The Jewish people ascended two mountains, one to receive blessings and one to receive curses.  Har Gerizim and Har Eival.  There is a geographical phenomenon about these two mountains.  Despite being less than two hundred feet from one another and having access to the same nutrients, sunlight and rain one is lush and alive and one is desolate and dead.  Why?  How did that come to be?  And what does that have to do with us?  The answer might surprise you.

.

The Ben Sorer – the Wayward son, is by far one of the most dramatic and puzzling mitzvos in the Torah.  We take a thirteen year old who ate a little too much food drag him to court, label him beyond repair and we stone him to death.  Why?  What did he do wrong?  Aren’t little thirteen year olds merely immature hungry kids who will one day grow out of their childhood food obsessions?  Why are we stoning them to death?  The answer might surprise you.

.

When the Jews were about to enter the land of Eretz Yisrael through the Jordan River they were instructed to erect huge stones, plant them in the middle of the river, and then write the Torah on them.  Whats strange is that these stones were engulfed by the mighty river mere moments after we walked through it.  What was the point of them?  What good are monuments that sink to the bottom of a river three minutes after we erect them?  The answer might surprise you.

.

The Torah in its abundant concern for the poor in our society put in place many Mitzvos ensuring we give parts of our crop to the needy.  Whats strange is one of those agricultural Mitzvos is Ma’aser Sheni which commands us to take our crop to the city of Yerushalayim and simply eat it there.  We don’t give anything to the poor.  We didn’t sing any song.  We didn’t chant any spiritual chant.  We just showed up, ate and returned.  What was the point of this Mitzvah?  What are we accomplishing?  The answer might surprise you.

.

There is an Amoraic Statement that seems bizarre.  It is “man doesn’t sin unless a wave of stupidity overcomes him” (Sotah 3a).  Whats strange is that this doesn’t seem to be the case.  Don’t most people sin because they are tempted by it?  Gossiping about a competitor isn’t stupid.  It might be mean and selfish but it’s not stupid?  So what does the Gemara mean?  The answer might surprise you.

.

Jew’s fascination with medicine has been true for thousands of years.  In the year 1500 half the doctors in the entire continent of Europe were Jewish.  Over Ten Popes had Jewish Doctors.  Even the notorious and vicious anti-Semites Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain had a Jewish Doctor.  Why is this?  What led to the Jew’s attachment to medicine?  The answer might surprise you.

.

One would think that the very first topic Moshe discusses in his historic farewell speech would be a foundational one.  One that applies to the entire Jewish people.  One that galvanizes every individual to remain spiritually robust while in their new land.  Yet Moshe talks about Judges and Leaders being fair and patient.  Why did he start with that?  Why start with something that applies to less than one percent of the Jewish populace?  The answer might surprise you.

.

From the Great Flood to the fiery destruction of the city of Sodom to the killing of Shechem to the eradication of Amalek, Canaan and Midyan, the Torah seems to take a very militant approach to dealing with sinners.  Aren’t we the people of the book not the people of the sword?  How do we explain the Torah’s surprising attachment to violence and the promotion of it?  The answer might surprise you.

.

Pinchos stuck up for the Jewish people by killing Zimri amidst his adulteries actions.  Whats strange is how he was rewarded.  Pinchos became Eliyahu Hanavi, a man who has never died and is still alive today helping Jews worldwide in distress.  Why did Pinchos merit this reward?  Why was he chosen of all the holy people in our history to be our immortal savior?  The answer might surprise you.

.

Balak was one of the worst men the Jews every encountered.  He wanted nothing more than the deaths of every one of us, man women and child, and wouldn’t rest until he succeeded.  So why was he rewarded with having a grandchild named Dovid Hamelech?  Why did God reward this evil man with having the greatest king in our history be his descendant?  The answer might surprise you.

.

What meaning can we take out if the Red heifer, the most mystical thing in Judaism?

.

There have been many sinners in the Jewish people’s time in the desert.  All were punished.  Some were killed.  But none had received a punishment anywhere close to the bizarre phenomenon that swallowed Korach whole.  Why is that?  What was so different about Korach that propelled G-d to decree that a normal punishment would not suffice?  The answer might surprise you.

.

The sin of the Twelve Spies had more negative ramifications than any other sin in the entire Torah.  It wiped out the entire generation.  It prolonged the building of the Beis Hamikdash for hundreds of years.  It gave birth to what is now called Tisha B’Av; the saddest day of the Jewish year.  The question is what was so bad about what the Twelve Tribes did?  How do their actions explain the amount of pain and bloodshed that they brought about?  The answer might surprise you.

.

The Torah demands us to thank Hashem for the bad in our lives with the same amount of appreciation and love as we would thank Hashem for the good.  How are we possibly able to pull that off?  How is a man who just broke his collar bone supposed to thank God with the same degree of love as he would thank Him the night he married off his youngest daughter?  This Parshah contains the answer and it might surprise you.

.