Did you ever meet someone with a “fat” head? This phenomenon can be an individual affliction or occur even to an entire nation. This week’s Torah reading, פרשת עקב, “Parshat Eikev,” provides insight into the antidote for the “swelled head” syndrome.

No, this is not an article about “new math.” In honor of my son, Yoni’s, 28th anniversary on becoming a “bar mitzvah,” I present his Dvar Torah speech on Parshat Va’etchanan.

This week’s Torah reading, Parshat Devarim, always precedes Tisha B’Av, the 9th Av, that marks the destruction of the First and Second Temples among other calamities. Why did the the Sages set the Torah reading cycle to have this Parshat Devarim coincide with this most tragic day?

Few people know that what is now the modern country of Jordan was also officially earmarked by the League of Nations in 1922 to be part of a planned Jewish homeland. Why did the League of Nations incorporate that land into their vision for a post-World War I homeland for the Jews?