Rabbi Moses Schreiber, known as the Hatam Sofer, connects the opening words of the Torah portion with Avot 1:4 where Yosi ben Yo’ezer teaches about the Sages: “sit in the dust of their feet and drink up their words thirstily.” The practice in the days of Rabbi...
Moses worries. He worries that one day in the future the Israelites might forget what they witnessed at Mt. Sinai and, being led astray by their baser desires, ignore the Torah they were given (Deuteronomy 4:9). So Moses stresses that they must inform their children...
The Midrash (Devarim Rabbah, Parashah 1) assumes that the word “devarim” does not refer to ordinary words but to words of rebuke. Even with this assumption, Rabbi Aha, the son of Rabbi Hanina (Section 4), notes that a question still lingers. Moses speaks the “devarim”...
The Talmud (Pesahim 36b) discusses the schedule for reciting the confessional upon bringing first fruits to the Temple. When first fruits are brought to the Temple from Shavu’ot until Sukkot, the farmer recites the confessional. This period of the year is the normal...
The rabbis are mystified by the possibility that a man may marry a woman whom he hates (Deuteronomy 21:15). That a man would marry a woman he detests seems to be logically incongruous in that it is contrary to a man’s self interest. So the rabbis propose two...
I lived in New York City at a time of increasing crime rates. In came new mayor, Ed Koch, and a zero tolerance policy for any crime was introduced. Simple acts of vandalism and incivility were now to be enforced by the police. Anyone caught breaking windows, spraying...
In his landmark English commentary on the Torah, Rabbi Dr. Joseph H. Hertz explains that when Moses say that “I have set before you this day a blessing and a curse” (Deuteronomy 11:26), he means that “Both as individuals and a nation they were endowed with free-will,...
Memory is strange. In one way, memory is, as James Barrie wrote, God’s gift to us that we might have roses in December. In another way, memory is like an unreliable friend: failing us when needed most. Sometimes a good memory can avert disaster. Sometimes a good...
Constantine Reliu left Romania for Turkey in 1992 to look for a job. Other than a brief return to Romania in 1999, he had no contact with his family, including his wife. After years of silence from her estranged husband, Reliu’s wife petitioned the Romanian courts for...
The opening chapters of the book of Deuteronomy are always read in the synagogue on the Shabbat immediately preceding Tish’a B’Av (the Ninth day of Hebrew month Av), the saddest day of the Jewish year. It was on the Ninth of Av that the scouts returned with an...