Daniel Pinner

Nitzavim-Vayeilech:

Two endings - and Shana Tova!

Shabbat Parashat Nitzavim-Vayeilech, in addition to being the final Shabbat of the year, marks two other endings as well.

Ki Teitsei:

Going out to war

Inside Israel we pray that we will bask in G-d’s warmth and that any wars we might still be constrained to fight will be outside our Land. We will “go out” to war, so that we will shed no blood in our house.

Re’eh:

A new level of kashrut

The Torah of the Land of Israel contextualises kashrut. Judaism is not merely a religion – it’s what elevates us as a nation, sanctifies us as a nation. What we are allowed to eat is part of what defines us as a nation.

Vaetchanan:

It’s not a coincidence

Though G-d visits all our sins upon us, punishes us for them, holds us to account for them, He does not and never will entirely annihilate us.

Operation Gomorrah

The free world, and Jews in particular, are fortunate that in 1943, during Operation Gomorroah, there was no Facebook, Instagram, X, or Tik-Tok , that the NYT, Haaretz, and The Guardian still had some sense of morality, and that the UN didn’t exist. Op-ed.

Parashat Pinchas: An unquenchable love for the Land

Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehudah ben Beteira differed in their views of who could have bequeathed such a passionate love of the Land of Israel to his daughters.

17th of Tammuz:

The Torah reading on the fast day

This reading conntains the message which we so desperately need in our times of disaster – the times of disaster which begin with the 17th of Tammuz.

Parashat Balak: The angel’s sword

The donkey, Joshua, and King David all see the sword שְׁלוּפָה (unsheathed) in the angel’s hand. Bil’am, too, sees the sword שְׁלֻפָה (unsheathed) in the angel’s hand.

Parashat Chukkat: A new generation

Our generation is the generation that was born and raised in Israel, unbowed by exile. And we have demonstrated our determination to win the war and rescue our captives. This week's parasha is the precedent.

The sons of Korach

Korach condemns so many of today’s Torah-leaders. Torah-leaders who look with equanimity at the exile, Torah-leaders who are perfectly content remaining in exile, But not his sons.

Parashat Shlach: Truth and consequences

When the Jews of a thousand years in the future look back at our present-day reality, what will they say and write about our generations? What consequences will we, today, bequeath to our ancestors?

Behaalotcha: From Sinai to Paran to Israel to Babylon to Germany

We have already missed two opportunities to return home and to possess our Land, the first in Parashat Beha’alot’cha and the second in the Haftarah. The third opportunity is now, today.

Shavuot:

Celebrate in spite of all

We might do well here to recall Shavuot 5708 (1948) - and compare it with Shavuot 1967.

Condolences to the Jew-haters

We rescued hostages. And you condemn us. You don’t really care about the “Palestinian Arabs” at all, do you. It’s not, and never has been, about them; it’s about hating Israel. Op-ed.

Yom Herut Yerushalayim: Hidden and revealed miracles

At the Red Sea, in the Holy Temples, in the Six Day War and in Israel today with every missile intercepted by our side - we are witness to G-d's miracles.

Parashat Behar: Two different Shabbatot

There iis a fundamental difference between these two Shabbatot.

Bitter ironies, bitter lessons, and self-hating Jews

The story of a Jew who rejected his identification with the Jewish nation. Needing to belong somewhere, he made common cause with the most vicious Jew-haters. A lesson for today. Op-ed.

Yom Hazikaron 2024

Thoughts during the siren

I think of the price of freedom, of independence. And then I think of the price of not having freedom. The price which we commemorated a week ago, on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Kedoshim: Preparing for Redemption

The prophetic message of the Return to Zion in the Haftorah we read could have been tailor-made for this Shabbat.

Shabbat Hagadol: Redemption then, redemption now

It is a fundamental component of Pesach that the redemption from Egypt – our first national redemption – is the paradigm for the final redemption,

The first day of Nissan - in Egypt

It is the first of Nissan in the year 2448 (1312 B.C.E.). Nine of the Ten Plagues have struck Egypt, and only the tenth, the Slaying of the Firstborn, the most devastating Plague of them all, is yet to come.

Parshat Shmini and Parshat Hachodesh - stages of Redemption

An analysis of the non kosher animals mentioned in the parasha is connected to the four questions - and Redemption. This will be the final exile, after which we will never again be defeated or exiled from our Land.

Purim: Why do they hate us?

Every nation, every culture which ever felt threatened by the knowledge of G-d was determined to exterminate, to kill, and to destroy all the Jews, from young to old, babies and women.

Shabbat Zachor: Perverted compassion

Refusing to kill Amalek, keeping Amalek alive, isn’t a surfeit of compassion. It’s the opposite: it is a perversion of compassion. Exterminating evil is the truest compassion.

Parshat Shekalim: One nation with one destiny

Jews the world over, estranged for decades if not generations, have been forced to return to the Jewish body, to recognise that their destiny is Jewish destiny.

Natural miracles

The IDF freed two hostages in Gaza in the middle of the night. A miracle? No question about it, but one that occurred by natural means, the cooperation of Intelligence and fighting forces.

Yitro: The greatest Heritages

The word מוֹרָשָׁה, morashah, meaning “heritage”, appears only twice in the Torah, referring to the two heritages of Israel. One cannot do without the other.

Beshalach: In time of war...

What, then, was uniquely harsh about the Plague of Hail?

Parashat Vayechi: Judah lies down like a lion

When G-d arises, when those who hate Him are blown away as smoke is, then Israel – Judah – can lie down peacefully, like a lion at rest.

The 10th of Tevet and Vayigash: The beginning and end of Exile

The 10th of Tevet marked the beginning of the end of the First Jewish Commonwealth.

First night of Hanukkah: One candle or eight?

Hillel sees the world as it is; Shammai sees the world as it should be. In our imperfect world, we follow Hillel’s rulings, but one day....

Parashat Vayishlach: Israel’s first war

Read the Maharal on Shimon and Levi: They understoodl that if this outrage was unpunished, then no Hebrew would ever be safe again

Chaye Sarah: Towards the downfall of the savage

G-d will hear the nation of Israel]'s cries because of what Ishmael’s descendants do to them in the Land of Israel at the end of days..

Gaza: Rectifying the original evil

Why has Gaza remained disputed? Why has it never become part of Israel? Here is the story. Op-ed.

Ending the month of beginnings

And since Tishrei is the month of beginnings, it is especially apposite that we conclude the annual Torah-reading and then begin it again.

Be an etrog!

You have the choice to be any one of the Four Species.

Who will become impoverished, who will become wealthy

Four men, the Zohar tells us (Volume 1, Bereishit 27a), entered the Orchard, the פַּרְדֵּס (Pardess)....

Who by fire, who by water…

"And repentance and prayer and charity reverse the evil of the decree”.

Parashat Shoftim: On Jewish Justice

Learn how the Torah guarantees that justice is administered - and a comparison to Israel's court system.

Re’eh: Return to Eden

The 7 Haftarot of Consolation from Isaiah are his magnificent prophecies of the halcyon days to come, in our return en masse to the Land.

The Ninth of Av:: A magnificent tragedy

It took the entire might of the Roman Empire seven years to defeat the Jews. An inspiring episode, indeed!

Devarim: From Moshe to Joshua to Ruth to Rashi and beyond

We invariably begin to read the final Book of the Torah, Deuteronomy, on the Shabbat which immediately precedes the fast of the ninth of Av.

Mattot-Mas’ei: 42 stations

Why does the Torah list all 42 of these stations? What does this list add to our knowledge or understanding?

Balak: Welcome back, Diaspora shul-goers

The double parashah which communities in exile will read this week, Chukkat-Balak, can happen only in exile, never in Israel.

Conversation in the desert

The twelve men chosen to reconnoitre the Promised Land in a heart to heart (imagined) conversation.

Op-ed:

Another ceasefire…and another…and another…

We can but live the best we can and look forward to the next round unless we decide to take back Gaza. Op-ed.

Parashat Emor: Between independence and liberating Jerusalem

The Haftarah for Emor gives us hope for the future, the future which has already begun in the last two generations.

Yom Ha'atzmaut: Where in the Redemption are we?

We no longer stand on the edge of Redemption: we have already taken our first hesitant, faltering, uncertain steps into Redemption..

Thoughts during the sounding of the siren

Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day for IDF Fallen and Victims of Terror 5783 (2023) begins with a siren on Monday 8pm and then at 11am Tuesday.

Memorializing the Holocaust: The world versus Israel

Israel and Jewish communities commemorate the Holocaust as a time when Jews were murdered, but also as a time when Jews fought back.

Parashat Tzav and Shabbat HaGadol: chametz and matza

The Todah (the last sacrifice we read before Pesach) and the Korban Pesach both convey the same idea: The Jew must thank G-d, but not alone.

Vayikra and Nissan: A new era in our relationship with G-d

The Mishkan, the start of the month of Nissan and the beginning of the Book of Leviticus, mark a new phase in Jewish history.

Shabbat Hachodesh: Nation of Royalty

It is significant that our first national mitzvah was to take control of our time starting with the new year of kings.

Ki Tisa and Shabbat Parah: Taking off the mask

Our Sages enacted that on the Shabbat (occasionally the final Shabbat) before Nissan, every Shul would read this decree of the Red Cow:

Shushan Purim: The sweetest victory

Can you hear us celebrating, Haman? Hark from whatever dismal depths you are in now, and hear our sweet children singing in our own country.

Parashat Truma and the month of Adar-a contra to Av

it is appropriate that the Torah-readings for Adar, when we increase in joy, prepare us for building the Mishkan. Numerology attests to it.

Mishpatim, the legislative parasha

Is this a random selection of mitzvot, or is there a connecting theme?

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…”

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, will yet defeat our enemies in the Land of Israel.

The Tenth of Tevet: Why do we fast?

The final sentence could have been delayed, or even averted altogether, if only the nation had repented.

Vayigash:The only mistaken thing Jacob ever said

What was the reason for Jacob's fear about going to Egypt?