Tanach Thoughts

In memory of מלכיה בן דב גרוס (Malkia ben Dov Gross) hy"d Last night I received the terrible announcement that Malkia Gross, a friend from my yeshiva, was killed in Gaza on Shabbat. Malkia is one of the few people I know who I would describe as being "sharp" and "bright". B"H I know many smart and intelligent people, but there are a certain few people whose brains fall into the category of "sharp", and he was one of them. This sharpness passed into his incredible sense of wit and humor. He recently started teaching math as part of his teacher's certification. Before I went to sleep last night, I asked myself - or Hashem, I'm not entirely sure - why Chizkiyahu merited to have a massive miracle that obliterated the Assyrian army during Sanchariv (Sennacherib)'s siege on Yerushalayim. For a moment I was angry. Here we were fighting for our lives thousands of years later, and while there may have been pocket-sized miracles, we don't g...

In memory of Gavriel ben David Blum z"l, killed in Gaza last week. Yesterday I paid a shiva call to the Blum family whose son Gavriel, whom I knew in high school, was sadly killed last week in Gaza. They recounted a story that I think his friends told them when they visited the night before. It's the sort of story that makes me uncomfortable (and his father did hesitate for a moment before telling it to the crowd, but his mother okayed it). Today I thought about it again and found a kernel of connection to Torah, with an emphasis on the story of the Exodus, now being read in shuls around the world, so I think it's worth getting over the uncomfortable bit. As our sages taught: תורה היא, וללמוד אני צריך! (This is Torah, and I must learn!) One day, a group of higher-ups visited the area in Gaza where Gavriel's unit was staying. The soldiers were tending to various military assignments, and the higher-ups, including several very high-ranking officers and a member of the so...

May this post be in merit of our soldiers, a swift return of the hostages and a speedy recovery for Dror Yisrael ben Rut Miriam (דרור ישראל בן רות מרים). I noticed something interesting while reading last week's parasha. After Yosef claims that his brothers came to Egypt to spy on the land, the brothers are forced to leave behind Shimon and go back home to bring Binyamin. Yaakov, naturally, is against this idea. Reuven says the following ( Beresheet 42:37 ): " וַיֹּאמֶר רְאוּבֵן אֶל אָבִיו לֵאמֹר אֶת שְׁנֵי בָנַי תָּמִית אִם לֹא אֲבִיאֶנּוּ אֵלֶיךָ תְּנָה אֹתוֹ עַל יָדִי וַאֲנִי אֲשִׁיבֶנּוּ אֵלֶיךָ" " Then Reuben said to his father, “You may kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I will return him to you.”" What's interesting here is that in this week's parasha it says that Reuven had four sons (and that was the case for later mentions of Reuven's sons). But Reuven doesn't say "You may kill two of  my so...

May this post be in merit of our soldiers, a swift return of the hostages and a speedy recovery for Dror Yisrael ben Rut Miriam (דרור ישראל בן רות מרים). Once I read Yirmiyahu in a single sitting. It took a few hours, to be sure, but I studied it all during one seder erev (evening study period) at yeshiva. It was during the three weeks and I had tears in my eyes part of the time. I had been in the middle of writing an essay comparing Plato's writings with those of Yirmiyahu because of an old tradition that Yirmiyahu met Plato and perhaps even taught him. After going through some Platonic texts, as well as gathering as much info on their purported relationship as I could, I turned to studying Yirmiyahu. And so I read it all. And I was deeply immersed and moved. I found myself deeply relating to Yirmiyahu's difficult life. To this day I feel a deep connection to his character. Two verses in particular caught my eye that night, 9:22-23 : " כֹּה אָמַר ה' אַל יִתְהַלֵּל חָכ...

May this post be in merit of Dror Yisrael ben Rut Miriam (דרור ישראל בן רות מרים) for a successful operation tomorrow and a speedy recovery. "Torat Chaim". "Torat Netzach". Terms that sometimes seem too abstract for my taste. Not everything always seems relevant to our lives, and yet, everything is Torah and therefore everything is the core of life and the essence of infinity. These terms hit hard with the war in Israel, with regards to the parshas we're reading now. Suddenly, every parsha seems to be speaking volumes about dilemmas - moral, practical, halachic, spiritual - we all seem to be facing. For example, Avraham not stopping to think twice before leading his small battalion against a quadruple-sized army to save his close relative Lot - Lots of Israelis did just that during the first few weeks of the war. They dropped everything and marched to war to save their brothers. And how about Yishmael's arc? Yitzchak and Yishmael can only get along when Yish...

May this post be a merit for the success of our soldiers and the safe return of all of the hostages that are still alive, and the bodies of the deceased, and a refuah shlemah for Dror Yisrael ben Rut Miriam (דרור ישראל בן רות מרים). As a friend of mine pointed out earlier today, it's somewhat ironic that on the week where we read of Yaakov and Lavan's treaty, Israel is signing a treaty with Hamas (ימ"ש). An interesting midrash notes that the treaty was still valid many centuries later: Midrash Tanchuma Devarim 3:1 "...מכתם זה דוד, שעשה עצמו מך, ותם על שהלך בתמימות עם קונו, אימתי בהצותו את ארם נהרים, מהון כשהלך יואב להלחם עם ארם נהרים, יצאו לקראתו, אמרו לו אתה מבני בניו של יעקב, ואנו מבני בניו של לבן, והרי תנאי שלהם [קיים], דכתיב עד הגל הזה (בראשית לא נב) , כששמע יואב חזר אצל דוד, א"ל מה אתה אומר הרי תנאו שבועת יעקב אבינו, מיד הושיבו סנהדרין שושן עדות, [ללמד] למדוהו ואמרו באמת כך היה, אלא הם עברוהו תחילה, בלעם הרשע מפני מה עבר, לא כך אמר מן ארם ינחני בלק מלך מוא...