Last year my friend Rabbi Schneeweiss posted about the mystery of the Moshe’s “Kushite wife”. https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/2020/06/behaalosecha-moshes-mysterious-marriage.html He quoted Ibn Caspi, who harshly rejects Chazal’s interpretation as the exact opposite of Pshat, as bad as if they said black means white or love means hate. (Did Ibn Caspi also think that the blind Rav Sheshet (Sagi…
The Parsha concludes with a detailed description of the tribal leaders’ initiation offering. And after reading them carefully, it turns out that **spoiler alert** they are all identical! Why does the Torah need 11 repetitions of the same details. We face a similar challenge with our service. For example, the “offering” of our daily Tefilla…
Hilchot Maachalot assurot 17:28 Even though the court is not obligated to separate a child (from eating forbidden foods or violating Shabbat), there is an obligation for the parent to disparage it and separate him in order to train the child in restraint and moderation (Kedusha [1]), as it says “train the child according to…
The Rambam (Issurei Biah 13:4) identifies three things which the convert seeks in joining the Jewish people. 1. To join the covenant 2. To find protection under the wings of the Shechina (divine providence) 3. Accepting the Yoke of Torah These three ideas are the basic features of the Jewish people. The first is Jewish…
One of the challenges of reading or listening to parshat bamidbar is that the endless lists of numbers seem boring and repetitive. What can we do to change our experience? Rashi at the beginning of the Parsha says: “Because of His love for them He counts them repeatedly. When they left Egypt — He counted…
