Mirrors Of Love
The Egyptians sought not merely to enslave, but also to put an end to, the people of Israel. One way of doing so was to kill all male children. Another was simply to interrupt normal family life.
The Birth Of A New Freedom
People think they are free because they have been taught that all morality is relative, and you can do what you like so long as you do not harm others.
The Aesthetic In Judaism
The word kavod – dignity or honor – appears sixteen times, but in fourteen (2x7) of these cases the reference is to the glory of G-d.
The Architecture Of Holiness
The famous Butterfly Effect – the beating of a butterfly’s wing somewhere may cause a tsunami elsewhere, thousands of miles away – tells us that small actions can have large consequences. That is the message the Tabernacle was intended to convey.
COVENANT & CONVERSATION: The Slow End of Slavery
So slavery is to be abolished, but it is a fundamental principle of God’s relationship with us that he does not force us to change faster than is possible of our own freewill.
The Custom That Refused To Die
The custom of including the Ten Commandments as part of the Shema was once widespread, but from a certain point in time it was systematically opposed by the Sages. Why did they object to it?
Covenant & Conversation: Parshat Beshallach: Music, Language of the Soul
What is the place of song in Judaism?
The Necessity of Asking Questions
Judaism is not a religion of blind obedience. Indeed, astonishingly in a religion of 613 commandments, there is no Hebrew word that means to obey.
Freedom And Truth
Outside the promised land Jews in the biblical age are in danger if they tell the truth. They are at constant risk of being killed or at best enslaved.
Who Am I?
Consider, now, the choices Moses faced in his life. On the one hand he could have lived as a prince of Egypt, in luxury and at ease. That might have been his fate had he not intervened.
The Last Tears
On the surface, Joseph holds all the power. His family are entirely dependent on him. But at a deeper level it is the other way round. He still yearns for their acceptance, their recognition, their closeness.
Three Steps For Mankind
Abraham prays for justice. Judah prays for mercy. Elijah prays for G-d to reveal Himself.
Rabbi Sacks (zt’l): A 6th Chanukah Message: THE LIGHT of WAR and THE...
Jewish law rules that if we can only light one candle – the Shabbat light takes precedence, because in Judaism the greatest military victory takes second place to peace in the home.
The Author Of Our Lives
Joseph is the center of attention whenever he is, as it were, onstage, and yet he is, time and again, the done-to rather than the doer, an object of other people’s actions rather than the subject of his own.
What Is The Theme Of The Stories Of Genesis?
To be sure, a persistent theme of the patriarchal stories is the two promises G-d made to each of them, namely that they would have many descendants and that they would inherit the land of Canaan.
The Jewish Journey
Jews don’t stand still except when standing before G-d. The universe, from galaxies to subatomic particles, is in constant motion, and so is the Jewish soul.
The Birth Of The World’s Oldest Hate
Pharaoh was a one-time enemy of the Jews, but Lavan exists, in one form or another, in age after age.
The Tragedy of Good Intentions
It is the deep, reverberating question at the heart of Toldot. Why did Rebecca tell Jacob to deceive Isaac and take Esau’s blessing? Her...
Walking Together
There is an image that haunts us across the millennia, fraught with emotion. It is the image of a man and his son walking...
The Power Of Example
All four narratives are about the human condition as such. Their message is universal and eternal, as befits a book about G-d who is universal and eternal.
The Universality Of Sukkot
Not only are the four kinds and the tabernacle different in character; they are even seemingly opposed to one another. The four kinds and the rituals associated with them are about rain.
Leadership: Consensus Or Command?
Moses advises his successor to lead by consultation and consensus. G-d tells Joshua to lead firmly and with authority. Even if people do not agree with you, He counsels him, you must lead from the front. Be clear. Be decisive. Be forceful. Be strong.
Freedom Means Telling The Story
Covenant societies exist not because they have been there a long time, nor because of some act of conquest, nor for the sake of some economic or military advantage. They exist to honor a pledge, a moral bond, an ethical undertaking.
Two Types Of Hate
When love is conditional, it lasts as long as the condition lasts but no longer.
Power From The Outside Or Self-Restraint From Within
Why do crowds riot? The short answer is, because they can.
Making Poverty History
Charity is always voluntary. Tzedakah is compulsory. Therefore, tzedakah does not mean charity. The nearest English equivalent is social justice.
Why Civilizations Fail
What Moses was saying to the new generation was this: You thought that the forty years of wandering in the wilderness were the real challenge, and that once you conquer and settle the land, your problems will be over.
The Idea That Changed The World
To this day American politics is based on the biblical idea of covenant. American presidents almost always invoke this idea in their Inaugural Addresses in language that owes its cadences and concepts to the book of Devarim.
The Book Of The Covenant
What is unique about the covenant in Judaism is, first, that one of the parties is G-d Himself. This would have been unintelligible to Israel’s neighbors, and remains extraordinary even today.
Natural Or Supernatural?
According to Maimonides, the death of the High Priest has nothing to do with guilt or atonement, but simply with the fact that it causes a collective grief so great that it causes people to forget their own misfortunes in the face of a larger national loss.
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