Anointed for War: Jerusalem Leads Us Into Battle
This week’s Torah portion describes various halachot pertaining to war. Given what has transpired over the last 10 months, the last two aliyot particularly strike a painful chord, while simultaneously reminding us of what makes Klal Yisrael so special. The Torah describes the mitzvah of the Kohen Meshuach Milchama, the priest who is anointed to […]
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Sinai and Moriah: a Mysterious Connection
If we haven’t already gotten the message of these weekly divrei Torah, Jerusalem is pretty much the center of everything in Judaism. Which is why many commentators wonder why the Torah was given on Har Sinai instead of Har HaMoriyah (aka, the temple mount). While there are many beautiful answers provided to this question, the […]
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Humility and the Sun of Jerusalem
This week’s parsha describes Moshe as being “the humblest of all people on the face of the earth.” This statement of the Torah is juxtaposed to the unique level of prophecy that Moshe experienced and is clearly intended as the reason for Moshe’s elevated status. How did Moshe, who had such great attributes and achievements, […]
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Jerusalem: From Creation to Redemption
One section of this week’s parsha that is particularly resonant this year is the commandment of Hakhel. During the Sukkot immediately following the shemitah year the Jewish people are to gather in “the place that God will choose” to hear the king read from the Torah. On a basic level, this ritual is a form […]
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Har Sinai, Jerusalem and the Sanctity of the Jewish People
Our parsha discusses the momentous events of God giving the Jewish people the Torah at Har Sinai. As one would expect, when God appeared on the mountain, the space becomes imbued with sanctity. The Torah elaborates in great detail the extent of the preparations and precautions that the Jewish people took to properly relate to […]
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Jerusalem: The Ultimate Nachalah
Our parsha describes the boundaries of the Land of Israel. In the introductory verse to this section, the Torah refers to the portion that each family was to have in the Land as their “nachalah” or portion/inheritance: Instruct the Jewish people and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the […]
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Full Person Remembering
This week we will God willing fulfill the mitzvah of remembering Amalek. The source of this mitzvah is the verse: “Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt.” Intuitively, one would think that memory is a cognitive function and this mitzvah can be fulfilled through concentrating one’s thoughts on the […]
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Dreaming of Jerusalem
When Moshe relays to the Jewish people God’s dramatic prophecy of the four stages of redemption, he was met with a rather unenthusiastic response: “And they did not listen to Moshe due to shortness of breath and the hard work.” The people were simply too overworked to take note of Moshe’s cosmically important message. The […]
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The Grace of Jerusalem
When Yaakov and his family return to the Land of Israel, they make an extended stay near the city of Shechem: And Yaakov came safely [to] the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan aram, and he encamped (va-yichan) before the city. On a simple level, the […]
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The Temimut of Yerushalayim
During their time in the desert, the Jewish people did not have to agonize about their future. While they might not have known if they would travel or rest on a particular day, their general trajectory towards the Land of Israel was predestined and relayed to them by God on numerous occasions. Once they entered […]
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