566 Lessons

Raising and Waving – This is Needed for Educators
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | SIvan 5783

Red white and green
In Parshas Naso, the Torah requires the banishing of a metzora from the camp. Chazal understand this to mean that he is not permitted to be within any city that was walled from the time of Yehoshua (Keilim 1:7).
Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff

Nasso: How the Rambam Views Nazirism
5 Sivan 5783

Conversion and the Giving of the Torah
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | Iyar 20 5783

Rav Kook on the Importance of the Flag
Rabbi Ari Shvat | 27 Iyar 5783

The Sound of Silence
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | Iyar 5783

The Significance of a Flag and a Tallit
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | Iyar 5783

Mad About You
This week’s Sedra begins with a discussion of nedarim – vows & oaths. While the world holds that an oral contract is "only as good as the paper it’s written on," Judaism & the Torah place great emphasis on the power of speech.
Rabbi Stewart Weiss

Retribution and Revenge
Near the end of Bamidbar, we encounter the law of the cities of refuge: three cities to the east of the Jordan and, later, three more within the land of Israel itself. There, people who had committed homicide could flee and find protection until their case was heard by a court of law.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Shadow and Fear
The story in which the Torah saw fit to end the Book of Numbers is the story of the daughters of Tzelofhad. It is precisely close to the Book of Deuteronomy, before entering the Land of Israelץ
Rabbi Haggai Lundin | Av 3 5782

Retribution and Revenge
Even justified acts of bloodshed, as in the case of war, still communicate impurity. That is what lies behind the idea of revenge.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | Av 1 5782

Natural Life in the Land of Israel & the Tragedy of Galut
...Outside the Land of Israel, our engagement with the physical world comes at the expense of Torah and sanctity. We in fact see that the Torah studied in Exile shuns in an extreme manner many areas of natural life. Only when the Nation of Israel is in the Land of Israel is "normal," natural life enabled – for, in fact, even that which is material and physical is holy...
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Av 1 5782

The Heat of July and August
It's hot outside. We all feel it in the scorching weather. The spiritual principle that is important to remember during such periods appears in the Torah portion of Masei
Rabbi Haggai Lundin | Tamuz 27 5782

About Vows and Sensitivity
Take it upon yourself, without a vow, to correct one thing in your life, and these days will work their true action - to add goodness in the world.
Rabbi Haggai Lundin | Tamuz 23 5782

How Vows Are Like Idol-Worship
The beginning of this week's Torah portion of Matot focuses on certain important details pertaining to the laws of vows and oaths. A Torah-mandated oath is one by which one forbids himself to engage in one or more otherwise permitted activities. This leads us to ask a very fundamental question...
Various Rabbis | Tammuz 23 5782

Oaths and Vows
Can freedom and order coexist in the human sphere? Can there be a society which is both free and just at the same time?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | Tamuz 22 5782

Elijah and the Still, Small Voice
To preserve tradition and at the same time defend those others condemn is the difficult, necessary task of religious leadership in an unreligious age.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | Tamuz 16 5782
Love-Based Zealousness
The main story in this week's Torah portion is how G-d blessed Pinhas for stabbing to death two public sinners, in his zeal to protect G-d's name from desecration. This blessing is particularly noteworthy, for the Torah specifically mentions that Pinhas was the grandson of man-of-peace par excellence Aharon HaKohen. Do peace and zeal truly come together?
Rabbi Yosef Nave | Tammuz 16 5782

A Tiny Part of the Picture
The majority are good. The minority are evil. Stay away from the "Bilams" and "Bilamism"; get closer to Moses our Teacher.
Rabbi Haggai Lundin | Tamuz 13 5782
