Do blessings really work today? Not the kind you make over food or a mitzvah, because those are rabbinical enactments for other reasons.

THE DESERT IS an interesting place, though only if you’re not stuck in one without food or drink. Deserts probably represent death better than anything else in the world since nothing really grows there, and plenty of people have died there.

THE PARSHA BEGINS with a reference to Har Sinai. Considering that we know the Jewish people had yet to leave the mountain, it seems to be a superfluous fact.

TALK ABOUT STARTING off behind the eight ball. He was the son of an illicit relationship back in Egypt—

TRYING TO COMFORT people who have suffered a great loss is daunting, especially if the loss seems very tragic like the death of young brothers and sisters in separate terrorist attacks.