Devarim 5783-2023
“Building a ‘New’ Sanctuary” (updated and revised from Devarim 5764-2004) by, Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald This week’s parasha, parashat Devarim, is always read on the Shabbat that…
Does Life Begin at 40?
In 1932 Walter Pitkin published his popular self-help book, Life Begins at Forty. Truthfully, before the 20th century, life expectancy, on average, rarely exceeded 40. The number 40 is…
Matot-Masei 5783-2023
"The Mitzvah of Living in the Land of Israel” (updated and revised from Matot-Masei 5764-2004) by, Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In parashat Masei, the second of this week’s double…
Smashing the Tablets
Today's date on the Jewish calendar is the Seventeenth of Tammuz. The sages declare that five tragedies occurred on the Seventeenth of Tammuz, which is why the day is observed as a fast…
Pinchas 5783-2023
“The Conundrum of Pinchas: Do His Actions Set an Unacceptable Precedent?” (updated and revised from Pinchas 5764-2004) by, Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald This week’s parasha, parashat Pinchas,…
Kafkaesque
Franz Kafka was born into a Jewish family on July 3, 1883 near the Old Town Square in Prague, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Franz was the eldest of six children (two tragically died in…
Operation Thunderbolt
When Air France Flight 139 left the Tel Aviv airport on the afternoon of June 27, 1976, the passengers and crew could not have imagined the terrifying, yet heroic, events of which they…
Chukat-Balak 5783-2023
"How to Market G-d!" (updated and revised from Chukat-Balak 5763-2003) by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In the first of this week’s parashiot, parashat Chukat, the Israelites, who are soon to…
Making it Transfusable
In 1901, Karl Landsteiner (June 14, 1868–June 26, 1943) discovered that people have different types of blood, and by 1909 he was able to begin labelling the different blood types. Born in…
On the Canadian Prairie
Thirty-three years old at the time of his immigration, Grodno-born Rabbi Israel Isaac Kahanovitch (1872-1945), was called to Winnipeg, Manitoba, after spending a year Pennsylvania. He had…