Posted on: August 21st, 2014

Culture is not nature. There are causes in nature, but only in culture are there meanings.

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Posted on: August 14th, 2014

Blind obedience is not a virtue in Judaism. God wants us to understand the laws He has commanded us

Posted on: August 6th, 2014

Israel shows the world that a people does not have to be large in order to be great.

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Posted on: July 30th, 2014

When someone exercises power over us, they diminish us; when someone teaches us, they help us grow.

Posted on: July 25th, 2014

Ours is a small and intensely vulnerable people. Inspired, we rise to greatness. Uninspired, we fall

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Posted on: July 17th, 2014

The negotiation between Moses and the tribes of Reuven and Gad is a model of conflict resolution.

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Posted on: May 1st, 2014

God’s “name” is therefore His standing in the world. Do people acknowledge Him, respect Him, honor Him?

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Posted on: April 24th, 2014

The very act of learning in rabbinic Judaism is conceived as active debate, a kind of gladiatorial contest of the mind.

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Posted on: April 14th, 2014

In Judaism, to be without questions is a sign not of faith, but of lack of depth.

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Posted on: April 10th, 2014

You perpetuate a transformative event by turning it into a ritual.

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Posted on: March 20th, 2014

There is much in this episode that is hard to understand, much that has to do with the concept of holiness and the powerful energies it released that, like nuclear power today, could be deadly dangerous if not properly used. But there is also a more human story about two approaches to leadership that still resonates with us today.

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Posted on: March 6th, 2014

Nasi is the generic word for a leader: a ruler, king, judge, elder, or prince. Usually it refers to the holder of political power.

Posted on: February 28th, 2014

The account of the construction of the Tabernacle in Vayakhel-Pekudei is built around the number seven.

Posted on: February 21st, 2014

Vayakhel is Moses’ response to the wild abandon of the crowd that gathered around Aaron and made the golden calf.

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Posted on: February 14th, 2014

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you fail. Such is life.

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Posted on: February 6th, 2014

In Judaism, monarchy had little or no religious function.

Posted on: January 30th, 2014

So long as every crisis was dealt with by Moses and miracles, the Israelite default response was complaint.

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Posted on: January 23rd, 2014

Two laws have to do with the Israelites’ experience of being an oppressed minority:

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Posted on: January 17th, 2014

Only in Judaism was God’s self-disclosure not to an individual or a group (the elders) but to an entire nation.

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Posted on: January 9th, 2014

A fundamental principle of leadership is being taught here.

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