One of the most powerful addresses I ever heard was given by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, zt”l, on this week’s parsha: the

There have been times when one passage in this week’s parsha was, for me, little less than lifesaving. No leadership position is easy. Leading Jews

At one hundred and seventy six verses, Naso is the longest of the parshiyot. Yet one of its most moving passages, and the one that

In English, the book we begin this week is called Numbers, and for an obvious reason. It begins with a census, and there is even

  This week we read the tochecha, the terrifying curses warning of what would happen to Israel if it betrayed its Divine mission. We read

In last week’s parsha and this, there are two quite similar commands—both of which have to do with counting time. Last week, we read about

Alongside the holiness of place and person is the holiness of time, something Parshat Emor charts in its deceptively simple list of festivals and holy

There is a fascinating sequence of commands in the great “holiness code” with which our parsha begins, that sheds light on the nature not just

Hannah Smith was a 14-year-old schoolgirl living in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. Bright and outgoing, she enjoyed an active social life and seemed to have an exciting

Excavating the history of words can sometimes be as revealing as excavating the ruins of an ancient city. Take the English word “enthusiasm.” Today, we

One of the most difficult elements of the Torah and the way of life it prescribes is the phenomenon of animal sacrifices—for obvious reasons. First,

The American Declaration of Independence speaks of the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Recently, following the pioneering work of Martin