BEAUTIFUL BASKETS
The Mishna in Bikkurim (3:8) discusses the different baskets that people used as containers for the first-fruit bikkurim offering that was brought to the priests in the Temple. Wealthy people used gold or silver containers, while poor people brought their bikkurim in simple woven baskets. Curiously, the gold and silver baskets were handed back, but the weave baskets were retained. Rabbi Dunner explores this interesting contrast through the eyes of his grandfather’s sefer, Mikdash Halevi.
There is a particular kind of self-destructive confidence that exists only at the very top of a brutal regime. It isn’t courage, and it certainly isn’t principle. It’s raw hubris,... Read More