There are many things in our world that we humans feel are not in our control. I often hear about the “market” deciding what to do, even though the stock market is an entity we created and we control.
Rabbi Michael Rothbaum serves as rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim in Acton, Massachusetts. A distinguished and award-winning religious leader, speaker, and writer, Rabbi Mike is devoted to creating ...
“Behold- I am placing before you a ברכה-blessing and a קללה-curse. The blessing will come if you obey the directives of YHVH, your Elohim, which I am prescribing to you today. The curse will come, if ...
“And [the Lord] will give you mercy, and have compassion upon you, and multiply you, as He swore to your fathers” (Deuteronomy 13:18). Let us reflect upon the teaching of the holy Or HaChaim (Rabbi ...
Please note that the posts on The Blogs are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any media content in them are presented solely by the authors, and neither The Times of Israel nor its ...
While a prophet may not change Torah law, he may override it temporarily – except in the case of idolatry. No prophet may advocate idol worship, no matter the circumstances. If he does, he is ...
On Shabbat Mevarchim Elul, we read Parashat Re’eh, which is replete with mitzvot, as are the subsequent parashot. The attempt to find a common denominator for the mitzvot in Moshe’s Devarim address, ...
The Sefer Haikarim illustrates this point with Shaul’s response to Shmuel’s indictment of his failure to kill the king of Amalek (Shmuel I:15). Shaul initially refused to concede that he failed to ...
Why the US returned to talks with Iran at its weakest ...
God’s spoken word goes beyond the Torah. Rashi, quoting the Sifrei, makes this point when analyzing the sentence “and you shall slaughter as I’ve commanded you” (Deuteronomy 12:21). One would expect ...
This summer marked the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. That this battle’s significance still resonates with us is evidenced by the scores of books and articles published in ...
Some results have been hidden because they may be inaccessible to you
Show inaccessible results