Tzara’at And The Power Of Shame
According to the Sages’ interpretation, the law of tzara’at constitutes one of the rare instances in the Torah of punishment by shame rather than guilt.
Greatness Is Humility
One of the more unusual aspects of being a chief rabbi is that one comes to know people one otherwise might not.
The Lighting Of Candles
Sharing influence is like lighting a candle with another: it doesn't mean having less; you have more
Three Versions Of Shabbat
What does Parshat Emor tell us about Shabbat that we do not learn elsewhere?
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.
The Tabernacle’s Lesson
The story of the Creation of the World is told with the utmost brevity: a mere 34 verses. Why take some 15 times as long to tell the story of the Sanctuary?
On Jewish Character
There is a fascinating feature of the geography of the land of Israel. It contains two seas: the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee is full of life. The Dead Sea, as its name implies, is not. Yet they are fed by the same river, the Jordan. The difference is that the Sea of Galilee receives water and gives water. The Dead Sea receives but does not give. To receive but not to give is, in Jewish geography as well as Jewish psychology, simply not life.
The Sabbath: First Or Last Day?
The Sabbath is a full dress rehearsal for an ideal society that has not yet come to pass-but will
Chanukah In Hindsight
We became the people whose heroes were teachers, whose citadels were schools, and whose passion was learning and the life of the mind. The end result was that Judaism did survive and thrive throughout the centuries, whereas Ancient Greece … declined.
Jewish Time
Only a civilization based on forgiveness can construct a future that is not an endless repetition of the past. That, surely, is why Judaism is the only civilization whose golden age is in the future.
Carrying Both Pain And Faith
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a kind of clarion call, a summons to the Ten Days of Penitence that culminate in the Day of Atonement. The Torah calls it “the day when the horn is sounded,” and its central event is the sounding of the shofar.
Servant Leadership
Moses represents the birth of a new kind of leadership. That is what Korach and his followers did not understand. Many of us do not understand it still.
Building Confidence
The antidote to fear, both of failure and success, lies in the passage with which the parsha ends: the command of tzitzit
Building Builders
As soon as we read the opening lines of Terumah we begin the massive shift from the intense drama of the exodus with its signs and wonders and epic events, to the long, detailed narrative of how the Israelites constructed the Mishkan.
Jacob’s Justifiable Distress
“Jacob was very afraid and distressed.” His fear was physical-fear of death. His distress was moral.
Leadership Beyond Despair
We identify with the heroes of the Bible because, despite their greatness, they never cease to be human, nor do they aspire to be anything else. Hence the phenomenon of which the sedra of Beha’alotecha provides a shattering example: the vulnerability of some of the greatest religious leaders of all time, to depression and despair.
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.
Power Or Influence
Power works by division, influence by multiplication. Power, in other words, is a zero-sum game: the more you share, the less you have.
Each of us Must Never Forget the Holocaust
Our best defence is not abstract principle but specific memory
The Supernatural Miracle
Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!
Doing And Hearing
The only way to understand life is by living itL "Na’aseh venishma//We will do and we will obey.”
Vision and Details: Parshat Mishpatim
So the Torah is a unique combination of nomos and narrative, history and law, the formative experiences of a nation and the way that nation sought to live its collective life so as never to forget the lessons it learned along the way. It brings together vision and detail in a way that has never been surpassed.
Parshat Balak: A People That Dwells Alone
God commanded our ancestors to be different, not because they were better than others For this reason, assimilation is the opposite of the answer.
Lessons From Pinchas For The Coronavirus
We have moral duties as individuals, and we make political decisions as nations. The two are different.
The Politics of Envy (Naso 5781)
In the Torah, God summons His special people, Israel, to take the first steps towards what might eventually become a truly egalitarian society – or to put it more precisely, a society in which dignity, kavod, does not depend on power or wealth or an accident of birth.
A Leader Needs A Friend
Moses intervenes on Miriam’s behalf with simple eloquence in the shortest prayer on record with five words: ‘Please, G-d, heal her now.’
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.
A New Relationship
Because the law came before the land, even when Jews lost the land they still had the law. This meant that even in exile, Jews were still a nation.
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.
Expanding Freedom
Despite the Divine anger, the people were not condemned to permanent exile. They simply had to face the fact that their children would achieve what they themselves were not ready for.
