Tim Cravens' Musings

I dedicate this d’var Torah to the memory of Carol Daniels, zt”l, my Mussar teacher who opened up to me a new way of understanding human nat...

As we go through the Nine Days preparing to mourn the loss of the Beit HaMikdash, the Temple, on Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish c...

This past Shabbos, when Parshat Pinchas was read, I was walking to shul in the afternoon and realized that the gematria for Zimri, from the ...

At the end of Parshat Balak, Pinchas, in a fit of zealotry, thrusts a spear through an Israelite man making love to a Midianite woman. At th...

The laws of kashrut for Pesach are very strict. It intrigues me that, both yesterday and today, the Torah reading ended with the admonition ...

Forty-four years ago this Shabbos, Shabbos HaGadol, I attended my first synagogue service at Beth Sholom Congregation, the Orthodox synagogu...

One of the most important teachings in this week's parsha, Ki Tisa, is found in Shemot 30:23: וְאַתָּ֣ה קַח־לְךָ֮ בְּשָׂמִ֣ים רֹאשׁ֒ מׇר...