Parshah Columnists

Five approaches to this unique mitzvah.

Rashi’s comment at the very beginning of our Torah portion seems over complicated.

These two protocols are now at war, with western civilization (human rights) on one side, and the world of Islam (subjugation of the individual to the supreme will of Allah) on the other. Where does Judaism stand?

The maturity and confidence of an adult psyche can be gauged by its ability to face criticism. Yet, criticism may not be the best method for cultivating this maturity in the child.

G‑d requires of those who do His will a level of completeness, and not only from a spiritual standpoint.

If the Torah tells us that a particular union is not kosher, rather than resenting the interference we should consider it as if the Almighty Himself came down and whispered a word of loving advice in our ears: "Trust me; this one is not right for you..."

We start with a large scrawl, but before we know it, space is running out and the script gets smaller and smaller, and then we’re winding our words around the edges of the card to get it all in . . .

Sara wonders about this feminine need for “balance.”

Man's essence is a mass of conflicting unrealized emotions. Give a nudge in a positive--or negative-- direction and the flow-on effects can be remarkable

Generation after generation of Jewish women were faithful to their husbands and their tradition. What a proud record of fidelity. Geneticists describe these results as "the highest record of paternity-certainty ever recorded"!

We generally don’t really appreciate that which we have until there’s a risk of losing it.

Over the past century we have experienced a great leap forward of technological progress. Now it's time to catch up with ourselves...

The menorah symbolizes our spiritual needs, and the table is a metaphor for our material needs. But there is a connection between the two . . .

This week I discovered that my teacher was correct. It is indeed true that the disabled have greater merit than the rest of us . . .

Chassidic teachings unveil the pathology of “spirituality without sacrifice” through a fascinating halachic analysis. It revolves around the issue of kosher grain.

Diligent and up-to-date parents might want to consider a relatively recent fundamental and sweeping innovation in the field of education, made available to us by Rabbi Shalom DovBer of Lubavitch when he was but four or five years old...

Sometimes I wonder if the open-minded loyalists aren’t in truth closed minded. They cannot entertain the thought that the “old-schoolers” had anything right...

The holidays of Passover and Shavuot are connected to each other by the Omer Counting period. This reveals to us the nature of freedom, and its dependence on Torah.

We are inclined to believe that all intellectual and artistic endeavors are inherently positive. There are those who would argue that untrammeled intellectual and artistic expression is itself a fundamental good . . .

The dance pace at a chassidic wedding is intense, but the selection is pretty much standard: the hora, the hora and yet another version of the hora . . .

The word "to warn" in Hebrew (l'hazhir) comes from the same word as "to shine"

Even if we manage to avoid saying outright untruths, there seems to be something intrinsically dishonest in the process we call “education.”

What is freedom? What can be done with it? Nothing, unless we open the treasure chest and count its contents.

One should not fool oneself into believing that by answering the Twelfth Step's call to "carry the message" that he is somehow making a sacrifice for the benefit of others.

The scratch in the seedling... The art of toddling... A Yeshivah in Egypt... The benefits of being stupid when you're old... and fourteen other stories, insights and essays on education

Then there is the exclusion of a Kohen who had a physical blemish—blind or lame, had a deformed nose or misshapen limb, a crippled leg or hand, a hunchback or a dwarf. Why?

Embedded in this week’s Parshah are two of the most fundamental commands of Judaism—commands that touch on the very nature of Jewish identity.

When a new will is drawn into the world, it affects all of existence.

My first thought was: “My heart is broken, I just can’t understand. I don’t want to understand. Why, G‑d, do you continually break us?”

Judaism does not believe in an anniversary as merely a celebration of the past.