Category: Torah

Tehillim Chapters 9-10: Acrostics and Our Relationship with God

by Rabbi Hayyim Angel Posted on April 3, 2019

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Who Wrote Sefer Shmuel?

by Rabbi Aviad Bodner Posted on April 3, 2019

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Two Mothers, Two Dynasties, and One Nation: Leah and Rahel (Hebrew)

by Dr. Orit Avnery Posted on April 3, 2019

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Why Are We Doing This and Why Does it Matter?

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 31, 2019

The enterprise of ta’amei ha’mitzvot, trying to identify the values that underlie the mitzvot, is an important although potentially dangerous one.  The importance lies in the fact that it helps us actualize those values both in the performance of the mitzvot and in other areas of our lives. …

Partnering With God

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 24, 2019

How many commandments were given at Mt. Sinai?  The answer, surprisingly, is not 10.  The Torah speaks of the aseret ha’devarim, the Ten Utterances, not the Ten Commandments.  When one gets down to counting the commandments, she finds that the first of the utterances, “I am the Lord your God,” is not exactly a commandment, and that some, like “You shall have no other gods before me; you shall not bow down to them nor shall you worship them,” actually contain 3 commandments, if not more.…

A Sojourner or a Resident?

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on November 1, 2018

Ger vi’toshav anokhi imakhem, “A sojourner and a resident am I in your midst” (Gen. 23:4).  Avraham’s description of his status in the land of Canaan – as both someone living among the inhabitants of the land, and yet not fully one of them – powerfully captures the experience of immigrants in general, and that of Jews in America starting from the first wave of major immigration in 19th century, in particular. …

Should a Father Personally Circumcise His Son? – The Mitzvot of Bris and Milah

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on October 17, 2018

QUESTION: I am the father of a newborn beautiful baby boy.  The bris is coming up in a few days.  Since I have a mitzvah to give my son a bris, and the mohel is just an agent, is it better that I do the bris myself (after the mohel sets everything up, of course)?…

Birkat HaMazon and the Oral Torah

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on August 2, 2018

Sefat Emet teaches that those who were to enter the Land of Israel would be the beginning of the Oral Torah – the taking of the Divine word and interpreting it and applying it to the lived reality of their lives. …

To Believe or to Have Faith

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on July 26, 2018

The Ten Commandments open with the declaration “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of land of Egypt.” This is often understood to be a mitzvah of belief. Is there such a mitzvah? And what do we mean by belief anyway?…

Leadership and Holiness: Status or Sacred Duty?

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on June 14, 2018

“For the entire community – they are all holy!”  It is with these words that Korach challenges the leadership of Moshe.  These are words that on the face of them express a lofty and noble sentiment.  But they are words which ultimately belie an understanding of kedushah and an understanding of leadership that is limited, self-serving, and destructive.…

Words That Heal

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on May 24, 2018

The Temple rite of the suspected adulteress, the sotah, is profoundly challenging to our contemporary sensibilities. As the Torah describes it, a man who is seized by a fit of jealousy and suspects—with purely circumstantial evidence—that his wife has committed adultery can bring her to the Temple and force her to undergo an ordeal which contains elements of shaming and declarations that presume guilt: The woman’s head is uncovered.…

Is My Electric Shaver Kosher?

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on May 3, 2018

QUESTION:  Can I shave with an electric shaver and are all models permissible? ANSWER:  In two separate verses, the Torah prohibits men to shave their beards.  In parashat Kedoshim, the Torah states: “You shall not destroy (tashchit) the corners of your beards,” (Vayikra 19:27). …