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כרמים תטע ועבדת, ויין לא תשתה ולא תאגר כי תאכלנו התלעת Though you plant vineyards and work them, you shall not drink wine nor store because the worm shall eat them. The Custom of Not Calling the בעל קורא for his twice annual Aliyah There is a twice-a-year custom in which during the reading of … Read more
On viewing Dimensional Mathematics through the lens of Kabbalah
on the word לאמר, which is disconnected from its verse.
ועתה ישראל מה ה’ אלקיך שאל מעמך
The Newtonian Stage: Space as a Container For over two centuries, the foundation of classical mechanics rested on a single, intuitive assumption about the nature of space: it was an absolute, rigid container. In Isaac Newton’s framework, space was the static, empty stage upon which the actors – mass and energy – performed. Under Newtonian … Read more
Why Reuvain is considered the Tribe of Teshuva Historical Background of Jewish Settlement in Jordan As the Jewish people stand on the eastern banks of the Yarden River, gazing at the culmination of a forty-year journey, the impending division of the Land of Israel is at hand. Yet, just before the conquest begins, the tribes … Read more
The 515 Prayers and the Establishment of the Recital of צדקתך The Mystery of the 515 Prayers A famous Midrash[i] asserts that after being denied entry into the Land of Israel, Moshe Rabeinu prayed exactly[ii] five hundred fifteen (515) times to have the decree reversed—a number mathematically equivalent to the gematria of the word he … Read more
MAY G-D REMEMBER THE SPIRIT FOR ALL FLESH Background The Jewish people stand on the border of the Promised Land, the desert is behind them, and an entirely new vista opens ahead. In the camp, a landmark legal case has just concluded: the daughters of Tzelafĉad have successfully petitioned for their father’s physical inheritance in … Read more
The Tragedy of Zimri Tragic Zimri: Misguided Sacrifice, Legal Loopholes, and the Sin of Baal Peor The narrative of Baal Peor, culminating in the catastrophic actions of the prince Zimri, is often read as a simple, tragic story of a respected leader succumbing to base lust. Occurring near the end of the Jewish people’s forty-year … Read more
The Wellspring of Miriam The Mouth of the Well: Law, Grace, and the Synthesis of Sustenance in the Wilderness The narrative of the Jewish people’s forty-year sojourn in the wilderness is framed by two distinct crises of water. The first[i] occurs at חורב, shortly after the Exodus from Egypt. The second[ii] occurs four decades later … Read more