Our parasha is called Vaetchanan, which means And I pleaded...for it tells of Moshe pleading with God. To explain the word Vaetchanan, Rashi offers two interpretations. First he connects it to the word hinam, free. Moses was telling God that he deserved nothing and so he was asking for a "free gift." And then, working

These are the words that Moses spoke to all the Israelites across the Jordan... in Hebrew the word for Jordan  is  yarden  and sounds the same as  yeridah - to go down. R. Ahron of Karlin explained that at some point, every person experiences their own  yarden - their own low point, where they feel as if "they're going down." When

The daughters of Zelophehad approached Moses to see if they could be given a portion in the land. And Moses brought forward their case before the LORD.The Midrash records two opposing views of why Moses turned to God. One view is that since Moses had told the people whatever is difficult you can bring to

Endowed with the ability to bless and curse, when Balaam agrees to the request of Balak, King of Moab to use this gift for the wrong purpose, God takes possession of his mouth: And the LORD chanced upon Balaam and put a word in his mouth...Following the Talmud, Rashi says that God put a horse's