Vayeira 5772-2011
“Were Lot’s Daughters Moral or Immoral?” by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week’s parasha, parashat Vayeira, Abraham famously bargains with G-d in order to save the cities of Sodom and…
Pinchas 5774-2014
“The Battle for Women’s Rights” by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week’s parasha, parashat Pinchas, the five daughters of Zelophehad plead for the right to inherit their father’s…
Pinchas 5779-2019
“The Daughters of Zelophehad: Legitimate Feminist Claims” (Revised and updated from Pinchas 5760-2000) by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week’s parasha, parashat Pinchas, we…
Pinchas 5760-2000
"The Daughters Of Tzelafchad: Legitimate Feminist Claims" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this coming week's parasha, parashat Pinchas, we learn of the precedent-shattering request of the…
Emor 5778-2018
“The Great Moses Seems Not to Know the Answer” by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week’s parasha, parashat Emor, we encounter the episode of the מְגַדֵּף, megadef, the blasphemer, which…
Bereshith 5777-2016
“The Decline and Fall of Humankind” by Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald With this week’s parasha, parashat Bereshith, we begin, once again, to read the first of the Five Books of Moses--the Book of…
Shemot 5777-2017
"From Whence Shall Come My Salvation?” by Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald This week’s parasha, parashat Shemot, is the opening portion of the book of Exodus, also known as Sefer Shemot, the second…
An Unholy Act with the Best Intentions
There are many stories in the Torah that might be deemed “too adult,” and are generally glossed over in Hebrew school. But, like every narrative in the Bible, these stories have…
The Many Wives of Esau
Have you ever wondered who Esau married? In fact, Esau’s marital history is explicitly detailed in Genesis: “And when Esau was forty years old, he took as his wife wife Judith (also…
Lech Lecha 5764-2003
"A Scriptural Assessment of Lot" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald By paying close attention to specific words and verses in the Bible, we can often learn much concerning the Bible's…