Category: History

  • Fear God More Than Man

    When the midwives in Egypt get the order to murder all male Jewish babies they resist. The Torah states that they fear God more than Pharaoh. Fearing God will get you to do the right thing.

  • Listen To Your Elders

    The reason that the tribe of Levi was not enslaved was that Levi was still alive when Pharaoh succeeded in fooling the Jews. Levi, though saw through Pharaoh’s plot and told his descendants not to be fooled.

  • Limiting the Power of the King

    While recognizing that a leader was needed, the Torah limits the power of the king. It is interesting to note that this passage was the basis for the constitutional limits on the president of the US.

  • Words Have Meanings

    The Temple was destroyed due to baseless hatred of Jew against Jew. The cause of baseless hatred is the abuse of accusations. When a person is accused of behavior that he is not guilty of he will react. And not in the manner that the accuser expects.

  • The 3 Weeks & the Redemption

    There were many bad things that happened to the Jewish people during the 3 Weeks. But it is also the time that we will see the beginning of the Redemption.

  • Korach & the HMS Bounty

    The dispute between Korach and Moses was really an ego trip on Korach’s part. In such a case it would have ended with Korach and his followers fighting with each other, much like the crew of the Bounty who killed each other after they mutinied.

  • Don’t Follow the Crowd

    Joshua & Caleb did not follow the conventional wisdom of the other scouts. They were outliers in their views. Yet they were correct in their analysis while the others were not. This is to teach that it is the outliers who advance ideas, not those who follow the crowd.

  • The Hubris of Power

    The problems of the scouts that Moses sent was that they were the leaders of the tribes. They felt that they would lose power if they gave a good report. That is why they sabotaged the whole effort.

  • Taking Responsibility

    One of the themes of the Book of Ruth is taking responsibility. Both, if one is a leader or a common person, we are responsible for doing the right thing.

  • True Jewish Heritage

    The Museum of Jewish Heritage, a Living Memorial to the Holocaust is an important venue but it gives the wrong message. The true heritage of the Jewish people is when we behave as Jews and keep the commandments that were given us at Mt. Sinai.