PARSHA POSTS: VEZOT HABERACHA

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Oct 18, 2024, 6:02 AM

Reviewing a Difficult year: Sukkot and Simchat Torah

For me, last year ended on October 7th. I never thought that would be the case when I started writing my first blog in June 2022. By nature, I am somewhat pessimistic, as those of you who have been...

Ben-Tzion Spitz

Oct 15, 2024, 5:26 PM

The Teacher’s Sacrifice (Vezot Haberachah)

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well. -Aristotle Jewish law dictates significant esteem and honor to one’s teacher – sometimes...

Ilana Sober Elzufon

Dec 29, 2023, 4:12 PM

Yaakov’s 12 sons gather around him, eager to hear his final message. The aged patriarch speaks to each brother directly, mostly with words of blessing. But he addresses one pair of brothers together, harshly: Shimon and Levi are brothers, weapons...

Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden

Oct 9, 2023, 10:24 AM

Why is Simchat Torah also called the Eighth Day?

It's not the Feast of Tabernacles already, so what's the connection? The non-answer is that it follows the seven days of Sukkot. That doesn't entitle it to be called the Eighth Day. There are several connections. To find out why...

Oct 8, 2023, 3:03 PM

What do you say? What do you do?

Friends and family around the world check in because they saw the news yesterday. How do we explain to them that there is so much going on, but so little one can do at the same time. Everyone has been called...

Oct 7, 2023, 1:17 AM

Moshe: My way is not the only way

The Author showing preschool students the end of the Torah during the COVID pandemic. (Courtesy)

Not many people prepare their own obituary for print. Moshe did. The Talmud shares that prior to his passing, the Torah’s concluding verses about Moshe’s passing, funeral, and obituary were dictated to him by God and penned with his tears. In his...

Ben-Tzion Spitz

Oct 4, 2023, 5:32 PM

Destroying the Time-Space Continuum -Vezot Haberaha

Injuring TimeSpace (AI-generated by author)

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity. -Henry David Thoreau The Torah narrative ends summarizing the life and greatness of Moses, the only prophet to speak “face to face” with God. It reminds us of the miracles and...

Oct 4, 2023, 5:20 PM

Vezot Haberakha: Moses Is Not God

The Cult of Man When I traveled in India I realized that the Torah’s concerns regarding idolatry, and its warnings against it, are not as divorced from reality as I had previously thought. I understood that the depth of a...

Michael Carasik

Oct 4, 2023, 5:49 AM

V’zot ha-Bracha: Reprise

This weekend — in Israel, on Saturday; on the Diaspora schedule, on Sunday — we are reading Parashat V'zot ha-Bracha, the last of the 54 weekly Torah readings, and the only one of the 54 that is not a...

Sharona Margolin Halickman

Oct 1, 2023, 8:01 PM

Leadership will only succeed when there is unity

Parshat VeZot HaBracha (Dvarim 33:1) begins with the words: This is the blessing that Moshe, the man of God, blessed B’nai Yisrael before his death. The Netziv, in his commentary HaEmek Dvar comments that B’nai Yisrael were already blessed by Yaakov...

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