In four separate places the Torah mentions the “ir ha-miklat.” The most comprehensive discussion of this institution appears in the book of Numbers (35:9-34). From the context, it is clear that the “ir ha-miklat” is a place to which a manslaughterer may abscond to...
According to God’s command to Moses, the allotment of the land of Israel should be assigned according to size. The more populous tribes should be assigned a greater portion and the less populous tribes a lesser portion (Numbers 27:54). This procedure is eminently...
It was Peretz Smolenskin (1842-1885), an early Zionist thinker, who asserted that ant-Semitism is a direct consequence of the absence of Jewish self-respect. If Jews do not respect themselves, gentiles will not respect them either. Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin of...
In 1840, following a series of lectures on heroes, Thomas Carlyle published his book on Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History in which he contended: “the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have...
The Israelites believed the report of the ten scouts and were thus doomed to die in the wilderness. Of the two dissenting scouts who would merit entering the land their colleagues had slandered, Caleb in particular is singled out. He is described by God as “my...
The Torah (Numbers 8:3) describes that the flames of the seven branched menorah ought to give light “towards the front.” Rashi explains this to mean that all the flames in the lamps should point toward the middle light; the one in the center. For fifteenth century...
A line of thought suggests that the Nazirite - the fellow who forswears cutting his hair, drinking wine, and coming into contact with the dead (Numbers 6:3-6) - is attempting to draw close to God. Becoming a nazir was a vehicle for adding godliness to the lives of...
Shavu’ot marks the giving of the Torah. Over the last one hundred fifty years archaeology, Egyptology, and Assyriology have yielded information that challenges the traditional view that Moses received the Torah at Sinai. The Talmud had already discussed whether that...
In describing the joyous return of exiles to Israel, the prophet Isaiah mentions three different types of terrain: midbar, tziyyah, and aravah (Isaiah 35:1). Aravah refers to a broad, flat, plain as evidenced by current Hebrew usage. Tziyyah, according to the...
To the reader unaware of the divisions of the Torah, the end of Parshat Behar seems odd. Instead of ending at the sensible conclusion of chapter 25, the portion ends after the first two verses of chapter 26. What the untrained reader does not know is that chapters and...