Dvar Torah
“A Man Has to Know His Limitations”
There have been many memorable movie one-liners over the years. One comes from Clint Eastwood in one of his Dirty Harry movies. At the end of one particular movie, when the villain is finally disposed of, Inspector Callahan coolly reminds us, “A man has to know his limitations.” In this week’s Torah reading, פרשת כי תשא, God makes a similar comment to Moshe.
Cherubs Atop the Ark
“They shall make for Me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them.” This verse from Parshat Terumah presents us with a question. What does it mean to create a sanctuary for God?
Under the Apple Tree
Many if not most of the readers of this weekly Dvar Torah may be too young to remember the song, “Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me.” It is a World War II song about a woman and her soldier boyfriend soon to be sent overseas. Where did the notion of a girl sitting with a boy under an apple tree come from? Where did the lyricists Les Brown and Charles Tobias get that refrain?
“Try it, you’ll like it!”
“Try it, you’ll like it,” with its call to learn through experience, is, by all measures, one of the most successful advertising campaigns to come out of Madison Avenue. Judaism, in a much more sophisticated and profound way, has experiential learning woven right into its very fabric.
Tu B’shvat: The What and Why
Why do we have a “New Year” for Trees? Contrary to common belief, it has nothing to do with planting trees. So what is the philosophical importance of recognizing this “New Year”?