Torah With A Twist

                               Va' Etchanan  -  It's Your Courage Within ! The Hebrew word for ‘Courage’ or ‘Strength’   is אֹמֶץ (Amaztz),and also means to ‘adopt’; Joshua had to be strong and to adopt other measures if his first ones did not work. He should not just sit and wallow in his own despair!   He needed to understand and comprehend that there is more than one solution to the same issue of any problem; if one did not work, another just may!   The important thing is not to give up and have true belief in self and what you feel assists you reach your best and that power, and that indeed will help in giving you the strength to overcome a problem or issue at hand.   True, deep, and honest belief, coupled with some work alongside!!! In this Parsha (Torah Portion) we read, “And you who cling to......., all have a life today!”   Many, many times, we as...

Moses is leading the people into the land of Israel and has to make some difficult decisions, and he does this by practicing his faith and sincere beliefs, and being a person of his word, of good and correct behaviors. He makes a promise and keeps his promise!!!!........ In Mattos-Massei, we learn/reminded of a valuable lesson, that of keeping one’s word and how we should be that person; a person of good moral character. This is to be an honorable, respectful, and reverent human being.  The ancient scholars believed we should NOT take a hard line and extremely difficult vows and not to make promises about things that are out of our control, as NOT everything can be in OUR very own control.  Moses is keeping his word and acting like a MENSCH (An upstanding, worthy, honorable adult person) –  Usage -  “Be a mensch! Admit your mistake and make things good.”            How does one attain the label and become a mensch...