To Wait Without Despair
To understand the power of this anti-climax, we must remember that only since the invention of printing and the availability of books have we been able to tell what happens next merely by turning a page.
How To Change The World
We can make a difference, and it is potentially immense. That should be our mindset, always.
Feeling The Fear
According to Rashbam, despite G-d’s assurances, Jacob was still afraid of encountering Esau. His courage failed him and he was trying to run away. G-d sent an angel to stop him from doing so.
How The Light Gets In
We find G-d not only in holy or familiar places but also in the midst of a journey, alone at night.
A Father’s Love
Isaac surely knew that his elder son was a man of mercurial temperament who lived in the emotions of the moment.
A Call From The Future
How did Abraham overcome the trauma and the grief? How do you survive almost losing your child and actually losing your life-partner, and still have the energy to keep going? What gave Abraham his resilience, his ability to survive, his spirit intact?
To Bless the Space Between Us
It is the space we create for one another that allows love to be like sunlight to a flower
Journey Of The Generations
We are too young to venture into the world on our own. It is precisely the stable, predictable presence of parents in our early years that gives us a basic sense of trust in life.
The Courage to Live with Uncertainty
Faith is the courage to take a risk for the sake of God or the Jewish people
Rabbi Sacks (zt’l): Pereishit: The Art of Listening
...we can now understand the story of the first sin: It is all about appearances, shame, vision, and the eye.
What Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah Teaches Us Today
Simchat Torah was born when Jews had lost everything else, but they never lost their capacity to rejoice.
The Universality Of Sukkot
Speaking of the three pilgrimage festivals – Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot – Deuteronomy speaks of “joy.” But it does not do so equally.
How Yom Kippur Changes Us
What have you achieved this past year with the help of God, and what would you like to achieve with His help next year?
Yom Kippur in a Nutshell
How does Yom Kippur help us focus on the future and on making a change?
Torah As Song
The decisive points of the narrative alone are emphasized, what lies between is non-existent; time and place are undefined and call for interpretation...
Why Judaism?
Choose life. No religion, no civilization, has insisted so strenuously and consistently that we can choose.
Do We Pursue Happiness – Or Joy?
When we focus on the moment, allowing ourselves to dance, sing, and give thanks, when we do things for their own sake not for any other reward, when we let go of our separateness and become a voice in the holy city's choir, then there is joy.
To The Third And Fourth Generations
What is at stake is the deep understanding of the scope of responsibility we bear if we take seriously our roles as parents, neighbors, townspeople, citizens and children of the covenant.
To Serve And Conserve – Judaism’s Take On Environmentalism
The Torah is concerned with what we would nowadays call ‘sustainability.’
The Second Tithe And The Basis Of Strong Societies
Tocqueville believed that democracy encouraged individualism. As a result, people would leave the business of the common good entirely to the government, which would become ever more powerful, eventually threatening freedom itself.
The Power Of Gratitude
The more positive emotions – such as contentment, gratitude, happiness, love and hope – they expressed in their autobiographical notes, the more likely they were to be alive and well 60 years later.
The Right And The Good
There are important features of the moral life that are not universal but have to do with specific circumstances and the way we respond to them.
Why Are There So Many Jewish Lawyers?
Throughout the Tanach some of the most intense encounters between the prophets and G-d are represented as courtroom dramas.
Why Oaths And Vows Matter
All social institutions in a free society depend on trust, and trust means honoring our promises, doing what we say we will do.
Elijah And The Still, Small Voice
Maimonides insists that it is not so. “It is not right to alienate, scorn and hate people who desecrate the Sabbath,” he said. “It is our duty to befriend them and encourage them to fulfill the commandments.”
A People ‘Alone’ – Not A Blessing But A Curse
It means a people prepared to stand alone if need be, living by its own moral code, having the courage to be different and to take the road less traveled.
Anger Management, Torah Style
What is dangerous about anger is that it causes us to lose control.
When Truth Is Sacrificed To Power
That Moses needed to resort to force was itself a sign that he had been dragged down to the level of the rebels. That is what happens when power, not truth, is at stake.
Remember To Remember
Part of what makes religion a force for honest and altruistic behavior is the belief that G-d sees what we do.
Moses And The Trajectory From Pain To Humility
True humility means silencing the “I.” For genuinely humble people, it is G-d and other people and principle that matter, not me.