Timeless Torah

This week’s Torah reading of Ki Tavoi begins with the statement, “And it shall be when you come into the Land that Hashem has given to you as an inheritance, and you will possess it.” As noted many times previously, not only does each mitzvah, each phrase, and even each letter of the Torah offer us invaluable lessons for life, so does its order.  read more »

Currently, we as Americans pay taxes. Biblically, we as Jews were obligated to bring the first fruits to the Temple. Initially, there doesn’t seem to be too much difference between the two systems. But on further analysis, the Halachic mandate and the American body of law are at polar ends of the legal landscape.  read more »

“Poverty pursues the poor,” is how the Talmud renders the truism, "The rich get richer while the poor get poorer."
What prompted our Sages to make this observation? The opening passage of this week's Biblical portion that outlines the laws of the first fruits: that the Israelite farmers were obligated to bring to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem as a gift to the kohen (priest).  read more »

This week’s Torah portion begins with a description of the ceremony associated with the first-fruit offering. An accompanying prayer thanking G-d for His beneficence ran like this: “An Aramite destroyed my father, and he went down into Egypt ... few in number ... and the L-rd brought us out ... into this land flowing with milk and honey. And now behold, I have brought the first fruit of the land which you have given me…”  read more »

The approaching High Holidays bring to mind such phrases as, “Day of Judgment, Life and Death, Good and Evil.” These concepts actually come into play on the very first Rosh Hashana, when Adam and Eve stood before the Tree of Knowledge and unsuspectingly opened Pandora’s Box.  read more »

If it’s ‘light reading’ you’re after, don’t bother with this week’s Biblical portion. Ki Tavoi is dominated by the Rebuke; Moses’ admonition that there will be great suffering if the Jews abandon Torah. Notwithstanding the literal text that outlines dozens of catastrophes in store for the errant Israelites, the Zohar writes that great blessings are concealed beneath its surface. Let us examine one specific scenario. “Hashem will smite you with blindness...You will grope at noontime as the blind man gropes in the darkness.”  read more »

Twice the Torah gives voice to a series of prophecies regarding the sufferings that will befall the Jewish people if they fail to honor their mission. These terrifying passages are not to be interpreted as a “fire and brimstone” sermon: do this or else bad things will happen to you. Without a doubt, the Torah did not want the Israelites to pursue their vocation out of fear. Rather, these warnings are a form of passionate pleading, representing a future that G-d does not want to happen. But such is the risk of a small people challenging the Divine script.  read more »

Some of the world's most sublime and inspired blessings are found in the Torah. But then again, some of the world's best curses are there as well. In this week's Biblical portion alone there exists a virtual smorgasbord of malediction comprising ninety nine curses. Among them is this denunciation, “All these curses shall come upon you, pursue you and catch you so as to destroy you, all because you did not serve G-d with joy and a glad heart.”  read more »

This week’s Biblical reading addresses the concept of, “Blessings hidden within curses.” One example is, “Your life will hang in the balance; you will be frightened night and day, and you will not be sure of your livelihood.” There is no bigger curse it seems, than not having some “money in the bank;” not knowing from where tomorrow’s meal will come.  read more »