Parshat Devarim: Know Where You've Come From

Parshat Devarim: Know Where You've Come From

📖 Parshat Devarim This Week: 'You can't know where you're going unless you know where you've come from.' Before crossing into the Promised Land, Moshe takes the entire nation through their history in Egypt, the wilderness, the mistakes, and the victories. He's not dwelling on the past; he's reflecting on it. There's a crucial difference: rumination is going over and over the past in an unhealthy, unproductive loop. Reflection is examining the past to learn from it and guide your future. We don't live in the past; that's rumination. We live in the present always. But we reflect on the past. We learn from it. We extract wisdom from it. That's how you move forward wisely. Before you enter your next chapter, take time to reflect on where you've been. What did you learn? What will you do differently? Shabbat Shalom. 🔄 CONNECT WITH US: 🎧 Listen to all our podcasts: [www.joidenver.com/podcasts] Follow us for more: Website - https://www.joidenver.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/joidenver Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/JOIdenver  YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/JOIdenver Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/jewishdiy Subscribe to "JOI to the World" to access all our podcasts, including Yada Yada Yiddish, Kids Say the Deepest Things, Reconnect, and Dear Rabbi.

Parshat Matot masei: The Importance of the Journey

🎧 Listen to this and other episodes at www.joidenver.com/podcasts 📖 This Week’s Parsha: Parshat Masei The Torah enumerates all 42 stops the Jewish people made during their 40 years in the desert. Most are trivial, little more than pit stops, places where “nothing important happened. We read the names and think, Why does this matter? But don't you see when you look back on your own life? Those “filler” moments weren't filler moments at all. The waiting, the travel, and the stops that seemed to lead nowhere made you. They taught you something. They had prepared you for what was to come. The Torah has every single stop because every single stop was part of the story. You weren't wasting time in the desert; you were becoming. What you thought was just passing time was actually instrumental to who you are. Trust the process. Every stop matters. Shabbat Shalom. 🛣️ CONNECT WITH US: 🎧 Listen to all our podcasts: [www.joidenver.com/podcasts] Follow us for more: Website - https://www.joidenver.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/joidenver Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/JOIdenver  YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/JOIdenver Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/jewishdiy Subscribe to "JOI to the World" to access all our podcasts, including Yada Yada Yiddish, Kids Say the Deepest Things, Reconnect, and Dear Rabbi.

Why Don't Orthodox Jewish Men Wear Wedding Rings?

🎧 Listen to this and other episodes at www.joidenver.com/podcasts In this episode of Dear Rabbi, I answer a question many people wonder about: Why don't Orthodox Jewish men wear wedding rings? While I do know some Orthodox men who do wear them, traditionally many Orthodox men do not, and there's actually a specific reason. In a traditional Jewish wedding, the man gives the woman something of value, typically a ring, as a gift. The key word here is "gift," not exchange. The entire foundation of a Jewish wedding is built on the concept of giving; the man gives to the woman to establish the marriage bond. If the man were to give the woman a ring and the woman were to give the man a different ring in return, that would be an exchange, not giving. An exchange is fundamentally different from giving and doesn't align with how a Jewish wedding is constructed. Therefore, a man's wedding ring was never really part of the traditional Jewish wedding ceremony. Additionally, there's a Torah prohibition against men wearing feminine clothing, which according to many opinions includes jewelry. Traditionally, Orthodox Jewish men don't wear jewelry at all, so a wedding band, which has no part in the Jewish wedding ceremony, was never included in the practice. Some Jewish men do wear wedding rings today, often as a practical sign that they're married (especially in the workplace to signal to others that they're taken). But this is a modern practice separate from traditional Jewish wedding customs. CONNECT WITH US: 🎧 Listen to all our podcasts: [www.joidenver.com/podcasts] Follow us for more: Website - https://www.joidenver.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/joidenver Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/JOIdenver  YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/JOIdenver Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/jewishdiy Subscribe to "JOI to the World" to access all our podcasts, including Yada Yada Yiddish, Kids Say the Deepest Things, Reconnect, and Dear Rabbi.

Parshat Pinchas: The Price of Decisive Action

📖 Parshat Pinchas This Week: Zimri and Cozbi sin openly in front of the entire nation. The plague kills thousands. Moshe seems frozen. What's the right response? But Pinchas doesn't wait for permission. He acts decisively, takes a spear, and kills them both. The plague stops. God rewards him with peace and a covenant of priesthood. This is what separates leaders from followers: the ability to act decisively when it matters. Not recklessly. Decisively. In moments of crisis, we freeze. We hesitate. We wait to be told what to do. But real leadership isn't about waiting; it's about stepping up when no one else will, even when you're not sure. Pinchas didn't have a guarantee he'd be right. He just knew something had to be done. That's courage. That's leadership. Shabbat Shalom. ⚡ Follow us for more: Website - https://www.joidenver.com [https://www.joidenver.com/] Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/joidenver [https://www.instagram.com/joidenver] Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/JOIdenver [http://www.facebook.com/JOIdenver] YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/JOIdenver [https://www.youtube.com/c/JOIdenver] Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/jewishdiy [http://pinterest.com/jewishdiy] Subscribe to "JOI to the World" to access all our podcasts, including Yada Yada Yiddish, Kids Say the Deepest Things, Reconnect, and Dear Rabbi.

Why Aren't Dinosaurs Mentioned in the Bible?

🎧 Listen to this and other episodes at www.joidenver.com/podcasts In this episode of Dear Rabbi, I tackle a fascinating question: Why don't we find any mention of dinosaurs in the creation story in the Bible? The answer reveals how we should read and interpret biblical texts. First, let me point out that we also don't find any mention of oranges in the creation story, yet no one doubts that oranges exist. The Bible simply doesn't mention every single thing that was created. It provides categories and highlights certain creations, but it's not an exhaustive inventory of all creations. However, there's an interesting possibility. In Genesis 1:21, the Bible describes the creation of animals and gives different categories. One category is "tannin." Gerald Schroeder, a brilliant MIT physicist, explains that in Exodus 3, the word "tannin" (singular of tannin) refers specifically to a snake. Since the general term for a snake or the category is "reptile," he translates "tannin" as "large reptiles," and the Greek word for a large reptile is "dinosaur." So Schroeder believes the "tannin" mentioned on day five of creation was actually a dinosaur. According to oral tradition and the Midrash, these large creatures (tannin golem) were long extinct before humans came onto the scene. This aligns with what we know about dinosaurs from fossil records. Dinosaurs do raise important questions about the age of the universe, which is a separate discussion. For deeper exploration of both topics, I recommend Gerald Schroeder's books, particularly "The Science of God" and his smaller work "What About the Dinosaurs?" CONNECT WITH US: 🎧 Listen to all our podcasts: [www.joidenver.com/podcasts] Follow us for more: Website - https://www.joidenver.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/joidenver Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/JOIdenver  YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/JOIdenver Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/jewishdiy Subscribe to "JOI to the World" to access all our podcasts, including Yada Yada Yiddish, Kids Say the Deepest Things, Reconnect, and Dear Rabbi. Join us as we uncover the treasures in our backyard and ex