News

“None are so empty as those who are full of themselves.” This great quote by Benjamin Whichcote was forwarded to me by my son Simcha as he referred to a particularly self-centered person in the news. Sometimes I wonder if I’m guilty of the same.

Last week, the country sat riveted through two sensational trials. One had nothing to do with race – as the accused and the victims were all White – yet it became a racial trial. The other one had racial overtones, as the killers were White and the victim was Black.

As both Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch (B’reishis 27:1) and Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz (Sichos Musar 24) note, Yitzchak Avinu was in total trepidation upon discovering that he was duped by Yaakov’s impersonation of his brother Eisav (See B’reishis 27:33). What was terrifying, both commentators remark, was that he now came to realize that his entire judgment system had been a folly. Rivkah was right about Eisav all along. How easily he was fooled, and how wrong he had been!

Tradition, one the more thoughtful periodicals of Orthodox dialogue, has been published by the Rabbinical Council of America for well over 50 years. To be sure, the articles on occasion raise eyebrows for both its contents and its authorship. But it still is generally considered one of the most prestigious publications of its type.

The Gemara (Moed Katan 17a) tells us: “If a rebbe resembles an angel of G-d, people may seek Torah from his mouth; if he does not, then one should not seek Torah from his mouth.” Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l (1895-1986) was without a doubt one of the most respected g’dolei ha’dor (Torah authorities) in America during his time. He was certainly the most accepted expert in halachah, Jewish law.

The Oslo Accords of 1993 were a hard sell. Israel had agreed in private meetings between Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat ym”sh held in Oslo, Norway, to cede good portions of Jewish-liberated Judea and Shomron to the control of the PLO for the purposes of making peace. Arafat openly spoke in Arabic to his Arab audience, saying that the agreements were just a subterfuge to entrap the Israelis into surrendering land.