Teens on Torah

Judaism’s conception of the universe is extraordinary; it presents God as completely outside nature. God is transcendent, not immanent....

In 2 Kings 18, in response to a rebellion against Assyrian rule by King Hezekiah of Judah, King Sennacheirib of Assyria destroys the...

In 2 Kings 22, the discovery of the Torah in the Beit HaMikdash prompts King Josiah of Judah to lead a national return to God and purging...

It is Saturday night, May 6. I had a very choppy Shabbat. It started out great when I learned that an amazing Sephardic cantor was at...

It is nighttime, Sunday, April 9, Chol HaMoed Pesach. Easter is ending. Last night I ended a text conversation by wishing a Christian...

In Pesach, God 'pesach's over the houses of the Israelites, not killing their firstborn, like a young lamb jumps, seemingly randomly, as...

וְאִם־מִזְבַּ֤ח אֲבָנִים֙ תַּֽעֲשֶׂה־לִּ֔י לֹֽא־תִבְנֶ֥ה אֶתְהֶ֖ן גָּזִ֑ית כִּ֧י חַרְבְּךָ֛ הֵנַ֥פְתָּ עָלֶ֖יהָ וַתְּחַֽלְלֶֽהָ׃ And if...

The stuff about the nazir and yovel in Leviticus 25:11 have some interesting similarities. First of all, the root: nazir and n'zireha,...

The joke's on you, Mitrzim. "Tzafnat-Paneach" is an Ivri. You're eating with an abomination! Haha. Or I read the text wrong. Then the...

Sometimes it feels like a parsha was made just for you, just for now. That’s how I felt reading Shoftim this past Shabbat. At school,...

In Parashat Va’Etchanan, Deuteronomy 5:18, we have Moshe’s rehashing of the tenth of the Aseret HaDibrot, the 10 Commandments. Commonly...

Interestingly, Shabbat Parshat Devarim was followed by Tisha B’Av immediately this past week. It’s interesting because on Tisha B’Av,...

In Parashat Korach, the first time that God tells Moses and Aaron to get out of the crowd of Korach and his followers with the word...

Parshat Behaalotcha. Things fall apart. So, we’ve got some more rules and regulations, about the menorah, about the Levites and their...

This past week, I began studying Masechet Taanit of the Babylonian Talmud. It is my first real foray into Talmud, and I have a rabbi who...

In the curse of Ham, Canaan is cursed to be slave to slaves. In Leviticus, the Israelites are called slaves to God and the Israelites are...

In a presentation in the Linguistics Club at my school today, somebody was presenting on the essential nature of words. They were arguing...

I had some thoughts on the opening lines of Kedoshim. They go as follows: “יהוה spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the whole Israelite...

Reading Parshat Kedoshim this past week, I was drawn to verse 14 of chapter 19 of Leviticus: “You shall not insult the deaf, or place a...

I want to preface this piece by saying that I have basically no experience in the subject I am about to write about, so take everything I...