Parasha

Parashat Balak: What is the price of aloneness?

In a highly integrated world, the isolation of the State of Israel is itself a strategic risk. Some voices in Israel deride this issue or dismiss concerns about how we are viewed.

|ByMOSHE TARAGIN
A person is seen sitting alone (illustrative).
ONE SHOULD NOT intrude into the life of his neighbor.

Parashat Balak: Guarding our eyes

Jewish tradition values personal modesty and meaningful inner growth that is not displayed for public attention. Such conduct is fitting for a people who serve God.

|ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
Reading a torah scroll

Parashat Beha'alotcha: Know your place

After Pharaoh intensified the Jewish slaves' work, Moses felt that his mission had failed. Out of deep pain, he turned to God and said, “Why have You done evil to these people? Why did You send me?

|ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
MONOTHEISM WAS never intended to remain the private inheritance of a single nation.

From Sinai to today: Judaism and the long march of monotheism - opinion

We were not selected for privilege but to carry God’s presence and moral vision into a broader world.

|ByMOSHE TARAGIN

Parashat Shelach: Believe in yourselves

The Torah recounts the argument that erupted between the 10 pessimistic spies and Joshua and Caleb, the two optimistic ones.

JUNE 20, 2025ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
The Grapes of Canaan by James Tissot (circa 1900). Although the 12 spies brought back a cluster of grapes so large that it took two men to carry it, only two of the 12 brought back a good report of the land.

Parashat Beha’alotcha: The call of humility

We are all entitled to even the strongest of our beliefs and opinions. And yet, we should never be so sure of what we think that we are not open to a different voice, a different opinion.

JUNE 19, 2025ByMICHAEL M. COHEN
OUR FINITENESS can never completely comprehend the infinite

Parashat Beha’alotcha: Yes to speaking up, no to hurting!

Speak up! Share your opinion! Try to bring about change – but not through gossip and not with hurtful words.

JUNE 19, 2025ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
An illustrative image depicting gossip.

“Whoever Has One Hundred Desires Two Hundred”: Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto on the Endless Cycle of Desire

JUNE 12, 2025ByDAVID BERGER

Parshat Naso: Rich people’s problems

When you live a life filled with meaning, spiritual fulfillment ... you receive a remarkable gift: a profound inner peace and emotional serenity that no material wealth can offer.

JUNE 6, 2025ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
An illustrative image of businessmen jumping across a chasm for money.

Parashat Bamidbar: ‘Each man by his banner’

The many hardships endured by the Israelites during their desert journey could have been greatly reduced had the nation learned to appreciate what they had.

MAY 30, 2025ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
EVERYONE IS rooted in his place

Parashat Behar-Bechukotai: Live and let live 

The only halachic ruling that was ever given is that “your life comes first” – and nothing beyond that.

MAY 23, 2025ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
WHOSE LIFE comes first?

Home at last: Two sons, two soldiers, one homeland - opinion

The very different circumstances under which two Israeli soldiers were returned puts things in perspective and echoes Jewish values.

MAY 17, 2025ByMOSHE TARAGIN
ANAT COHEN, sister of Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman – whose body was recovered during a special operation in Syria after being missing for 43 years – speaks to the media outside her Tel Aviv home, May 11.

Parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim: ‘Holiness,’ ‘abstinence,’ and what lies between

Don’t aim for lofty, angelic separation “like Mine” but live a human holiness – the kind of life for which I created the world.

MAY 9, 2025ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
FIND HOLINESS at your Shabbat table

A message from the weekly Torah portion: How can one truly draw close to G-d?

MAY 8, 2025ByDAVID BERGER