Rabbi Roy Feldman

Three prominent rituals mark Rosh Hashanah: hearing the  shofar , performing  tashlikh , and eating the  simanim  (symbolic foods)—but only one of these is a commandment. There is no  halakhic  requirement to perform  tashlikh  or to eat apples and pomegranates; one who has heard the  shofar , eaten the festive meals, and prayed at services, but neglected to throw bread into the river or eat a fish head, has fulfilled the obligations.  Not only are  tashlikh  and the  simanim  not  mitzvot , they are rather strange customs. Eating honey for a sweet new year and beets so that our enemies vanish—is this not strange superstition at best? Do we really think that by emptying our pockets into the river, we thereby empty ourselves of sin? Many sages, including the Vilna Gaon, strongly opposed  Tashlikh  for these reasons. Does partaking in these odd ceremonies really have any effect on ...

The Torah never explicitly designates where the Beit Hamikdash (Temple) is to stand. In fact, it never mentions the city of Jerusalem by that name at all. At every point, the Torah says, המקום אשר יבחר - “The place that He will choose.” At some future point, the Torah promises, God will choose a geographic location for His dwelling place. The phrase “ מקום אשר יבחר ” (“the place that he will choose”) appears 22 times in the Torah. In 21 of those instances, the pronouns refer to G-d and Jerusalem. He— G-d— will choose a place— Jerusalem . Once, in our Sedra of Ki Tetze , they do not: לֹא תַסְגִּיר עֶבֶד אֶל אֲדֹנָיו אֲשֶׁר יִנָּצֵל אֵלֶיךָ מֵעִם אֲדֹנָיו. עִמְּךָ יֵשֵׁב בְּקִרְבְּךָ בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר בְּאַחַד שְׁעָרֶיךָ בַּטּוֹב לוֹ לֹא תּוֹנֶנּוּ. You shall not turn over to his master a slave who seeks refuge with you from his master. He shall live with you in any place he may choose among the settlements in your midst, wherever he pleases; you must not ill-treat him. ...

The entire story of God’s creation of the universe, earth, and life occupies no more than two chapters of the Torah. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Joseph – we read much about them and learn about their relationships with God, their families, and the people they lead, but the Torah remains characteristically concise. The Bible does not routinely include long passages of exposition; that is customarily the role of Midrash. But when it comes to Moses’s final speech to the Israelites on the eve of his death and their entry into the land, the Torah offers a verbose and detailed account of the precise setting in which it took place: These are the words that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan.—Through the wilderness, in the Arabah near Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab, it is eleven days from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by the Mount Seir route. It was in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, that Moses addressed the Israel...

Over the course of forty years traveling through the desert, the Israelites stopped forty-two times along the way. The Torah in Parashat Mas'ei follows a repetitive formula to tell us about them: vayis'u and vayachanu , they traveled from here, and they settled there; they traveled from there, and they settled here. We have already encountered some of the places earlier in the Torah, and some of the places are mentioned here for the first time. Why does the Torah offer this list?  Rashi comments that this list serves to show us chasadav shel HaMakom , "the kindnesses of the Almighty."  For most of their forty years in the wilderness, Rashi notes, the Israelites were not unduly burdened. In fact, not counting the first and last years, during the middle thirty-eight years, they only moved twenty times, as God did not wish to cause them excessive inconvenience through frequent, short encampments. Therefore, the Torah presents this list as a reflection of God's love...

Originally published in the KJ Pesach 2021 Bulletin Most people think they know why we eat Maror on Passover. Rabban Gamliel himself tells us in the Haggadah: “What does this bitter herb mean? It is eaten because the Egyptians embittered the lives of our ancestors.”  In the Bible, however, bitter herbs are mentioned only in the context of eating them with the Paschal sacrifice (roast lamb) on Matzah. Literally on the eve of the exodus, this surely had nothing to do with commemorating Egyptian bondage. The Ohr Hachayim observed that there is a much simpler explanation for the Maror requirement: it tastes better that way. The Paschal sacrifice, eaten on Matzah with bitter herbs, is meant to be enjoyed, and “it is common for people to eat roast meat with something sharp as this enhances the taste of the meat and enables one to thoroughly enjoy it.” According to this, bitter herbs on the Korban Pesach are analogous to our mustard on pastrami or hot sauce on shawarma. These two ratio...