Two passages in this week’s poetic Torah reading, Haazinu, jumped out at me when I learned of the 24 member states in UNESCO who voted for a resolution denying the historical ties of Judaism (and Christianity, for that matter) to Jerusalem. The first verse that comes to mind is the very first one of the Continue Reading »
Is jealousy ever a good thing? After all, the Torah is pretty harsh about the sin of covetousness, even mentioning it on some Top Ten commandment lists. The rabbis spin stories to emphasize humility. The moon complained that the sun was getting too much credit, so God made its light weaker than that of her Continue Reading »
Early this week, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared a video profile of Talleen Abu Hama, who will be representing Israel in the Miss Trans International pageant this week. It’s a fascinating story about a Nazareth-born man who found that the Jewish State was the safest place for him to embrace his true gender and Continue Reading »
Is there such thing as unfair competition in Jewish thought? I remember a dispute when a new kosher pizza place opened on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in my student days,, much to the aggravation of the owner of an existing pizza place a few blocks away. I think the local rabbinic authorities, the Continue Reading »
As we observe Rosh Hodesh Elul on Shabbat and Sunday, we’ll notice a change in our ritual behavior. With the arrival of the final month of 5776, we will sound the shofar each day leading up to the eve of Rosh Hashanah. The reason for this tradition is found in the midrash: “On Rosh Continue Reading »
This is the time of year when parents move their children out of the house and into a dorm room. By and large, it’s an American rite of passage. While parents remain responsible for their children in many ways (tuition especially!), what we do when we pack them up and take them to campus is Continue Reading »
What is Torah? This Shabbat, when we read Parshat Vaethanan, we are reminded of Sinai. In the first of his long farewell discourses, Moshe recounts the revelation at Sinai, and we get another version of the Decalogue (formerly known as the Ten Commandments). In thinking about getting “the Torah,” Jews confront an important question Continue Reading »
In the days leading up to the observance of Tish’ah B’Av, which begins with the conclusion of Shabbat, the online conversation about its relevance in our times got heated. Some Jews wrote why they aren’t fasting this year; others defended the continued mourning rituals of the day. Some Jews expressed a desire for a restored Continue Reading »
Several weeks ago, we learned that as a result of Het Hameraglim, the sin of the scouts, the generation that left Egypt would not live to enter the Promised Land. It would be easy to get the impression that they were doomed to wander in circles and expire, not only in the present but for Continue Reading »
This Shabbat, in the midst of reading the fourth book of the Torah, we will interrupt the flow briefly by reading the sixth book of the Torah. Say what? There’s a rabbinic tradition that two verses in our parashah (Numbers 10:35-36) constitute sefer bifnei atzmo–a book unto itself, giving the Torah six books Continue Reading »
