…gift we can give to another human being. RE’EH: Never define yourself as a victim. There is always a choice, and by exercising the strength to choose, we can rise above fate. SHOFTIM: To lead is to serve. The greater your success, the harder you have to work to remember that you are there to serve others; they are not…
…it was given through fire? From the verse in Shemot 19:18: “Mount Sinai was all in smoke as God had come down upon it in fire.” How do we know it was given through water? As it says in Shoftim 5:4, “The heavens and the clouds dripped water [at Sinai].” How do we know it was given through wilderness? [As…
…of blood vengeance, that protection was necessary. The purpose of the cities was to make sure that someone judged innocent of murder was safe from being killed. As Shoftim puts it: “And he shall flee to one of these cities and live” (Deut. 19:5). This apparently simple concept was given a remarkable interpretation by the Talmud: The Sages taught: If…
…you actually live, they see you living. The Gemara says, vechi ma lo eshpat lo KaKadosh Baruch Hu im shoftim min Haar umin hatzoref. What difference does it make to a HaKadosh Baruch Hu the way we shecht an animal? Elah, says the Gemara, lo nitan Torah elah tzaref bahem et habriyot. God gave us the Torah to refine us…
…all great and wonderful to quote the Rosh haYeshiva from 100 years ago, but ein lecha shoftim ela eina. Each generation has to make its own chatzotzrut. Each generation has to provide its own judges because we are the timeless but set in time. What is spirituality for this generation? For the Facebook generation? We are experimenting with this. We…
…others to grow with them. Shoftim: Learning and Leadership Leadership at its highest transforms those who exercise it and those who are influenced by it. The great leaders make people better, kinder, nobler than they would otherwise be… A good leader knows: hate the sin but not the sinner. Do not forget the past but do not be held captive…
…her freedom was opposed to the collective freedom because she was concerned about herself and completely unconcerned about the freedom – indeed the health and the safety – of others. You cannot have a society built on individual freedom. The Tanach tells us about such a society, and this is the last verse in Sefer Shoftim: “BaYamim hahem, ein melech…
…immodest, but there it is. So we had this wonderful vision of a world in which everyone would be literate, as Adin himself always pointed out. If you look at the eighth chapter of Sefer Shoftim, Gidon is about to fight a battle with the Midianites. He comes to a town called Sukkot. He says, ‘My men are hungry. Give…
A sequence of verses in this week’s sedra gave rise to a beautiful Talmudic passage – one that has found a place in the siddur. It is among the readings we say after the Evening Service on Saturday night as Shabbat comes to an end. Here is the text on which it is based: “For the Lord your God is…
Though few of us are destined to be Kings, Presidents or Prime Ministers, there is a general principle at stake. Leaders learn. They read. They study. They take time to familiarise themselves with the world of ideas. Only thus do they gain the perspective to be able to see further and clearer than others. To be a Jewish leader means…