Author: (((Rabbi B)))

The Torah lists the birds that we are prohibited from consuming.  Rashi explains that the chasidah is a stork.  Its name, chasidah, is derived from the root chesed, which means kindness. What is the connection between stork and kindness? Rashi answers that the stork performs kindness with its friends. According to the Rambam, Maimonides, one of the reasons the Torah forbade us to eat non-kosher birds is because they possess cruel character traits.  If we were to eat such birds, these traits could become part of our personalities (ie. ‘you are what you eat’).  If so, what would be wrong with eating a chasidah?  It...

Although the Bible has impacted the West like no other writing in history, a strictly Western approach to interpreting and understanding the Bible presents obstacles which may limit our understanding and even deprive of us a much deeper and richer meaning that is present within the Scriptures. I would like to offer up another approach to Biblical hermeneutics that I hope might serve to open the door to a richer understanding of God’s Word and also provide another useful tool for personal study. The exegetical method is encapsulated in a Hebrew acronym, PaRDeS, which is presented in more detail...

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks highlights a moment that changed the world: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So...