Daniel Pinner

Tazria-Metzora and Rosh Chodesh:

Signs of Redemption

Isaiah’s magnificent, inspiring prophecies are coming true before our very eyes. They are no longer a matter of faith: they are now tomorrow’s headlines.

Parashat Shemini:

Do you know the way?

The tragic deaths of Nadav and Avihu in Parashat Shemini warn of the terrible danger of humans following their own decrees instead of G-d’s, even when they have the holiest and most exalted of intentions.

Seder Night: The invitation

We begin our Seder service with a modest invitation: “This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt; all who are hungry - let them come and eat!." Why so meager?

Shabbat Hagadol:

A tale of three Redemptions

The Pesach sacrifice was a massive act of defiance against the idolatrous Egyptian oppressors. And the Haftarah-reading for Shabbat Hagadol is the very last prophetic vision ever.

Parashat Vayikra:

Kingship

Is there any organic connection between Parashat Vayikra, Nissan, and Purim?

Parashat Ki Tissa & Shabbat Parah:

While Purim is still echoing...

This Shabbat is the confluence of three components of our calendar: the aftermath of Purim, Parashat Ki Tissa, and Shabbat Parah.

Purim 5786 - Hodu LaHashem

We are living the Purim miracle

Khomeini went the way of Haman, Israel continues to pound its enemies as recorded in the Megillah - and we thank G-d for our deliverance.

Parashat Tetzave and Shabbat Zachor:

The hidden and the revealed

Megillat Esther never once mentions G-d; Parashat Tetsave does not mention Moses; Amalek seemed to have disappeared from history. But G-d gives us the discernment to perceive them all.

Parashat Teruma:

The Mishkan - a new era

The construction of the Mikdash/Mishkan/Tent of Meeting transformed us from a collection of families to a united nation, united in in our worship of G-d.

Defeating Iran

When will we all know Khomenei is defeated? Opinion.

Shabbat Shekalim:

Prelude to Pesach

Shabbat Shekalim is the first of five special Shabbatot, over seven weeks.

Parashat Yitro:

Does it matter why?

We have two different opinions as to when Yitro joined, and Zipporah rejoined, the Children of Israel: shortly before the Giving of the Torah, or shortly after it.

Parashat Beshalach:

Profile of a hero

The story of the man who led Israel to victory, who defeated the enemy nations who were oppressing us - and never requested recognition.

Parashat Bo:

The destruction of the wicked

The Exodus and the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea were one and the same thing. One without the other is incomplete. A lesson for Hamas in our time.

Parashat Vaeira:

Sanctifying G-d’s Name through justice

We have to build our homeland in the Name of Hashem, the G-d of Israel.

Shemot:

Breaking point

Hopes which are destroyed cause deeper despair than complete hopelessness. The Jews had hoped for a new Pharaoh who would ease their lot, but the opposite occurred. Where to turn?

Parashat Vayechi:

The Kingship in Israel

There is disagreement among our commentators if these are prophecies of the times of the mashiach, or if they refer to other events.

A Psalm for Hanukkah

There is no guarantee that our enemies will no longer attack us here in Israel - but at least their sadistic joy is guaranteed to be short-lived and thoroughly repaid. And one day we will sing a Psalm for the coming of Mashiach.

Parashat Vayeishev:

Redemption garbed in 'klipot'

The many impure sources of Redemption are a defense against the Satan - the adversary, whose purpose is to prevent the Redemption from coming into the world.

3 Torah luminaries and Kislev 19:

In those days at this time

The Maggid of Mezritch's yahrzeit is also the day the Alter Rebbe was released from Czarist prison - and the day that, many years later, Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neria, founder of the Bnai Akiva yeshiva network, returned his soul to his Maker. Here are their stories.

Esau, our brother?

What defines Eisav? Is it the vicious Jew-hatred which has defined so much of Christian civilisation? Or is it the genuine Christian love and support for Jews and for Israel that we have seen, particularly in this current war?

Parashat Vayetzei:

The first time G-d spoke to the Patriarchs

It was not about Kashrut or Shabbat or prayer, but something deeper and more pervasive.

Parashat Toldot:

Water

Water has been a defining component of Israel’s history, from Noah’s flood through the lives of our Patriarchs to our own time. It is part of the symbiotic connexion between the Jewish nation and the Land of Israel. As the Land has welcomed its nation back home, so the nation has rejuvenated the Land.

Parashat Vayera:

Sodom and human shields

The whole sorry episode of Sodom and Gomorrah teaches is that yes, there can be an entire metropolis, and entire region, in which every single man, woman, and child, down to the new-born baby, is judged and found to be evil.

Parashat Lech Lecha:

The ultimate consolation

The Prophetic consolation after the Three Weeks lasts well into the next year. We receive Isaiah’s healing message of consolation not for seven weeks, but for ten weeks.

7th of Marcheshvan:

Praying for rain: The essence of the Land of Israel

The very essence of the Land of Israel is that it is dependent upon G-d’s constant care. And the most immediately obvious expression of that care is the rain.

Parashat Noach:

Rebuilding innocence

Noah, Daniel and Job saw three worlds. So have we.

Parashat Bereishit:

From the beginning till the end of time

The opening word of the Torah, בְּרֵאשִׁית, “in the beginning”, already encoded all of what was to come, the potential of everything which will ever be.

The Sukkah:

Nofelet or Nofalet?

How to pronounce it and why.

Parashat Ha’azinu:

Jewish history and how to survive it

Jewish history isn’t random happenstance; Israel’s reconstituted national sovereign independence in the Land of Israel within living memory is woven into the very fabric of G-d’s Creation; our continued sovereignty in Israel depends not on the prowess of our military, on economics, on politics, but on our connection with G-d, His Torah, and His Mitzvot.

Parashat Valyeilech:

Preview of Jewish history

The number of a verse, its numerology - all point to the past but also to today in this week's parasha.

Transforming G-d's Judgment:

Repentance, Prayer, and Charity

These are the three tools which G-d gives us to transform His judgment from bad to good: repentance, prayer, and charity. Delving into that prayer and Mussaf.

Parashat Nitzavim:

The missing 'pasek'

After the mourning comes the rejoicing, after the exile comes the return home, after the destruction comes the renaissance. The Redemption is swiftly approaching, and Hashem brooks no delay in its implementation.

18th Elul, the birth of Hassidism:

A lesson for Israel

Just as more than two-and-three-quarters-centuries ago Hassidism burst onto Jewish history changing it forever, so too a century-and-a-half ago political Zionism - that led to anti-Zionism - burst onto Jewish history changing it forever. Who will win?

Parashat Ki Teitze:

13 commandments about warfare

Keeping the mitzvot protects the Jew from external enemies, from natural disasters, and from becoming the agent through which G-d brings punishment into the world.

Parashat Shoftim:

Justice for the time of justice

Our suffering is not yet over: that is obvious. We still face genocidal enemies dedicated to our extermination. But Israel is in the process of being redeemed in justice.

Parashat Re’eh:

A time to return

Some Torah prohibitions became clear in our time. Only in our generation have we come to see how necessary the simple, literal meaning is: Don’t destroy synagogues, don’t raze Jewish cities, don’t bulldoze Jewish houses - in Israel, “lest the Gentiles hear of it, and destroy the Land of Israel”.

Meriting the Land of Israel - our ultimate Redemption

This is the time to study - not just read, but to study in depth - the messages of the 9th of Av, of Parashat Va-et’chanan, and of Haftarat Nachamu.

The Ninth of Av:

A magnificent tragedy

Though Israel was defeated in its battle against the legions of Rome, it was a magnificent and inspiring defeat, a defeat which ultimately destroyed the Roman Empire.

A case for treason

There is a word for people who attempt to enlist foreign aid against their own country in time of war. Not a pleasant one. Opinion.

Parshiyot Mattot-Mas’ei:

Do you know what you’re fighting for?

3,297 years ago, before despatching the Children of Israel on their war of vengeance against Midian, G-d infused them with the spiritual reinforcements necessary for victory - their national identity, their sense of history, their understanding of their destiny. So too, the Religious Zionist soldiers today.

Parashat Pinchas:

Broken vav, missing vav, perfect vav

Bil’am lost his connexion with G-d. Samson’s prayer was answered, while Bil’am’s wasn’t.

Fast of 17th Tammuz:

The message in the day's Torah-reading

You will have to search - but if you search, you will find the consolation, the ever-so-subtle hint that Torah, Jewish history, has not come to its end.

Parashat Shlach:

A resounding rejection of the Sin of the Spies

There are currently more than 100,000 Israelis abroad, stranded in dozens of countries ever since this current war closed the airspace above Israel. Yet the overriding concern of all these Israelis abroad is how to come home despite the missiles from Iran.

The story of El Al's last commercial flight from Tehran in 1979

As we have seen over the past several days, Israeli aircraft now fly at will to Iran and return safely to Israel. But the story of the February 10, 1979 flight is a lesson in courage.

Shavuot:

The Torah, teaching by example

The true leader leads by example.

Jerusalem Liberation Day:

Hidden and revealed miracles

When future historians come to write of our era, they will write of all the miracles but they will also discover another hidden miracle.

Parashat Emor:

Kohanim and independence

Though we are once again sovereign in our ancestral homeland for the first time since the days of Queen Shlom-Zion, the murderers still stalk us. And though tragedy strikes, we are in an incomparably better situation than we have been at any time since Queen Shlom-Zion.

Acharei-Mot–Kedoshim:

Preparing for Redemption

This prophetic message of the Return to Zion in the Haftorah was tailor-made for this Shabbat, falling between Yom ha-Atzma’ut and Yom Herut Yerushalayim.

Yom ha-Atzma’ut and Tazria-Metzora:

“From where will come my help?” (Psalms 121:1)

In a panic the Arameans fled, as we read in this Shabbat's haftarah - and the Arabs did the same in the War of Independence, linking the two.

Yom Hazikaron 5785

Thoughts during the siren

Two memorial days fall together each year, to remind us, beyond any doubt, how much it costs us to have our own state, and how much it costs us without.

Parashat Shmini:

The power of the eighth day

Parashat Shmini opens on the eighth day, the 1st of Nissan.

Parashat Vayikra:

Introduction to Redemption

Why is it appropriate that we begin reading this Book on the Shabbat of the month of redemption (whether Nissan or Adar)?

Shabbat HaChodesh:

Glass shards and royalty

We, the Jewish nation, reckon our national calendar from Nissan.

Shabbat Parah:

Coming back to life

The Maftir for this Shabbat reminds all Jews of the necessity to purify themselves in readiness for Pesach. But why the chosen Haftarah?

Parashat Ki Tissa & Purim:

Towards redemption

The Talmud cites Reish Lakish (Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish): “It was known and revealed before He by Whose Word the world was created that Haman would one day weigh out the shekalim to annihilate Israel; therefore He placed their shekalim before [Haman’s] shekalim” (Megillah 13b).

Parashat Zachor:

Confronting hatred

It is intriguing that the Torah, usually so concise and sparing with its words, enjoins us both to remember Amalek and not to forget Amalek. But surely the one implies the other!

This Shabbat:

Parashat Terumah, Shabbat Shekalim, and Rosh Chodesh Adar!

The confluence of Parashat Terumah, Rosh Chodesh Adar, and Parashat Shekalim is rare. What is its message this year?

Yitro:

The outsider

Sometimes, just sometimes, when the nation of Israel is at a low ebb, when we are vulnerable and uncertain, when we need strengthening, G-d sends us a leader like Yitor from outside who can provide that emboldenment.

Beshalach:

Shabbat Shirah

When G-d grants us victory over our enemies, when He destroys our enemies who oppress us, we are obligated to thank Him with ecstatic praise. Anything less denotes extreme ingratitude