Tamuz
Vaeschanan – Expanding and Defining Borders
Why is Moshe not allowed to enter into Eretz Yisrael despite his 515 entreaties? What is the concept of him looking into the land? Why do we switch out of mourning on the 9th of Av and straight into joy and relationship? What is the parallel between the month of Tammuz that seems to extend…
Read MoreTamuz, Av and Yosef
Once a week, the Yated Ne’eman is in my mailbox, as it is distributed for free to everyone. Sometimes it goes straight into the trash, other times, like today, I will peruse through it a bit. It was striking to me that the front page news all had to do with the secular courts of…
Read MoreYosef's Yahrtzeit
Today, the first day of Tammuz is the birthday and yahrzeit of Yosef Hatzadik. The Gemara in Rosh Hashana (11A) says that Rachel conceived for the first time on Rosh Hashana. This conception was Yosef, who was born exactly nine months later, on the first of Tammuz. Tammuz, as we noted in the Parsha Podcast,…
Read MoreShelach – Transcendent Jewish Unity
Why does the Torah seem to imply that Hashem initiated the sending of the spies, if in fact, as Rashi says, it was initiated by the Jewish people themselves? What were the spies expected to accomplish, and what was their fundamental failure? How did the spies know they would lose their positions of significance when…
Read More