Ben-Tzion Spitz, at The Blogs

Oct 1, 2024, 9:47 AM

True generosity is an offering; given freely and out of pure love. No strings attached. No expectations. Time and love are the most valuable possession you can share. -Suze Orman Before a final exam or some other major challenge in...

Sep 26, 2024, 11:25 AM

Evil Thoughts (Nitzavim-Vayelech)

Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results. -- Willie Nelson There is a concept in Judaism that one is only punishable for what one does. You can plan a heist but are only found guilty...

Sep 18, 2024, 10:00 AM

The Ultimate Blessing (Ki Tavo)

"Ultimate Blessing" (AI image by author)

Heaven means to be one with God. -- Confucius This week’s Torah portion gives a long list of curses as well as blessings. The curses are frightening. They are so horrible that the tradition is to read them in a...

Sep 11, 2024, 5:52 PM

The Silent Retort (Ki Tetze)

It is no little wisdom for a man to keep himself in silence and in good peace when evil words are spoken to him, and to turn his heart to God and not to be troubled with man's judgment....

Sep 5, 2024, 7:08 AM

Contagious Stupidity (Shoftim)

As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before. -Jean De La Bruyere Stupidity is contagious, and it stems from arrogance. At least that is what Rabbi Shlomo...

Aug 29, 2024, 10:56 PM

Wear sunscreen (Re’eh)

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. -- Mary Schmich There is a story of a man who is shown a vision of Hell. It is a roomful of people with their...

Aug 21, 2024, 9:32 PM

The Double-Edged Dollar (Ekev)

Ambition makes the same mistake concerning power that avarice makes concerning wealth. She begins by accumulating power as a means to happiness, and she finishes by continuing to accumulate it as an end. -Charles Caleb Colton Moses recounts how Korah,...

Aug 16, 2024, 12:04 AM

Choice Exile (Vaetchanan)

The real community of man, in the midst of all the self-contradictory simulacra of community, is the community of those who seek the truth, of potential knowers... of all men to the extent that they know. -Allan Bloom, The...

Aug 8, 2024, 3:39 PM

Hypocritical humility (Devarim)

And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin is pride that apes humility. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge At the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, Rashi informs us that the younger men deferred and were humble in front...

Aug 2, 2024, 12:34 AM

Pillars of the Universe (Matot-Masai)

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together. -Carl Zwanzig What is the basis of creation? What keeps our world afloat? Ancient myths believed in a giant turtle...

About Me

Ben-Tzion Spitz is the former Chief Rabbi of Uruguay. He is the author of six books of Biblical Fiction and hundreds of articles and stories dealing with biblical themes. He is the publisher of Torah.Works, a website dedicated to the exploration of classic Jewish texts, as well as TweetYomi, which publishes daily Torah tweets on Parsha, Mishna, Daf, Rambam, Halacha, Tanya and Emuna. Ben-Tzion is a graduate of Yeshiva University and received his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University.

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