We live in a time when hope can be difficult to sustain. Political divisions have become so bitter that people who once spoke with one another now struggle to share a table. Families are fractured, and relatives sometimes go…
Tag: genesis
Lech Lecha – Faithfulness in the Shadow of War
In April 2003, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, I attended a forum featuring four Nobel Peace laureates. One of the speakers was Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and tireless advocate for human dignity. Drawing upon his experience…
Noach – The Trouble with Being Human; Dominion, Compassion, and the Discipline of Restraint
What does it mean to be human? The Torah gives us a remarkable answer: we are created in the image of God and entrusted with dominion over the earth. But what does that dominion mean? Does it give us license…
B’reishit – Finding Ourselves, East of Eden
As we begin to explore this story of humankind outside the Garden of Eden, we, like Kayin, should be uncomfortable that our first encounter is with fratricide. Yet, if we are honest, we need to admit that we walk…
Vayechi – Mercy and Justice: The Incredible Two-Headed Servant
Parashat Vayechi brings us to the close of the book of Genesis and places us squarely at a moment of transition. These are end-of-life words—Jacob blessing his sons, Joseph preparing to die in exile, and in the Haftarah, King David…
Vayigash – At the Threshold of Blessing
The Torah portion Vayigash brings us to one of the most emotionally charged threshold moments in Israel’s story. Judah steps forward, Joseph reveals himself, and a family fractured by betrayal stands at the edge of reconciliation (Gen 44–45). Rabbinic tradition…
Vayishlach – Wrestling in the Dark
Jacob stands alone in the darkness by the river Jabbok, that narrow tributary of the Jordan where heaven once opened to him in a dream . Now the night feels far heavier. The promises of God seem distant, muffled by…
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…
Toldot – Fast Food vs. Soul Food
The story of Jacob and Esau is really a story about appetite, purpose, and the lifelong tension between living for the moment and living for meaning. Their struggle begins before they are born. Rebecca, feeling the chaos in her womb,…
Chayei Sarah – Snapshots of a Life Well-Lived
The Torah portion Chayei Sarah—“the life of Sarah”—begins with Sarah’s death. The contrast is deliberate. The Torah’s concern is not merely with the end of her days but with the meaning of her days. It records Abraham’s memorialization of Sarah’s…