A Quick Torah Thought

1. What would Esther have done to counteract the decrees against the Jewish people if Mordechai hadn't ordered her - the language of the Megillah - to act? (It's interesting that in the beginning he commands her, and thereafter, when she takes charge and steps up to the plate, she orders him in turn, and he dutifully abides.) 2. After Esther agrees to act, the Megilla states that he, i.e. Mordechai passed before her. Why does it say that, if he wasn't with her, and the communication between them was taking place by proxy, messengers who were sent back and forth? 3. Why did Esther have no clue about the decrees? Mordechai even sent her a copy of the edict to corroborate that what he was saying was true, and so that he could show it to Achashveirosh. 4. When Achashveirosch consented to eradicate the nation Haman had claimed was posing a threat, did he know that they were called the Jewish people? 5. When Achashveirosh commands Haman to honor Mordechai he calls him "Morde...

 In my beit knesset, speaking obligations are on a rotational basis – and it's my turn this Friday night. I thought to address a question that I found interesting: "Is a Jew supposed to observe Valentine's Day?" Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, more than anyone else in the past generation, dealt with questions like this. He perceived Reform Judaism as an existential threat, and in so far as he is know for some of his leniencies in Jewish practice and thought, perhaps less known was the very staunch approach he took towards any semblance of Reform Judaism percolating into mainstream Orthodoxy. One such ruling struck me as particularly surprising. Traditionally, in Ashkenazi shuls, the chazan davens at the front of the shul. Often there's a little recess in the ground, to conform to the statement in Psalms, "From the depths I have called out to you." That notwithstanding, Rabbi Feinstein ruled that under no circumstances should a rabbi agree to let the chazan pra...

There is a medrash about this week's parshah that I found very strange. Hashem is afraid that the Jewish people gathered at Sinai will mistakenly think that it was Moshe's voice they heard from the mountaintop. And so, Hashem resorts to a ruse to get Moshe off the mountain; he tells Moshe to warn the people not to scale the flank of the mountain from any side, at which point, Moshe responds that he has already told the people as much as per God's instruction. Then, Moshe failing to get the hint, is told by Hashem to ensure that the people have purified themselves, and separated themselves from their spouses. Moshe summarily goes down, fulfilling Hashem's bidding – and then, with Moshe already at the base of the mountain, Hashem catches him off-guard, pronouncing the first two commandments Himself (without Moshe at his side) so as to disabuse the Jewish people of the notion that it was any other than He Himself who had given over the commandments. Usually, to the bes...

There is a verse that is rather surpising in the dramatic story of the "splitting of the Sea of Reeds."  So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “By evening you shall know it was Hashem who brought you out from the land of Egypt." Only come evening, when a flock of quail came upon the camp, did the Jewish people realize that it was God who had taken them out of Egypt, a very odd statement.  The miracles having been witnessed, released from bondage where no one had ever met an ancestor that was free - seeing the splitting of the sea, their oppressors drowning before their very eyes, none of this was enough to convince them that Hashem had taken them out of Egypt. A truly stunning statement! What was truly unique about the quail?  It would seem that there was something unique about being given a world of plenty, plenty that you could actually benefit from, and not hoard. The Sefer Hachinuch teaches that the reason one was forbidden from breaking a bone in the pascha...