by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 2, 2023 | Community, Israel, Judges, Responsibility
By Rabbi Elie Mischel Throughout the book of Judges, the people of Israel’s greatest enemy was looking at them in the mirror. Though they were plagued by many dangerous external enemies, Israel suffered most from internal division and infighting. The tribes, by and...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 31, 2023 | Judges
By Rabbi Elie Mischel The Book of Judges has a standard playbook: the people of Israel drift away from God, God sends enemies to persecute them, the people cry out to God, and then God sends a heroic warrior to save them. As you would expect, the heroic warriors are...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 29, 2023 | Israel, Judges, Leadership, Responsibility
By Rabbi Elie Mischel Othniel, the first judge of Israel described in the book of Judges, was a courageous warrior and military leader. When Caleb, the aging leader of the tribe of Judah, sought a younger man to lead the men of Judah in battle, Othniel volunteered:...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 23, 2023 | Israel, Judges, Revelation and Prophecy
By Rabbi Elie Mischel What is the point of studying the Book of Judges? Yes, I know this sounds heretical. But it’s a fair question! We live in a modern world that appears, at first glance, to have very little in common with the stories of the Book of Judges. The...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 8, 2022 | Antisemitism, Israel, Judges, Leadership
Social media has taken all our human foibles and faults, amplifying them to show how silly people can be. Even when faced with facts and the undeniable truth, some people will double down and insist that they are in the right. There is no more hotly debated subject...
by Eliyahu Berkowitz | f 9, 2022 | Hebrew Language, Israel, Judges, Messiah, Naso, Redemption, Revelation and Prophecy
It is not common for someone to take a Nazirite vow in modern times. The most notable exception was Rabbi David Cohen who, like Samson, became a Nazirite for life. And both of these Nazirites have a role in redemption. Every week, the reading of the Torah portion in...
