A Quick Torah Thought

The Ramban shares a very interesting analytical perspective of the raison d'être, or rather, agenda, of the spies. The spies had a vested interest, writes the Ramban, in not entering the land of Israel.  Rather than taking a pragmatic approach, i.e. the spies wanted to maintain their stature, or the spies were afraid of the spiritual challenges of the land, or even, the spies were afraid of an unmediated relationship with God, the Ramban simply focuses on the psychological dynamic at play, and the conflict between the 10 tribes, and Moshe, and Calev and Yehoshua.  The 10 tribes shared a very honest account of the land, its proportions, risks, dangers and pitfalls. Where, then, did they go wrong? "But." That's right. The word, "but," in Hebrew, is no other than " efes , " nothing. In other words, the spies said, "There is no way other than my own." The land, they shared, could under no circumstances be surmounted.  Then, the Ramban shares,...

This past week's parsha states very clearly that the levite was forbidden to work; he was allowed to have no creative endeavor, or engage in any form of labor besides that of the holy tabernacle, the mishkan. This, in essence, posed few questions - perhaps - in the time of the desert, but thereafter, in the land of Israel, a levite was limited in many respects; it's almost as if his life was scripted from birth. To the best of my knowledge, a Cohen was allowed to work. A Cohen, far more on a pedestal than the Levi, served in the Beit Hamkidash, but was allowed to engage in creative endeavors, in work, in craftsmanship, and for most intents and purposes, didn't find his life circumscribed or delineated by biblical prohibition. He perhaps could not become impure, and could not marry certain persons, and when a loved one passed, may have limited in his ability to bury the deceased were they not one of the 7 closest relatives, father, mother, brother, sister, wife, son, daughte...

Chazal learn from the text of the sotah that a betrothed woman who was warned by her husband not to be behind locked doors with another man, does not drink from the bitter potion aimed at testing her fidelity or lack thereof. It is interesting, and worth noting, in my humble opinion, that in biblical times, a woman who was engaged to be married a man, was bound in every sense of the word, to the extent that were she to have an affair, it was considered an extramarital affair, and under the circumstances mandated by Jewish law, i.e. prior warning, and witnesses, she would be put to death for having relations with another man. Thus, it seems surprising to me, that, while on the one hand, a woman could be put to death for a lack of fidelity, the bitter waters were not used to test the extent to which she had been faithful to her husband. It would seem to be that the bitter waters were only used to reveal whether a woman had acted in an adulterous manner, i.e. choosing another man in l...