted to live near you, and he gifted you a few acres of land in Omaha, committed to building a house for you, and cover whatever expenses necessary to get you there. You went to check the property and found there were people living there who refused to […]

We are introduced to the mitzvah of tzitzis at the end of this week’s Parsha.Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations…and when you see it, you will remember all of G-d’s the commandments…and you shall not wander after […]

Although seeing is believing, that’s not necessarily the case in the digital age. For years, the internet has been flooded with fake images, but recently, technology has been improved to create forgeries of videos. A recent famous example is the doctored video of Nancy Pelosi which appears as if she is slurring her words. There […]

Rabbi O’s Weekly Parsha: Shelach (Numbers 13-15) A Student, a Prostitute, and a Sag We are introduced to the mitzvah of tzitzis at the end of this week’s Parsha. Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations…and when you see it, […]

We are introduced to the mitzvah of tzitzis at the end of this week’s Parsha. Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations…and when you see it, you will remember all of G-d’s the commandments…and […]

Imagine getting a phone call from your a beloved aunt who tells you she is sending a gift. When it arrives, you call the bomb squad to make sure it is safe. This scenario seems absurd but something even more ludicrous happened to the Jews while they were traveling in the desert. They sent twelve […]