The Pshat Heard 'Round the World

The Human Black Hole Parashat Korach, 5767 I'm very taken with Korach. Oh, I know, if I start up with puns on "Vayikach Korach", we'll be here till carbon emissions decrease, but it still grabs me every time. The first two verses read, translated literally: "And Korach took (son of Yitzhar son of Kehat son of Levi), and Datan and Aviram and On ben Pelet sons of Reuven. And they rose up before Moshe and men from the sons of Israel two hundred and fifty, princes of the assembly, those called to meeting, men of renown" The obvious and famous problem is - What did Korach take? There is no object to this transitive verb! Here's a digest of some of the most well-known solutions to the problem: Rashi : He took himself to the other side, so as to be separated from the assembly to contest the (assignment) of the priesthood (to Aharon). Ibn Ezra : "He took men", the object being omitted (he gives an example of a similar occurr...

Patience, Young Grasshopper Parashat Shelach, 5767 "And we seemed in our eyes as grasshoppers, and thus we seemed in their eyes". With these words, the party of the majority amongst the spies seal the "debate" with the two dissenters, Calev and Yehoshua, thereby both implanting the spark and fanning the flames of mutiny amongst the distraught masses of Am Yisrael. The people had their doubts before (see commentators especially on the presentation of the story in Devarim), but now, they are terrified. The image of giants toying with their masses before crushing them arises in their minds, and all the benefit of a land described so lavishly at first become detriments in their minds. The Gemara asks, how did "this evil assemblage" of ten slanderous spies know how they appeared in the eyes of the inhabitants of the land? It answers that they heard them remarking upon looking upon them, "what are those grasshoppers doing there?". When Rashi commen...

A number of years ago, I bought for my son a flight simulator computer came. Named after some cutting-edge U.S. Airforce fighter, the program was an eye-opener for me - or rather, an eye-closer. While looking at the screen, you can have the illusion of flying, and, as I found it impossible for me to get the hang of the controls, I continually found myself careening toward the ground faster than I could pull out of the dive. You see, when you want to turn right, you have to raise the left flap. Also, the possibly disastrous results of any action are not immediately apparent, and by the time they are, you overcorrect, making things worse. Piloting an aircraft seems many times more difficult than driving a car. Now, just imagine what it might be like to pilot a 600,000-strong juggernaut lurching through the desert! That is the challenge we confront in this week's parashah - how to guide an entire people gently but firmly enough to reach the promised destination without a crash-l...

B'ha'alotecha is one of the most jam-packed, event- filled parashiyot in the entire Torah. For weeks, now, we've been preparaing to set forth on our journey from Mt. Sinai through the desert to Eretz Yisrael, and now, we finally shove off! But, wait, there's so many last minute things to arrange. So the first few passages of the parasha deal with taking care of all the final details. Then comes the famous "reversed nuns ", the words contained therein bracketing our reading of the Torah each week, a two-verse passage which, we are told, is a complete "book" on its own, breaking up the book of B'midbar into two very difference "halves", and....we're off!! But one of the matters that must be tended to is the question of - - - where are we going, and how are we getting there? We know we're headed to Eretz Yisrael, but this was before Google Maps and third-generation GPS cellphones. We need to know which diirection, for how l...

The great journey is almost at hand. After emerging from slavery in Egypt , standing at Sinai and almost blowing it, and then receiving not only the Torah but the transportable indwelling, revelatory Presence accompanying us in the Mishkan, Am Yisrael is almost ready to depart. Just got to make a few last preparations, count all the soldier-types and array them around the MIshkan, make sure everyone knows his place, and, oh yes, let's be certain those worker-bee Levites are set to disassemble, transport and reassemble the MIshkan. Let's see, three Levite families, Kehat, Gershon and Merari. Kehat gets to carry the holy vessels of the Mishkan. But, not so fast, Kehatim. First, the Kohanim have to cover the holy vessels with beautiful, protective coverings, each one with its own double cover, and only then may you come and raise onto your shoulders the wooden staves running through the rings on the Holy Table, the Holy Candelbrum, the Golden Altar and, of course, the holie...

Acharei Mot-Kedoshim Review and updated April 2026 This week, we are grappling with another double parashah - Acharei Mot is wedded to Kedoshim this year. In fact, in the popular mind, the two are conjoined even when we don't read them together. People like to say the names of this week's parashah, together with the one which follows - Acharei Mot Kedoshim Emor - with the cynical wisdom that is born of experience: "After the death (of a person), say holy things". Indeed, it seems to be easier to envision holiness from the safe distance that death provides than it is to envision it in life. If you ask a child, "what do you want to be?", that child might answer, "I want to be BIG", or "I want to be FAMOUS", or "I want to be a FIREMAN". An adult, posed the same question, might answer, "I want to be HAPPY", "I want to be SUCCESSFUL", "I want to be RESPECTED", "I want to buy a Mercedes-Benz...

The question everyone asks on the beginning of Parashat Tazria is: What does brit milah have to do with everything else going on here? We are in the midst of elaborating the laws of tum'ah and taharah (ritual impurity and purity), moving from the laws which regulate the tum'ah of animals to the laws which govern the tum'ah of humans, and there it is: "A woman, when she conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be impure for seven days, as the days of her menstrual separation shall she be impure; and on the seventh day shall his foreskin be circumcised; and thirty-three days shall she sit with her blood of purity, no holy offerings shall she touch, nor shall she enter the holy sanctuary until the completion of the days of her purification." Circumcision has nothing to do with tum'ah or taharah (Rabbi Akiva interprets that one who "separates from the foreskin is as one who separates from the dead, but, hey, this is the PSHAT heard 'round the wo...