Matot (Numbers 30:2-32:42)

Our choices and decisions don’t only affect ourselves. They have an influence on others as well. In this week’s Torah portion, the Jewish people were all set to move into the Land of Israel and settle there, when some of the people came to Moses and told him that they

You may have seen the lawn signs. Or the information distributed at your school’s carpool line. Or the emails from local rabbis and day-school principals. No matter the medium, we know you got the message. In this month’s local elections, Jewish voter turnout across Bergen County—as well as Elizabeth and Tom’s River—was

Rabbi Sacks zt’’l had prepared a full year of Covenant & Conversation for 5781, based on his book Lessons in Leadership.

The parsha of Pinchas contains a masterclass on leadership, as Moses confronts his own mortality and asks God to appoint a successor. The great leaders care about

Rarely do I take sides in a halachic controversy. Almost always, I present both sides to a debate. However, the issue of the lift-and-cut shavers is an exception. I am sure that those who forbid lift-and-cut shavers incorrectly assess the lift and cut mechanisms in electric shavers.

The following

Parshat Pinchas

The semi-mourning period of “Bein Hametzarim,” the three weeks that precede Tish’a B’av, sets the tone for haftarah readings of the next few Shabbatot. Fittingly, the first of these haftarot, the one we read this Shabbat, is taken from the opening perek of Sefer Yirmiyahu, the

Due to the invention of the steamboat, Americans were finally able to travel to Europe and Palestine starting around the middle of the 19th century. In 1867, just after the Civil War, Mark Twain set out on such a voyage. He joined a group of pilgrims (whom he dubbed “The Innocents”) and boarded the “Quaker City” (a retired Civil War

Our parsha opens with God’s effusive praise of Pinchas for his extra-judicial killing of Zimri and Kozbi. What remains elusive, however, is any hint regarding the cause of Bnei Yisrael’s sin at this particular juncture. Parshat Chukat concludes with the nation successfully defeating the armies of Cheshbon and Bashan. Bnei Yisrael appear

Our parsha opens with God’s effusive praise of Pinchas for his extra-judicial killing of Zimri and Kozbi. What remains elusive, however, is any hint regarding the cause of Bnei Yisrael’s sin at this particular juncture. Parshat Chukat concludes with the nation successfully defeating the armies of Cheshbon and Bashan. Bnei Yisrael appear

In Yoma 84a, Rabbi Yochanan (a second-generation Amora of Israel, 180-279 CE) is treated on Thursday and Friday by a matron for his tzafdina, bleeding gums and teeth. Since he might need the cure on Shabbat, he asks for the details of the cure. She only reveals it to him after he swears to keep it secret, but then he expounds the

Amid an unprecedented school year, Hebrew teacher Gilad Bargil completed Prizmah’s YOU Lead program to advance leadership in day schools.

(Courtesy of Prizmah) Following an unprecedented school year, SAR High School Hebrew teacher Gilad Bargil is bringing new leadership skills and

(Courtesy of Chesed 24/7) The Northern New Jersey community is ready to connect by drawing a line between a patient in the hospital and those who want to help. Shabbos in a Box brings Shabbos into the hospital, transforming a bare, colorless room into a homey, Shabbosdik haven decorated by those who connected the dots

Part II

Why did the Holocaust as a genocidal movement begin with Operation Barbarossa?

Nazi ideology viewed communism and Judaism as the twin arch evils out to destroy Germany and the world. Now that Germany was engaged in an all-out war to destroy