This essay explores the “Country versus Mother” moral dilemma by contrasting Jean Paul Sartre’s atheist perspective of individual choice in a moral vacuum with the Torah’s divine moral framework, which unequivocally concludes that national defense and community welfare override personal filial responsibilities in times of commanded war.
In this Siyum Mesechet (Berachot) that I made for the ilui neshama of Ari Zenilman, HYD, I discuss what is true peace in Jewish thought, contrasting it with modern pacifism, and highlighting the moral clarity required to achieve it.
The Talmud teaches that when the month of Adar arrives we should increase in Joy. But perhaps the extra Adar inserted merely to align the lunar cycle with the solar cycle is not a time for rejoicing. And regardless, at a time of war and great stress in the nation, perhaps now is not the time to rejoice? In this short lesson I argue that nothing could be further from the truth.
In the shadow of the barbaric massacre committed by Palestinian terrorists in Israel on October 7, 2023, we must ask how to respond – morally – to radical evil. This is critical because, while our enemies have lost their humanity we must not lose ours in our battle against them. Using the rules of war against Amalek, the biblical paradigm of radical evil, I demonstrate how these rules also conform to the internationally accepted principles of Just War Theory.
On Taking Responsibility in Hard Times, War, Famine, Epidemic, DRASH
Shalom, War, Principles, Force, Negotiation, Parshat Pinchas, Balak, Matot, Shoftim
Din Rodef, War, Murder, Dina DeMalchuta Dina, Hillul Hashem, Parshat Masei
Tevilat Keilim, Mikvah, War, Metal, Creativity, Parshat Matot, Balak
History, War, Redemption, Parshat Hukat, Haftarat Yiftach
Frogs, War, Self Sacrifice, Pesah, Parshat Lech Lecha, Parshat Vaera, Va’eira
