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PARSHA POSTS: KI TEITZEI

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Yael Chaya Miriam Gray

Sep 9, 2025, 7:32 AM

Parsha Ki Teitze: The Mother Bird, the Lost Daughter, and the Long Road Home

“If a bird’s nest chances before you on the road…” (Devarim 22:6) כִּי יִקָּרֵא קַן־צִפּוֹר לְפָנֶיךָ בַּדֶּרֶךְ The language is strange. Yikareh—“chances upon you.” As though this encounter, this sighting of a trembling nest in your path, were a coincidence. As...

Sep 9, 2025, 12:10 AM

Building Parapets, and Community- Ki Tetzei 5785

I have a cousin who’s a few years older than me, who lives in south Florida with his wife and young son. Both his wife and son, sadly, are dealing with long-term serious health problems, but are thankfully doing...

Yael Chaya Miriam Gray

Sep 8, 2025, 6:03 AM

Why Are The Laws Of The Firstborn and the Wayward Son Juxtaposed In Ki Teitze?

Parashat Ki Teitzei, in its weaving of laws, contains juxtapositions that are themselves revelations. One of the most striking is the passage that insists on the rights of the firstborn immediately before the passage that describes the fate of...

Sep 7, 2025, 6:14 PM

Remember…What?

The following interpretation of the relevant Biblical verses is grammatically erroneous, and also, most likely, textually and theologically inadequate and unsupportable. That never stopped me before when I believed the message to be sound, so here goes. At the conclusion...

Daniel Z. Feldman

Sep 7, 2025, 11:02 AM

Shiluach HaKan, The Complexities of Compassion, and the Evils of Terrorism

It seems so simple, so why is it so complicated? The commandment in this week's Torah reading to send away the mother bird when taking its eggs (Deut. 22:6-7) is, on the surface, an understandable directive. It is, after...

Yael Chaya Miriam Gray

Sep 7, 2025, 10:56 AM

Parsha Ki Teitzei: The Soul Of The Convert As A “Lost Object”

Ki Teitzei opens with a command both simple and profound: “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them; you shall surely return them to your brother.” (Deuteronomy 22:1). At the...

Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden

Sep 7, 2025, 12:54 AM

Who’s against genocide?

If you're part of the solution, you're part of the problem There are so many genocides, I can't address them all. Let's pinpoint a number of (descendants of) perpetrators now falsely accusing Israel. Greenlandic Inuit If you don't acknowledge that this...

Sep 5, 2025, 8:09 PM

Ki Tisa: Vigilance, Responsibility, and the Lessons of October 7

This week’s Torah portion, Ki Tisa, recounts a dramatic misstep: the Israelites, impatient and fearful, constructed the Golden Calf while Moses was on Sinai. Their error shows how quickly a society can falter when it misjudges reality and ignores...

William Hamilton

Sep 5, 2025, 4:10 PM

Dismissing Self-Doubt

Can you really change how you are? Not who you are, but how you are in a situation? Mere weeks before the New Year 5786, it’s a timely question. A question that hovers over us this season. Of course,...

Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Sep 5, 2025, 4:09 PM

Parashat Ki Tetze – Buying a wife?

When studying the Talmud one is often confronted with the strangest ideas — convoluted logic, farfetched arguments, and disturbing associations. Sometimes these discussions are so troubling that one is inclined to accuse the Talmudic sages of blatant hair splitting,...

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