A Quick Torah Thought

Rabbi Dov Bigon, the founder and Rosh Yeshiva of Machon Meir, shared a poignant story about an encounter he once had with a beggar. He gave the beggar his small change after which the beggar said, "You're very welcome." Nonplussed, he thought about the beggar's words, and came to the realization, he shared, that the beggar was right; indeed, he was enabling me to give him, he was the facilitator and indeed I, the recipient.  This motif is very pronounced in this week's parsha where the opening verses state no fewer than three times that the Jewish people should "take" a donation for themselves on behalf of Hashem.  The message here seems to jibe perfectly with what Rav Dov Bigon shared, i.e. that giving is the greatest act of receiving. What you give, the Talmud writes in multiple places, is indeed all you take with you when you go to the World to Come. Your good deeds, most formative and heartfelt, are a springboard for full development, and the recogni...

In this week's parsha, the Torah circumscribes the bounds of parental influence in a girl's choice of a man, and delineates a perspective on marital relations that seems to not align very well with current modern perceptions.  Were a man to seduce a girl - states the Torah - the girl's father would decide whether or not to acquiesce to the man marrying his daughter. If he agrees, Mazal Tov. If not, the seducer pays 50 silver coins (the amount identical to that a rapist would pay) to the father of the girl.  In modern times, it would be hard to imagine any woman desirous of marrying the man who raped her, and the same would probably go for a man who seduced a woman. The image of date rape, either narcotically or alcoholically induced probably comes to mind. What the Torah is speaking of, though, is not spiking an alcoholic drink but rather, and much more banally, a man of the age of majority, 13 and over, sleeping with an underaged girl, i.e. under the age of 12.  In...

There are two often overlooked verses in Parshat Yitro which recounts the events leading up to the giving of the Torah and the "Ten Commandments." Moshe has been instructed (almost like Jared Kushner might be in preliminary talks leading up to peace negotiations) to make sure that the Jewish people and Hashem are on the same page. And so, Hashem commands Moshe to seek the fledgling nation's consent: "Now then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples. Indeed, all the earth is Mine, you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel.” In other words, this two-fold command, and mandate, have become the modus operandi of the Jewish people. They are to become the chosen nation, inimitable, like no other, but to achieve that they have to be willing to take on two precepts. One, the world is going to turn to them for gui...