Bereishit 1:31 Bereishit Rabbah 9:2 The fear of error and failure, prevents experimentation and precludes achievement. Babies learn to walk by experimenting and stumbling. They experiment with language before they talk. If we convinced infants not to risk “making idiots of themselves”, not to risk failure, then they would never be able to walk or talk. It is because we applaud their attempts, encourage them back onto their feet and make them feel heroes rather than fools as they hesitantly step forth into uncertain spaces. Failure is not the end of a process. It is an unavoidable st..

  Bereishit 22 Halacha: A Multi-Dimensional Reality Imagine how the world would appear to you if you were able to see it only with two dimensions, and had never ever used three. A cylinder seen from its top would look like a circle, and seen from its side would look like a rectangle. How tumultuous life would be if some of us could only see with two dimensions, and others with three! Imagine how the world would look if we had access to an extra dimension or two? Just as the two-dimensional person looking at the rectangle would be incapable of imagining how you or I saw a cylind..

Bereishit 8:21 Sefer Yetzirah 5:9 Bereishit Rabbah 34:9 The Divine Aroma of the Barbeque In Parshat Noach we encounter the first reference to a sacrifice as having an aroma that is pleasing to G-d. This idea will be repeated many times in the Torah, but never looses its strangeness. What pleasure does G-d find in the barbeque aroma of a ritualistic sacrifice? In this case of the first sacrifice brought after the flood, the Midrash[1] says that G-d “smelled” in Noach’s sacrifices the aromas ofAvraham and of Chanania, Misha’el and Azaria&n..

Would he or wouldn’t he have? Imagine that Avraham Avinu read and practiced my last week’s Parsha Insight. Do you think he would still have passed the test of the Akeida (offering his son Yitzchak, as per Hashem’s request)? Or, would he have gone deep into his inner internal wisdom and come to the conclusion that offering an only son, or any son for that matter, is just not on?! Put another way, what do we do when our own deep intuitive wisdom is not aligned with G-d’s word in the Torah? There are only two possible reasons why our inner thoughts may not align with the Torah: Either we ..

Bereishit 12:1 Learning Values   Derech Erettz Kadmah LeTorah (Derech Eretz precedes the Torah) means a whole lot more than that being a “Mentch” is a precondition to Torah observance. It means that Torah has a context. Torah does not exist in isolation. Derech Eretz is its context. Derech Eretz means more than being a “mentch”. Derech Eretz means a value system, a style of behavior that a person can figure out themselves without having to consult an Halachik text. And herein lies the problem: I am currently engaged in a consulting project to a wonderful orthodox gir..

Ve’Asita vigdei kodesh le’Aharon achicha, lechavoD, ul’tiferet” – And you shall make clothes of sanctity for Ahron your brother; for honor and for glory. (Shemot, 28:2) The Torah’s requirement that Kohanim wear specific clothing during the avodahhad serious implications. The avodah (service) of a mechusar begadim (a Kohen who served without the appropriate clothing,) was pasul (invalid). Moreover, that kohen was also punished by mitah bidei shamayim (death by a divine decree). Interestingly, these implications are not the result of..

7th Cheshvan 5770 The Birthday It is strange that with the passage of time children "grow up" but adults "get older"? At what point do you stop growing up and start getting older? The truth is, there isn't a point on a spectrum of age where you suddenly stop growing up and start getting older. Children get older too and adults also grow up. It depends what your perspective is on growth and aging. If you experience the world through a physical lens, then as a child gets bigger and stronger, he or she is growing up. When we begin to go into physical decline (probably sometime in our t..

  Israel's Day of Dependence The speed of the world's heart-warming response to the fire that exterminated nearly 6 million trees in the Carmel and that Israel alone could not contain, contrasted shockingly with the same world's apathy 70 years ago for the extermination of nearly 6 million Jews and its apathy now for the threat to Israel's nearly 6 million Jews that Iran poses. This freakish tragedy of almost biblical proportions taught us that with all Israel's economic, intellectual and military might, it still needs the rest of the world. Israel is not yet truly independent. ..