Parshah • August 2022
Va Etchanan – Be Careful What You Pray For
We are all familiar with the anecdotal traveller who argues vehemently with the gate steward to allow him onto the plane though he has arrived too late, but to no…
We are all familiar with the anecdotal traveller who argues vehemently with the gate steward to allow him onto the plane though he has arrived too late, but to no…
The book of Devarim is basically a repetition of the previous four books. So why repeat what we already have received?
In this week’s double Parsha of Mattot/Massei the people of Israel are about to wage war to fulfil their inheritance of the Promised Land. All systems are go, when two…
In this week’s Parsha, Pinchas, the 12 tribes of Israel receive their allocation of the land of Israel. It was via a lottery. To most people, a lottery means random…
Some people just thrive on being prophets of doom. One such person was the King Balak in this week’s parsha of the same name. Noting the approach of the Jewish…
In this week’s parsha we read of Moses’ sister’s Miriam’s passing. It was in her great merit that the Jewish people in the desert had water to drink. Miraculous wells…
Korach, the central figure, and name, of our Parsha this week, was a gifted individual. Smart, eloquent, wealthy, holding a high position, and a member of Moses’ own family, he…
The failure of the mission by the twelve spies is a mystery. How could they lose faith in G-d? But they didn’t. They simply mistook a well-known teaching not to…
There’s no point in lighting a candle if it doesn’t stay lit. Likewise, there is no point meeting people if you don’t raise their spirits and inspire their self-belief. The…
This week’s parsha, introduces the concept of Vidduy, public confession of one’s wrong doings and shortcomings. Verbalising these publicly, leaves a profound effect, intensifying regret and remorse. Both of these…
Why again a census of the Jewish people? The census can be compared to an art collector admiring each piece of his/her art collection, in his personal gallery, admiring its…
Why expect material rewards for spiritual activity as our Parsha seems to suggest? That appears inconsistent but only so if one dichotomises life into religious and secular. We don’t. It…
This week’s Parsha tells us that we need to give the ground a Sabbatical once every seven years, and then it goes on to say that we can work the…
The Shalosh regalim, Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot are referred to as the ‘foot’ festivals, because we made the pilgrimage on foot. We shed the comforts of home but returned with…