Why wasn’t Moshe allowed to enter the Promised Land? View this video directly on Vimeo
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The Torah reading for this week begins with an intricate series of laws regarding purity, impurity and purification. This involved many details which appear to some to be, excessive, a complaint commonly heard about Jewish law in general. I would like to explain one idea behind all this detail: consistency. Consistency is much more difficult to achieve than one might expect. Imagine someone waking up one morning and making a firm ...
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Rabbi Becher's VLOG
Rabbi Mordechai Becher’s VLog – Partnership and the Talmud – Parshat Chukat 5779
Rabbi Becher is learning tractate "Bava Basra", which opens with the laws of shared living spaces, but in essence is talking about how our entire society is one large partnership, and that we should act as if we are partners with our fellow man. View this video directly on Vimeo.
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Rabbi Becher's VLOG
Rabbi Mordechai Becher’s VLog – The Little Things Also Count – Parshat Balak 5778
Rabbi Becher looks at the incident in this week's parsha when Bilam is rebuked for hitting his donkey, and learns from that how even minor details of our actions are important - no matter how great (or evil) the main action is. View this video directly on Vimeo.
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Rabbi Becher's VLOG
Rabbi Mordechai Becher’s VLog – Laws of Morality, Laws of Nature, Laws of Torah – Parshat Chukat 5778
Rabbi Becher wonders why we have to follow laws of the Torah if we don't understand the reason behind them. View this video directly on Vimeo.
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This week’s Torah portion, Chukat, deals with an example of a category of Jewish laws known as chukim, Divine statutes that the human mind cannot completely comprehend. The purpose of the chukim is to teach us that human understanding is not a prerequisite for doing that which is right, and the criteria for determining good and evil are not within the province of the human being. In Judaism, absolute good ...
Read MoreHarry Rothenberg reminds us that consoling a mourner isn't easy, but it's important. View this video directly on VIMEO
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A great rabbi once said that it is easier to memorize the entire 21 volumes of the Babylonian Talmud than to change one character trait. Self-improvement is one of the greatest and most difficult challenges that a person faces. How does one go about overcoming a negative trait? The answer was supplied by my karate teacher (in a slightly different context). He said, “Always attack where the opponent is weakest.” The ...
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