If you wish to defeat your enemies, fulfill their every wish. Only in such a state, when they are satiated, will you be able to lead them to their demise.
In this week's haftara we encounter the two radically different attitudes of Eliyahu and Ovadyahu - the former isolating himself from the sinful nation and the latter remaining involved with them, even when it entailed compromising his principles.
How could the pious Aharon sin with the Golden Calf and still become Kohen Gadol? What does his personality have to do with the educational philosophy of the School of Hillel?
The question of relating to a mass of people vs. relating to an individual comes to a head in this week's parasha, when the Jewish people are counted in a census.
The haftara of Parashat Ki Tisa (Melakhim I 18:1-39) recounts one of the most famous stories in the Early Prophets – the prophet Eliyahu's contest with the prophets of Ba'al on Mount Carmel.
