It's been a while since I was asked to write Mt. Sinai's "Parsha Perspectives," and honestly I wasn't sure if being asked to do Vayakhel of all parshiyot was a compliment. At any rate it was a moot point since I just missed the deadline (one which I hadn't been told of beforehand). Still, here's what would have been printed in the short space allotted.
Continue reading "Parashat Vayakhel - Building a Divine Relationship" »
For the first time since the inaugural Parashat Shelach devar torah, I'm writing the "Parasha Perspectives" section of Mt. Sinai's announcements this week. The delay is most likely due to the changing of the people in charge, and the fact that Mt. Sinai has such a deep pool of talent.
Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.
Anyway, here's this week's for Parashat Vayetzei. Once again, the degree of difficulty is the one-page limit.
While there is no shortage of Benei Yisrael being rebuked in Tanach for their various transgressions, one such indictment which seems imprecise and perhaps overly harsh is the comparison with the people of S'dom and 'Amorah. As we know, the legacy of S'dom and 'Amorah is one of unmitigated evil and a benchmark for immorality which is used to this day. Their sins were so complete and evil so absolute that Hashem does not simply cause the cities' destruction, but completely obliterates them with unparalleled divine wrath. And yet in Eicha we are told that "the sins of the daughter of my people is greater than that of S'dom" (Eicha 4:6), and in the Haftara of Hazon the Navi exclaims "Heed the word of Hashem you leaders of S'dom, listen to the words of our God's Torah you people of 'Amorah" (Yeshayahu 1:10). Were the sins of the Jews in fact as serious and complete to warrant such comparisons with S'dom and 'Amorah?
Continue reading "9 Av, The Hurban, And The Lessons of S'dom" »
This past week Mt. Sinai started printing what will likely be weekly announcement flyers. Most people agreed that the announcements took way too long especially considering that the majority of regularly scheduled events never changed, and now that there is an eruv people can actually take them home.
Since we are a nice frum shul, they also had the idea to have a devar torah on the flip side. And for some reason, I was asked to provide the inaugural devar torah.1
As difficult as it is to come up with meaningful derashot, I've found it particularly challenging to do so in a one-page limit. Since there are many ideas which I tried to cover and many details and sources which needed to be omitted, I may revisit these issues in a future post. In the meantime here is the devar torah as printed.
