we FIRST ought ourselves to forgive others -- when they sincerely own up to their misconduct -- before expecting others and God to do so as well for us when we confess ours.
Evidently, this week’s Re’eh portion wants to regulate and minimize the craving for frequent meat consumption seeking to limit it to the rate ‘’as the deer or as the gazelle is eaten’’ (v. 22). Namely, only quite infrequently would man eat meat from such animals for they could only be hunted.
This weekly Torah portion Ekev calls upon us to walk in all God’s ’’ways, and to cleave unto Him’’ (Deuteronomy 11: 22). But how is it possible to do so if only because ‘’God is a devouring fire, a jealous God’’ (Deuteronomy 4:24)?
Our weekly Torah portion demands of us to ‘’love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your being and with all your might’’ (Deuteronomy 6:5). When we recall the highly dramatic narrative of the Binding of Isaac, it is quite apparent after a cursory reading of the text (Genesis 22) that Abraham loved his God even more than he loved Isaac...
The tone of your voice is important, just as much as what you’re actually saying. It is said that you can get more with honey than with vinegar, which basically means that when you’re sweet, loving, and kind, you’re more likely to convey your perspective or beliefs in a conversation
We do not need the story of Bilaam’s donkey (or more specifically she-ass), featured prominently in this week’s Torah portion, to know that it would be a mistake to call a dumb person ‘’an ass’’; an asinine person should rather be called ‘’Bilaam’’…
In Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. words: ‘’…He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it’’. Or as in baseball, three strikeouts and you are out...
What was so terribly wrong in Korah and his followers’ contention with his cousin Moses, that the Talmud singled out as a dispute that “is not for the sake of Heaven”? Contrarily, the Talmud defined the dispute between Hillel and Shammai as positive, the kind of which was for the sake of Heaven
Why did Moses send twelve scouts, or 12 tribal leaders, to tour the Promised Land before entering it? Twelve is too large a number of folks who go on an espionage mission and must, therefore, stay covert.
On a scale with hubris on one pole and self-abnegation on the other – both extremes contradict the values of Torah – humility is much closer to the latter. Humility – a behavioral conduct -- can only be seen in the presence of other people, when you turn far away from narcissism and the thought that ‘’My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth’’ (Deuteronomy 8:17).
