A few weeks ago, I gave a Dvar Torah in Hebrew and then in English. Both of the messages had the same content. Although my Hebrew is more fluent than English, my wife told me that the Dvar Torah in ...

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How prescient is our holy Torah! This verse warning us not to favor the strong OR the weak stands as a sharp rebuke of the current fad of fetishizing the perceived underdog. The Targum rejects this ...

Parashat Devarim begins with Moses reprimanding the Jewish People as he recalls the numerous places in the desert where they rebelled against God. As they enter the land of Israel, the Jewish People ...

And so we begin the fifth and final sefer of Torah – Sefer Devarim, the book of words. The sefer, and this week’s parsha, is named after it’s opening pasuk: “these are the words that Moshe spoke to ...

At first glance, the portion of Devarim is a random recapitulation of events the Jews experienced in the desert. It seems without order; yet a closer look reveals a clear structure. The first major ...

This dynamic of student inquiry and the teacher’s patient, honest response is essential for effective and meaningful learning – for both the teacher and the student. In this week’s parasha, Moses ...

Our guest this week is Rabbi Aaron Starr, leader of the Shaarey Zedek community in Southfield, MI. Rabbi Starr is the author of the book Taste of Hebrew (URJ Press) and Tradition vs. Modernity: The ...

It is no coincidence that we read parashat Devarim on the Shabbat preceding Tisha B’Av, our national day of mourning associated not merely with our loss of the two Temples, but a day synonymous with ...

God speaks to Moses, from the Philip Medhurst Collection of Bible Illustrations (Wikimedia) ...