Rabbi David Kasher, associate rabbi at IKAR, is a self-described “Torah nerd.” For five years, he kept up a weekly parsha blog and became totally immersed in Torah commentary. He had books open all ...

Parashat Va’etchanan includes one of the best-known sentences in the Torah, “Shema Yisrael, Hashem Eloheinu, Hashem Echad ” (Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One; Deuteronomy 6:4).

In Parshat Va’era, God begins to inflict the ten plagues on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Our Sages teach that each plague has symbolic significance, not only in its content but in where and how it strikes.

The Akeidah opens with the words “And it came to pass, after these events, that God tested Abraham” (Genesis 22:1). The biblical Hebrew word for test is nisah. But for whom was the test intended? For ...