In this week's reading, Moshe announces to the people of Israel that he can no longer lead them. “He said to them, ‘I am 120 years old today; I can no longer come and go, and Hashem said to me, “you shall not cross the Jordan River”’” [31:2]. Lest they think they are...

Several weeks ago, I was honored to be invited to provide a D’var Torah on the High Holy Days, which would be distributed by a rabbinic organization to their membership. I turned it down. Usually, I am not one to turn down such invitations, but to write about the...

In our Torah reading, the Jewish nation is told that they may have a king, but "only that he may not acquire a large number of horses for himself, and not return the nation to Egypt in order to add a horse" [17:16]. This is the first thing that we are told the king...

Our Torah reading this week enjoins us to maintain Torah practices, no matter what others believe or have done. This begins within ourselves, as the Torah directs us away from "every man doing whatever is right in his eyes" [12:8]. But we are told not to follow the...

This week’s reading, Eikev, begins with G-d’s promise of great blessings: “It will be, that because you listen to these judgments, and guard them, and do them, Hashem your G-d will guard for you the covenant and the kindness that He swore to your fathers” [7:12]. The...

This week's reading contains one of the more famous cases of a Medrashic teaching that clearly departs from the plain meaning of the words. Discussing the laws of purity and impurity, the Torah says, "This is the teaching: when a man dies in a tent, all who come into...