Aug 22, 2014 | Torat Devorah
“Do not harden your heart and do not close your hand from your impoverished brother” (15:7). The mitzvah of tzedakah requires that we open our hearts and hands to help those in need. Not surprisingly, most successful fundraising today is done by playing to people’s emotions: pictures of terror victims, a starving child or a cancer survivor are the (legitimate) “props” used to raise funds. Giving a well-reasoned intellectual argument as to why a cause should be supported is nice, but unlikely to inspire a donor to dig deep in his pockets. A picture of one tsunami victim will raise millions more dollars than anonymous pleas to relieve the suffering of hundreds of thousands of faceless victims. (more…)
Aug 7, 2014 | Torat Devorah
Prayer is central to the spiritual life of the individual Jew and the religious life of the Jewish community. It’s not surprising, then, that, according to the Midrash, the Torah uses ten different expressions to denote praying. In our parasha, Moses pleads with God to rescind His earlier decree and allow him to enter the Promised Land. His prayer, the Rabbis tell us, was of a particular type; it fell exclusively within the category of tachanunim (supplications). (more…)
Aug 2, 2014 | Torat Devorah
Perhaps the greatest difference between the book of Devarim, which we begin this Shabbat, and the other four books of the Torah is the switch in modality. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers describe a story as it unfolds. The characters of these books experience these events as they occur in the moment.
Not so the book of Devarim. This book begins in a completely different way. (more…)
