Last year, Parshas Toldos was the occasion of the pidyon haben (redeeming the firstborn) of the older of our twin grandsons. For my own family,
The world of religious ideas was steadily coalescing. Gradually, God introduced humanity to fundamental principles of religion. The horrific flood demonstrated the rule of moral
“These are the offsprings of Yitzchak the son of Avraham; Avraham bore Yitzchak.” If Yitzchak is the son of Avraham, it seems redundant to then
There is something to be said for revolutionaries. For founders. For the people who have the foresight and the daring to chart a course untrodden.
It was last year in the week of Parshas Chayei Sarah that my older brother, Binyamin, got married to Sarah Miriam Kaplan. Both had been
Avraham’s revolution had begun to gain traction. He traversed the promised land, participating both in wars as well as in diplomacy, all the while disseminating
I recently received a phone call from an out-of-town friend of mine. His young adult daughter had been dating a yeshiva-oriented young man and it
Parshat Chayei Sarah describes the first portion of land any Jew ever owned in Israel: Avraham’s purchase of the Machpeilah cave in Chevron as a
Ephron pulls the chair on Avraham, positing an exorbitant amount of cash for the plot of land Avraham wants to bury Sarah in. Avraham had
Editor’s note: This dvar torah corresponds to Breishis 47:4, and overlaps and complements לא בחיל ולא בכח from 16 Cheshvan, 5781 (2 November, 2020). We are grateful
Quite frankly, I didn’t think that this was an article for me to write. There were so many community clergy and lay leaders involved in
Author’s note: I have included a tribute to Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, zt”l, in this article. May his memory be for a blessing. Over the
