Friday, August 28th 2026   |

Commentaries

Person in the Parsha: PIKUDEI (Shabbat Shekalim)

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

ABOVE SUSPICION

I have written and lectured extensively on the topic of Jewish leadership. I have frequently indicated that I consider Moses our teacher, Moshe Rabbeinu, a role model for those who would...

Person in the Parsha: VAYAKHEL

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

CULTURE, COUNTER-CULTURE AND CREATIVITY

It was quite a few years ago that I spent almost every Sunday afternoon in one of the great museums of the city in which my family then lived....

Person in the Parsha: KI TISA

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

LITTLE DID I KNOW

Birthdays are important, and the older one gets, the more important he becomes. With age, birthdays begin to stimulate ambiguous feelings.

On the one hand, every birthday is cause...

Person in the Parsha: TETZAVEH

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN

My interest in the relationship between a person and his or her clothing goes back to my early days in graduate school. I was taking a course on human...

Person in the Parsha: TERUMAH (Rosh Chodesh Adar I)

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

A TALE OF TWO GRANDFATHERS

Those who knew him used many different words to describe him. Some called him stubborn. Others called him staunch. Still others used the word steadfast. I am his...

Person in the Parsha: MISHPATIM

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

CAREERS

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” That was once the standard question to ask an eight- or nine-year-old when trying to make conversation with him or...

Person in the Parsha: YITRO

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

ANSWERS AND QUESTIONS

The world has one persistent belief about Jewish behavior which may indeed be true. It is the belief that Jews always answer a question by asking another question.

This tendency...

Person in the Parsha: BESHALACH (Shabbat Shira)

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

TRANSITIONS

Every human being following Adam and Eve has had this experience, yet none of us can ever recall what it felt like. I refer to the first event in our lives—our birth....

Person in the Parsha: BO

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

CREATURE FEELING

Our tradition teaches us to avoid using the divine name. We are instructed not to pronounce it in vain, and not to refer to it directly in writing. Some...

Person in the Parsha: VA’EIRA

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

WORK AND WILL

There was a time in my life when I was fascinated by the works of the great psychoanalytic thinkers. Chief among them, of course, was Sigmund Freud, whose attitude towards...