Ha’azinu is a lesson about remembering and forgetting. While this Torah portion includes a piece of poetry, one may suggest that the entire Torah is poetry. Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (1817-1893) wrote: “One of the distinguishing marks of poetry...

Netzavim-Vayelech is a double portion, although the tradition treats them like conjoined twins, inextricably linked. Netzavim  (stand) and Veyelech (go out) are bookends.  They are read just short of the High Holiday when we gather to do the work that...

It’s Elul. In Parshat Ki Tavo, as the Israelites are nearing the end of the journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom in Eretz Yisrael, G-d instructs Moshe to tell the people to enter the Promised Land: “You are entering a land of milk and honey …...

Many of the hot-button political issues today relate to how we assist those on the margins of society. Refugees, government subsidized health care and social welfare programs are issues that divide Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives.I...

See, I have set before you this day, a blessing and a curse.  — Deuteronomy 11:26.Parashat Re’eh opens with part of the farewell speech of Moses, here perched at the edge of the Promised Land, knowing that he is not destined to take us into the land. He...

“If you do obey these laws.”  — Deuteronomy 7:12This line opens our Torah portion this week. But the translation is not quite sufficient. More accurately, the Torah states, “If you eikev obey these rules.” Eikev, the namesake of our Torah...

“Heart and Soul” is the title of a song composed in 1938 with music by Hoagy Carmichael and lyrics by Frank Loesser. It soon became a jazz and big band standard. The 1961 recording by the Cleftones endures as a rock ‘n’ roll and R&B anthem....

Deuteronomy, the final book of the Pentateuch, is called Devarim in Hebrew. It opens with Eileh ha’Devarim – These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel on the other side of the Jordan in the 40th year. The book is a review of the incidents...

I was a little proud, and a little embarrassed, too, when I realized they had given me the hard part.  I was 18. It was the summer between high school and college, and I was in Jerusalem studying for a month at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies....

One does not need to look far these days to find someone questioning the qualifications of our leaders. It is a topic of constant discussion and strong feelings on television, social media, and daily conversation with friends and even total strangers....

In Parshat Chukat, we read the well-known story about when the Israelites complain about lack of water. God tells Moses to speak to the rock, and water will come forth. In a moment of anger and frustration, instead of speaking to it as God instructed,...