Fire burning flesh. It doesn’t sound too appetizing until you think of cooking meat, which follows that exact recipe. And if it’s really good BBQ, it’s probably fire burning flesh really sloooooowly. Growing up, the word BBQ meant cooking hot…
This week’s portion, Balak, introduces us to בלעם - Bilaam, history’s only legitimate non-Jewish prophet. Although many others claim to have had a prophecy (and, hence, so many religions in the world), they are all impostors, for after Bilaam misused…
The science in this essay is mostly based on the information found in the book “We have no idea: a guide to the unknown universe,” by Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson. The book is high on my recommended reading list in…
Stradivarius. The name alone elicits a hushed response in discriminating circles. Antonio Stradivari, born in Cremona, Italy in 1644, is considered by most experts to be the greatest instrument maker of all time. The few remaining "Strads" (the number hovers…
Balak תשפב When travelling by plane, it is customary to acknowledge your seat-mate when taking your seat, and maybe to say a word or two as you deplane. Conversation between seat-mates during flight is uncommon, perhaps, because people have come to…
People seem to have a higher regard for Paris than for any other city in the world. No less than twenty cities in dozens of countries have prided themselves as “the Paris of the East” or “the Paris of the…
Balak תשפא This week’s portion, Balak, introduces us to בלעם - Bilaam, history’s only legitimate non-Jewish prophet. The information he conveyed via his prophecy was straight from Hashem. It is remarkable to know that Bilaam’s prophecy was the same high-level prophecy as Moshe Rabbeinu’s!…
This is a rerun of a previous Shabbos email. My wife did not re-give birth to our eight year old daughter, but there will be an update at the end of the email…. I have seen the writing on the…