Giving Thanks
Judaism is “gratitude with attitude.” And this, according to recent scientific research, really is a life-enhancing idea and the source of the command to give thanks is to be found in this week’s parsha
The Blessing Of Love
Why does this command and no other require love?
The Power Of Listening
The tension between the counselors and the rabbis grew almost to the point of crisis, so much so that we had to stop the course for an hour while we sought some way of reconciling what the counselors were doing with Torah.
The Courage to Live with Uncertainty
Faith is the courage to take a risk for the sake of God or the Jewish people
Education: The Key To Success
Jews became the only people in history to predicate their very survival on education. The most sacred duty of parents was to teach their children. Pesach itself became an ongoing seminar in the handing on of memory.
Many Jews, One People
Our task as a people of destiny is to bear witness to the presence of G-d – through the way we lead our lives (Torah) and the path we chart as a people across the centuries (history).
Torah As Song
“We received Torah from Moses” or “from our parents” isn't enough. We must write our "own" scroll
Civil Disobedience
The first recorded instance of civil disobedience is the story of Shifra and Puah, defying Pharaoh
Fear Or Distress?
Jacob and Esau are about to meet again after a separation of 22 years. It is a fraught encounter. Once, Esau had sworn to kill Jacob as revenge for what he saw as the theft of his blessing. Will he do so now, or has time healed the wound? Jacob sends messengers to let his brother know he is coming. They return, saying that Esau is coming to meet Jacob with a force of 400 men. We then read: “Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed” (Genesis 32:8).
Losing Miriam
What made this trial different? Why did Moshe momentarily lose control? Why then? Why there? He had faced just this challenge before.
The Binding Of Isaac: A New Interpretation
It is this principle that underlies the entire practice of child sacrifice, which was widespread throughout the pagan world. The Torah is horrified by child sacrifice, which it sees as the worst of all sins.
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.
The Hope And Promise Of Prophecy
Moshe wasn't the last of the prophets. How would Israel discern his true successors from the false?
Communication Matters
Isaac never intended to give the blessing of the covenant to Esau. He intended to give each child the blessing that suited them.
Reconciliation vs. Vengeance
Judaism is less a philosophical system than a field of tensions – between universalism and particularism, for example, or exile and redemption, priests and prophets, cyclical and linear time, and so on.
Not Beyond The Sea
When you cannot see Him, it is because you are looking in the wrong direction. When He seems absent, He is there just behind you, but you have to turn to meet Him. Do not treat Him like a stranger. He loves you. He believes in you.
On Jewish Character
Aaron, according to the most favored explanation, realized that he could not stop the people directly by refusing their request, so he adopted a stalling maneuver.
The Leader As Scholar
Maimonides holds that the appointment of a king is an obligation, Ibn Ezra that it is a permission, Abarbanel that it is a concession, and Rabbenu Bachya that it is a punishment.
The Politics Of Responsibility
Only one other nation in history has consistently seen its fate in similar terms, namely the United States. The influence of the Hebrew Bible on American history – carried by the Pilgrim Fathers and reiterated in presidential rhetoric ever since – was decisive.
Four Dimensions Of The Journey
Abraham gave birth to a new nation whose greatness consisted precisely in the ability to live by that voice and create something new in the history of mankind. “Go for yourself ” – believe in what you can become.
Closeness And Distance
For perhaps the first time in his life, Judah came close to his brother Joseph. The irony is, of course, that he did not know it was Joseph.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: The Power Of Art
The name Bezalel was adopted by the artist Boris Schatz for the School of Arts and Crafts he founded in Israel in 1906, and Rav Kook wrote a touching letter in support of its creation. He saw the renaissance of art in the Holy Land as a symbol of the regeneration of the Jewish people in its own land, landscape and birthplace. Judaism in the Diaspora, removed from a natural connection with its own historic environment, was inevitably cerebral and spiritual, “alienated.”
Greatness Is Humility
Three moments, sharing the same message, made a deep impression on me: Greatness is humility.
Hierarchy And Politics: The Never-Ending Story
Where there is hierarchy, there will be competition as to who is the alpha male.
Integrity In Public Life
It is the mark of a good society that public leadership is seen as a form of service rather than a means to power.
Three Approaches To Dreams
He did so for the butler and baker in prison and, in this week’s parsha, for Pharaoh. His interpretations were neither magical nor miraculous.
On Being A Jewish Parent
The most influential man who ever lived, does not appear on any list I have seen of the hundred most influential men in history. He ruled no empire, commanded no army, His name, of course, is Abraham
A Leader’s Call To Responsibility
It is that power of hope, born whenever G-d’s love and forgiveness gives rise to human freedom and responsibility, that has made Judaism the moral force it has always been.
Collective Joy
In a word "JOY"
Violence And The Sacred
Had G-d not told the first humans: ‘Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves in the ground’? That is why Abel brought an animal sacrifice.