In this week’s Torah portion, Pinchas, the Land of Israel is divided by tribes and male heads of families.  The daughters of a man named Tzelafchad, who had a great love for the Land of Israel, come forward and declare:  “Our father died in the wilderness. He was not one of Korah’s faction, which banded…

In this week’s parsha, Pinchas, Moshe begins to prepare for the succession of his leadership:  “Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, “Let the Lord, God of the breath of all flesh, appoint someone over the community.”” Moshe’s wording is strange in many ways.  This is the only place in the Torah where the verse, “And…

We are now in the midst of the period of the Three Weeks, a sad time during which we mourn the destruction of both Temples.  The Talmud writes that the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people exiled at this time due to sinat chinam, baseless hatred. In fact though, all hatred is forbidden, as…

This past week we read in the Torah of Pinchus, someone who stands up to fulfill what is written in Pirkey Avot (The Ethics of Our Fathers), “In a place where there is no one, stand up and be someone”.  He is the classic zealot for God.  Several paragraphs latter when God tells Moses that…

In this past week’s parsha, Balak, the Torah surprises us.   The normal scene completely switches and focuses not on the Jewish people but instead on prophets of other nations who have a relationship with God but who have not heard of the Jewish people.  For these people, the Jewish people are but a curiosity…