Listen to an audio version This Shabbat marks three weeks into the New Year in accord with the western secular calendar, the one by which a majority of Jewish people worldwide attempt to conduct their normal life’s business. Many have…
Tag: Bible
Light Over Might
Listen to an audio version Hanukah is perhaps the most cherished Jewish holidays, celebrated by both religious and secular Jews. While much of the Western world celebrates Christmas, Hanukah has become the Jewish alternative, replete with gift-giving, “heart-unfriendly” holiday foods,…
Vayetze – Finding Our Rosebud
Listen to an audio version The movie Citizen Kane has been voted by many film academies and publications to be the greatest American movie of all time. Though the film’s cinematography was cutting edge in 1941, it is certainly not…
Vayera – A Rock Feels No Joy
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel once sang, I am a rock, I am an island. And a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries. In those few lines, they captured something hauntingly prophetic — the isolation of…
B’reishit: Dominion or Devotion
There’s a strange irony in our time. We live in an age of deep moral concern, we rally to protect the environment, speak for the voiceless, to stand against injustice. And yet, perhaps the most ancient of injustices goes largely…
Ki Tetze – Compassion In An Unjust World
Listen to an audio version There’s a park not far from my home that’s well known for its beautifully groomed tulip and rose gardens. My wife and I often go there, and sometimes we’ll sit at the little outdoor café…
Re’eh – See With Your Heart
Our parashah begins with a single commanding word: “Re’eh” — See. Moses does not say hear, or remember, or even believe, but see. He calls us to open our eyes to a reality that already lies before us: blessing and…
VaEtchanan – How Do You Spell Relief?
Do you like to make choices? Whether you do or not, it seems as though for each of us there is a never-ending stream of options that place demands upon our time and threaten the normal and easy flow of…
Balak – Blessed and The Source of Blessing
Listen to an audio version Every year we read Parashat Balak and I am utterly amazed. What a remarkably different approach to a reoccurring theme. Many have understood Torah as love letters between Hashem and Israel. In fact the focus…
Bechukotai – Peace Within and Without
Listen to an audio version “…you will dwell securely in your land. I will provide peace in the land…” (Vayikra 26:5-6) After the Torah guarantees that we will dwell in our land safely if we observe the mitzvot, it states…