By the Rambam’s reckoning of Mitzvot in the Torah, there are 72 Mitzvot in this week’s Parasha. It is the most Mitzva-rich Parasha in the Torah, although there are several Parashiot which are close. It is more than 10% of all of the Mitzvot in the Torah.
It seems like a large number, just as 613 seems large. But there aren’t really that many that apply today. The Chofetz Chaim at one point produced a...Read more...
The Sforno points out that this is the Parasha of leadership. Four different figures of leadership come up: the judge, the king, the Kohen and the prophet. They each have a different role to play in Klal Yisrael but these sections describing them do more than introduce them. They lay out limits. In all four instances, the point is to set down limits on the leader.
We start to blow the Shofar tomorrow. It’s an attempt to get our attention. But really it’s a way to start the month with an emphasis on hearing.
Back in Bereisheet, the births of the tribes begin in an order that echoes the natural world. First, there was sight and then there was hearing -- Reuven and then Shimon. That’s the natural way, as we all know that we see lightning well before we hear the crack...Read more...
The Parasha has extraordinary focus on the land of Israel, but the point has a lot of relevance to us right here too.
Children at SPHDS learn how to make Berachot regularly on whatever they eat. They also learn how to negotiate a plate full of various fruits, and how to figure out which fruit gets the honor of being blessed. To figure that out, they learn a verse in this week’s Parasha, which lists the fruits of the...Read more...
