Light In Torah

Life is filled with ups, downs, ins, outs, trust, love, failure, and rinse-and-repeat lessons. With that in mind, it is easy for us to get trapped in the "I thought it was a good idea at the time" mentality. Sarai says to Abram, "Look, the Lord ( Yahweh ) has restrained me from bearing children" (Gen. 16:2). Ahh, the Garden of Eden blame game continues. For the woman, it is not a serpent but God who is at fault this time. Her unhappiness and fruitless marriage are all God's doing. So... if He is going to prevent me from having children, I will conceive my own child by circumventing His limited perspective. Now the self-preservation mindset has infiltrated Sarai's mind. Is she just reflecting on what her husband did to her with Pharaoh? Her self-interest will be fulfilled by offering her maidservant as sexual barter. Hmmm. She tells Abram what to do, and Abram willingly listens to Sarai (Gen. 16:2)... memory lane to the Garden of Eden, when the woman listens ...

Many Torah-observant men declare every morning, "HaShem, I am glad I am not a woman." Huh? Is that a sexist statement? Nope! The men who make that declaration know they cannot do what a woman does—hence the statement of thankfulness. And they know that behind every successful man is a great woman. A woman's job, as an  ezer kenegdo  (Gen. 2:18, 20), is never done and is often overlooked by the man she helped make great. As we look into Sarah's life, I have to confess that most of us—speaking of me, myself, and I—don't know our Bible characters too well. Often, their lives get hyper-spiritualized, even when the text tells us otherwise. We know of their victories but seldom their tragedies—unless it is King David or Judas Iscariot. As a result, we struggle to identify with these lofty people. And on the flip side, those who are ultra-rebellious, we consider so low on the spiritual scale... "we would never be like that"! Heaven forbid. Fortunately, for our ...

In our Torah portion,  Va'etchanan , Moses pleads with God to allow him to see the Promised Land (Deut. 3:25). Deep students of God's Word have said that Moses prayed 515 times, pleading with the Lord, but God's answer was "No"—and then He said, "We won't talk about this anymore" (Deut. 3:26). How could God say no? Have you ever had your prayer requests go unanswered? Have you ever hoped for something—not even selfishly (James 4:1–4), but on behalf of someone else—and your hope was delayed, or you got a "no"? It makes the heart sick (Prov. 13:12). With all the pressures and frustrations of life facing us every morning, inquiring minds want to know: what is this prayer stuff all about? Is it just the law of attraction? A spiritual Santa Claus where I get my latest favorite toy? Let us begin at the beginning. (Nice, Mr. Obvious. :-)) God is the absolute King, Ruler, and Creator of the universe. In other words, God is in control of everything—...

In this week's Torah portion,  Va'etchanan  ("I pleaded"), we find the answer to a dilemma that most of us face when life feels dry, dry, dry: "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be on the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation."  (Hab. 3:17–18) Life is perspective. But perspective without facts is just influential fiction. We are on our way to the 9th of Av (July 22), and we are close to the halfway point of this fifth month—the 15th of Av, also known as Tu B'Av (Judg. 21:19), which falls on July 29. Menachem Av is the fifth month on God's calendar, and it means "the consolation of the Father." This Shabbat, July 25, is the Shabbat of Consolation (Isa. 40:1–3). Historically, the first half of the month is filled with self-im...

We build our world with words, and our lives will be judged in the future by the words we build with (Eccl. 5:1–6; Matt. 12:36–37; Eccl. 12:14; Jude 1:14–15; Rom. 2:16). At the beginning of this double Torah portion,  Matot  (tribes) and  Massei  (journeys), we find the sanctity of keeping a vow and an oath (Num. 30:2). My mom taught her boys, "If you do not have anything good to say, say nothing at all" (Prov. 26:18–28). Our words are voluntary, not obligatory. Therefore, we should avoid what I call the "Peter syndrome" with our words: "Ready, fire, aim!"—or "removing our foot from our mouth long enough just to stick the other one in." Israel is nearing the Land. The first generation has completely passed. The people are given the task of building a society unlike any other in the world—a free covenant society between God and man, where trust is built by keeping your word, not through force or self-interest (Ex. 24:3, 7). In this covenant societ...

  Over the past few weeks of study, we have watched God's people complain again and again, and we keep asking: How can they still complain after everything God has done for them? Good question, Sherlock. But this week, it gets even stranger, because we have actually heard these exact complaints before—many times. They moaned about food and water three times in Exodus, and then they cried over food again earlier in Numbers. Do they not see that each time they cry out to God, He provides for them? Should they not have learned their lesson by now? If they have run out of water, they should not whine—they should pray. God has not let them down yet. Did they forget that God has always taken care of them? And after this  chutzpah , you would assume God would be angry. Enough already—stop complaining! But shockingly, God gives in to their complaint. He tells Moses to supply the people with water, as if Israel's complaining were justified. What is going on? I think the key to unlockin...