JEWISH HISTORY IS complicated. All history is complicated, but Jewish history is particularly complicated because it tends to be convoluted as well.

IT IS OFTEN called a necessary evil. When is evil ever necessary, you may ask. But the answer is, until Moshiach comes. We’re here to use free will, and that is what necessitates the existence of evil.

IT TAKES MY breath away. Sometimes, when I just sit back and look at all the seforim on the shelves, thousands of years of Torah commentary by countless authors who had something else to explain, something else to add. It is so overwhelming.

THE TORAH SAYS towards the end of last week’s parsha that Moshe told the Jewish people “all the words of God and all the judgments,” (Shemos 24:3). The Jewish people answered back in unison, “All that God has said we will do!”

THE GEMORA SAYS, “From where is it derived that three who sit in judgment, the Divine Presence is with them?