Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch on Sukkot: Smile
G-d wants us to be happy.
G-d wants us to be happy.
Avodah Zarah prevents man from being fully human.
The High Holy Days aren’t about cheap sentimentality.
Life is more than the absence of death.
Our very first task upon entering the Promised Land involved outreach to non-Jews.
Marriage is much more than a physical union.
A Jewish king’s purpose starts where that of a non-Jewish king often ends.
Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Eval teach us that our environment isn’t determinative.
Our ancestors found G-d’s law difficult to obey, but G-d never lowered His standards.
Torah knowledge without practical application “has no value.”
We aren’t the only people to whom G-d assigned a land.
Tolerance is lauded in the modern West, but it isn’t always a virtue in Judaism.
The Torah calls for joy and serenity – in this world. A “suffering servant” is not the Jewish ideal.
Do we appreciate how often G-d saves us without us even knowing it?
The almond tree' symbolizes the spirit of the tribe of Levi. How?
There is a surprising reason that Moshe changed the name of one of the spies and not the others.
Today, we see the people who claim to represent democracy looking down with contempt at the masses. That's an anti-Torah way to act.
Parashat Naso contains the laws of the Sotah - a woman suspected of adultery,
That depends....
Helping people is wonderful, indeed obligatory., but there are principles involved.
Man is called on to sanctify the material world, not shun it, writes Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch. So why do we fast?
What is the significance of this connection?
Nadav and Avihu: The elites often permit themselves moral laxity but the Torah grants no such indulgences.
Rabbi Hirsch's commentary on the Book of Vayikra is where he explains the meaning of laws that might seem meaningless.
Our G-d is not a particularistic G-d. He is the father of all of humanity. How does the parasha show that?
How can we be forgiven without the essence of Temple worship, the offerings brought to God?
What is the point of the tablets being readable on both their sides?
What really happened at Mount Sinai? After all, say skeptics, God doesn't speak to us.
How the Sages can derive laws from minutae in the Torah that others don't see..
This is one of the places in the Torah where Rabbi Hirsch's philosophy of Torah and Derekh Eretz can be understood.
We have a choice. We can continue to whine, or we can elect to win. And whether we win or not is in our hands. Op-ed.
Just as an entirely new moon emerges every month, so too we can become entirely new versions of ourselves if we will it
Sanctifying our desires is pagan, not Jewish. Pleading victimhood to external forces is likewise pagan, not Jewish.
G-d told Moshe: “This” – your inadequacy and self-doubt – will be a sign to the Jews that I have sent you.
Most of us understand Jacob's words to mean that Shimon and Levi’s zealotry must be diffused. Rabbi Hirsch differs.
Living in Goshen was a wise decision on the part of the Jews and a message for future exiles.
YU is beyond the pale in accepting the public flaunting of LGBT behavior, unequivocally prohibited by the Torah. Op-ed.
In all of Jewish literature, one would be hard-pressed to find a single statement glorifying self-esteem. Humility, however, is much lauded.