You can’t always get what you want. But sometimes you get exactly what you want. Today, I got exactly what I wanted. I wanted to write a Shabbos email, and was looking for inspiration, when my good friend Noach Klein…
In this week’s portion, the Torah commands us (Deuteronomy 22:8): (ח) כִּי תִבְנֶה בַּיִת חָדָשׁ וְעָשִׂיתָ מַעֲקֶה לְגַגֶּךָ וְלֹא תָשִׂים דָּמִים בְּבֵיתֶךָ כִּי יִפֹּל הַנֹּפֵל מִמֶּנּוּ 8) If you build a new house, you shall make a fence for your…
Construction is never a simple thing. The general rule is to expect projects to take thirty percent longer than scheduled and to cost thirty percent more than budgeted. But a building taking more than 200 years to build is considerably…
Ki Tetzei תשפ"ג The boy was trouble from day one. Even in the hospital, the nurses couldn’t figure out how to stop his incessant crying. As he got older, the crying stopped, but the mischief and mean tricks he played…
In early 1973, a US researcher named John Calhoun found himself in the middle of a small city that had mysteriously died out. There was not a single resident remaining, despite it having a population of 2200 just two years…
Ki Teitzei תשפ"ב Moshe took a mere thirty-six days to teach the entire book of Deuteronomy to the Jewish people. As we near the book’s end, Moshe’s death and the transition to Yehoshua’s leadership is only days away. This means that…
Ki Tetzei תשפא The Torah teaches us in this week’s parsha Deuteronomy (22:6,7): (ו) כִּי יִקָּרֵא קַן צִפּוֹר לְפָנֶיךָ בַּדֶּרֶךְ בְּכָל עֵץ אוֹ עַל הָאָרֶץ אֶפְרֹחִים אוֹ בֵיצִים וְהָאֵם רֹבֶצֶת עַל הָאֶפְרֹחִים אוֹ עַל הַבֵּיצִים לֹא תִקַּח הָאֵם עַל הַבָּנִים: (ז)…
Mirror mirror on the wall, which national park is the most majestic of them all? Its mountains are as green as the verdant forest, Its peaks rise up to graze on the heavens Its waterfalls tumble down from peak to…
We crossed into Egypt at the Taba Border Crossing around midnight. I was exhausted, dirty, and bone weary after two utterly crazy days in Jordan, but I trudged up to passport control with resigned indifference. If it were up to…
Parshat Ki Tetzei תשע"ט The boy was trouble from Day One. Even in the hospital, the nurses couldn’t figure out how to make him happy and stop his incessant crying. As he got older, the crying stopped, but the mischief…