This week's parsha
Unless otherwise noted, "This week's Parsha" comprises articles taken from contributors to the Chabad.org website. We show the original author's name here, so that proper attribution is given. For the sake of brevity, footnotes cited in the original author's writings are omitted from this website. If you need to see the citations, please refer to the original articles on the Chabad.org website.
Emotional Intelligence
In March 2015 I had a public conversation at Yale with the University’s President Peter Salovey. The occasion was quite an emotional one. It celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the Marshall Scholarships, created by the British parliament as a way of expressing thanks to the United States for the Marshall Plan, that helped Western Europe rebuild its economies after the Second World War. The scholarships fund outstanding young Americans to study at any university in the United Kingdom. So the gathering that evening was about the links between Britain and the United States, and the role of universities in cultivating that generosity of spirit, epitomized by the Marshall Plan, that understands the need to build peace, not just wage war.
Completing the Torah Scroll
The sedra concerns the last day in the life of Moses. On this day G‑d transmitted to him the concluding passage of the Torah Scroll and he wrote this down. It was a kind of Divine "dictation". The Sages tell us Moses wrote the last twelve sentences in tears, because they speak of his death, without his being able to enter the Promised Land.
Having completed the Torah Scroll, he then gave it to the Levites. They would look after it. The Scroll was placed in the Holy of Holies, together with the Golden Ark containing the Tablets of the Ten Commandments.
The Key Is Education
Returning the Keys
When the marauding Babylonian army broke into the Holy Temple, they found the priests going about their sacred duties as usual. Some prepared meal offerings, others stoked the altar’s flames, and still others inspected logs to ensure their perfection. Outside, the battle raged; but inside, the worship continued without distraction.
Only when the flames began to lick the Temple’s walls did the priests depart from their sacred duties. Leaping into the inferno, they returned their souls to their Maker.