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PARSHA POSTS: MASAI

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Dana Greitzer Gotlieb

Jul 30, 2025, 7:22 AM

Are You a Spectator to Your People’s Story?

Tel Aviv cat. Photo by Dana Greitzer (AI-enhanced via DALL·E / ChatGPT)

Parashat Matot-Masei presents us with profound themes of collective responsibility, military service, and Jewish unity, just before the Israelites enter the Land of Israel. Before diving into the parashah, I want to ask a simple yet profound question: Who bears the responsibility...

Jul 25, 2025, 8:02 PM

From Sinai to Silicon Valley: Why the World Needs Jewish Values Now

This week’s Torah reading, Matot-Masei (Numbers 30:2–36:13), is a dual portion rich in moral clarity and historical memory. It opens with laws about vows and ends with the Israelites on the threshold of the Promised Land. In between are...

William Hamilton

Jul 25, 2025, 4:35 PM

Yes, I See Myself in These Pages

When Maryann Gray was 22 years old, she accidently took the life of an 8 year old boy who darted out in front of her car. She was totally devastated by what she’d done. Although the parents of the...

Jul 25, 2025, 1:15 PM

Rosh Chodesh Av, and the Secret of Overcoming Negativity

The month of Av begins this shabbos, and the Mishna comments "mishenichnas Av, mema'atin b'simcha/when Av enters, we diminish in joy" (Taanit 29a). Tisha B’Av, the 9th day of the month, is the date on which both Temples in...

Ruthie Hollander

Jul 25, 2025, 8:07 AM

The man who kept nine commandments

As a teenager, I stayed in a small European country for a summer with my family, where I met a rabbi who brought kosher food to a Jewish man convicted of murder. The rabbi’s kids — who often joined...

Jul 25, 2025, 8:05 AM

The Virtue of Failure

Recently, American tennis player Amanda Anisimova suffered a devastating defeat in the Wimbledon final, losing 6-0, 6-0 — a result so extreme it prompted a New York Times piece titled Why Amanda Anisimova’s Emotional Post-Match Interview Was a Masterclass...

Jul 25, 2025, 7:52 AM

The Prophetic Voice (Matot-Masei)

During the three weeks between 17 Tammuz and Tisha b’Av, as we recall the destruction of the Temples, we read three of the most searing passages in the prophetic literature, the first two from the opening of the book...

Alexander A. Winogradsky Frenkel

Jul 25, 2025, 12:07 AM

Abomination and the Narrow Path

The period between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av is not just a season of mourning in the Jewish tradition. It is a confrontation with the very nature of destruction—its roots, its recurrence, and its distortions...

Ben-Tzion Spitz

Jul 24, 2025, 11:05 PM

Evil’s Innocent Accomplices (Matot-Masai)

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” —Edmund Burke Some time ago, I was drafted by the Israeli Police to assist in an international manhunt. It was not something I had ever...

Menachem Creditor

Jul 24, 2025, 10:31 PM

Muscular Judaism and the Right to Sing Hebrew Songs

This week, we read the final chapters of Bamidbar, the double Torah portion Mattot-Masei. It’s the end of a book that has held our wandering, our rebellion, our fears, our growth. But it doesn’t end sweetly. It ends with...

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