The Pursuit Of Meaning
For each of us G-d has a task: work to perform, a kindness to show, a gift to give, love to share, loneliness to ease, pain to heal, or broken lives to help mend.
The Social Animal
Regular attendance at a house of worship is the most accurate predictor of altruism, more so than any other factor, including gender, education, income, race, region, marital status, ideology, and age.
The Closeness Of G-d
We cannot see G-d’s face; we cannot understand G-d’s ways; but we can encounter G-d’s glory whenever we build a home for His presence here on earth.
Inspiration & Perspiration
These were all innovators, pioneers, ground-breakers, trail-blazers, who formulated new ideas, originated new forms of expression, did things no one had done before in quite that way. They broke the mold. They changed the landscape. They ventured into the unknown. Yet their daily lives were the opposite: ritualized and routine.
The Gift Of Giving
So long as Moses was in their midst, the people knew that he communicated with G-d, and G-d with him, and therefore G-d was accessible, close. But when he was absent for nearly six weeks, they panicked.
Doing And Hearing
The only way to understand leadership is to lead. The only way to understand marriage is to get married. The only way to understand whether a certain career path is right for you is to actually try it for an extended period.
To Thank Before We Think
Envy, covetousness, desiring what someone else has, is an emotion, not a thought, a word, or a deed. And surely we can’t help our emotions.
Renewable Energy
What Shabbat gave – and still gives – is the unique opportunity to create space within our lives, and within society as a whole, in which we are truly free.
The Spiritual Child
Jews became famous throughout the ages for putting education first. Where others built castles and palaces, Jews built schools and houses of study.
Spirits In A Material World
The well-being of the soul is something inward and spiritual, but the well-being of the body requires a strong society and economy, where there is the rule of law, division of labor, and the promotion of trade.
Turning Curses Into Blessings
Where did it come from, this Jewish ability to turn weakness into strength, adversity into advantage, darkness into light?
On Not Predicting The Future
We make the future by our choices. The script has not yet been written. The future is radically open.
Covenant and Conversation: Parshat Vayigash: Reframing
If we change the way we think, we will change the way we feel.
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.
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