More Than We Deserve
Chessed has no if-then quality. It is given out of the goodness of the giver, regardless of the worth of the recipient.
The Infiniti Game
Finite games are played to win. Infinite games are played for their own sake. Finite games are usually performed in front of an audience of some kind. Infinite games are participative.
Rabbi Sacks’ Message for Tisha B’Av During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Here is a short message as we head towards Tisha B'Av and will be marked in strange and difficult circumstances because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
First Follow, Then You Can Lead
When ten of the men came back with a demoralizing report and the people panicked, at least part of the blame lay with Moshe.
The Religious Significance of Israel
Only in Israel can the Jewish people construct a political system, an economy, and an environment on the template of Jewish values.
Lessons From Pinchas For The Coronavirus
We have moral duties as individuals, and we make political decisions as nations. The two are different.
Kohelet, Tolstoy, And The Parah Adumah
Science deals in causes and effects, not purpose and meaning. In the end, he concluded that only religious faith rescues life from meaninglessness.
Korach: Cancel Culture’s Precursor
Their aim was to discredit Moshe, damage his credibility, raise doubts among the people as to whether he really was receiving his instructions from G-d.
Spying On The Land – Or Touring?
They were about to enter a land they had not seen. They had no idea what they were fighting for.
Loneliness And Faith
: I was not alone in feeling alone. Other people had been here before me.
Loneliness and Faith
I believe that isolation contains, within it, spiritual possibilities.
The Blessing Of Love
Why does this command and no other require love?
The Torah And Free Knowledge
The Jewish people had universal compulsory education 18 centuries before England did.
The Power Of A Curse
The whole idea contained in the 13 Attributes of Compassion is that G-d’s love and forgiveness are stronger than His justice and punishment.
Covenant & Conversation: Radical Uncertainty: Emor
There is something very strange about the festival of Succot, of which our parsha is the primary source. On the one hand, it is...
Covenant & Conversation:The Ethic of Holiness
Kedoshim contains the two great love commands of the Torah. What are they?
Covenant & Conversation: Tazria-Metzora: Words That Heal
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood shows how good speech can heal where evil speech harms.
G-d Wants You To Love Others
Fasting is of no use if at the same time you do not act justly and compassionately to your fellow human beings.
The Prophetic View Of Sacrifices
They were not criticizing the institution of sacrifices. They were criticizing something as real now as it was in their time. What distressed them to the core of their being was the idea that you could serve G-d and at the same time act disdainfully, cruelly, unjustly, insensitively or callously toward other people.
Building Community
What united them was not the dynamic of the crowd in which we are caught up in a collective frenzy but rather a sense of common purpose, of helping to bring something into being that was greater than anyone could achieve alone. Communities build; they do not destroy. They bring out the best in us, not the worst.
Moses Annuls A Vow
According to the Sages the original act of Divine forgiveness on which Yom Kippur is based came about through the annulment of a vow, when Moses annulled the vow of G-d.
Dressing To Impress
Tetzaveh is also the first time we encounter the phrase “for glory and for splendor,” describing the effect and point of the garments. Until now kavod, “glory,” has been spoken of in relation to G-d alone. Now human beings are to share some of the same glory.
The Gift Of Giving
Why did God command Israel to make a sanctuary for Him? Shouldn't it be unnecessary?
Listening To G-d
Judaism is a matter of creed as well as deed. But we should allow people great leeway in how they understand the faith of our ancestors.
The Non-Jewish Baruch Hashem
Good things come in "3s"
Crossing The Sea
I believe that some of the greatest positive changes in our lives come when, having undertaken a challenge, we cross our own Red Sea and know that there is no way back. There is only a way forward.
The Weighing Of The Heart
Issues of the heart
Faith In The Future
When G-d said, “I will be what I will be,” He was telling us something not only about G-d but about us when we are open to G-d and have faith in His faith in us.
Family, Faith, And Freedom
Genesis is not a hymn to the virtue of families. It is a candid, honest, fully worked-through account of what it is to confront some of the main problems within families, even the best.
The Future Of The Past
Joseph is helping his brothers to revise their memory of the past. In doing so, he is challenging one of our most fundamental assumptions about time, namely its asymmetry. We can change the future. We cannot change the past. But is that entirely true?