Clik here to view.
Shabbat Va’Era/ MLK Day 5775: What is Suffering Good For?
Early in the outstanding new film Selma, there is a tense meeting set in January 1965 between pastors of the Southern Christian Leadership Council and young organizers from the Student Nonviolent...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat Bo 5775: Exodus, Movement of the People
It is no coincidence that the first mitzvot addressed to Israel come in Shmot, Chapter 12, the same chapter in which the exodus officially begins. Verse 28 says that Israel, “walked and performed as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat VaYishlah 5776: Sweetening the Bitter Waters
Between the split sea and the fiery mountain, Israel is a wounded, frightened people. True, they have been emancipated from four centuries of enslavement, but they are not entirely free. Like many who...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat Yitro 5775: It Takes Two to Get God’s Word
אַחַת דִּבֶּר אֱלֹהִים שְׁתַּיִם־זוּ שָׁמָעְתִּי Psalm 62 is a paean to divine power, culminating with the tantalizingly opaque statement, “One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat Mishpatim 5775: Bribery in the Torah and in NYS
With fifty-three mitzvot, 24 positive and 29 negative, Parashat Mishpatim is aptly named. Doubly so, in fact, since the word “mishpatim” can mean both “rules,” and “sentences,” and most of the rules...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat Terumah 5775: The Architecture of Holiness
There are few structures in America to match the splendor of the United States Supreme Court building in Washington. Built during the Great Depression at the urging of former President and then Chief...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat Zakhor 5775: Confronting Today’s Amalek
I recently read Roz Chast’s memoir about the senescence and death of her parents entitled, “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?” The title refers to her parents’ strident refusal, even in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Purim 5775–A royal dress?
Purim is our festival of contradictions and hidden meanings. This year I suddenly noticed one detail that has been hiding in plain sight—the color of Esther’s royal dress. Was it blue, or gold? The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat Parah 5775: Redemption Begins Within
Purim and Pesah are both festivals of redemption, serving as bookends in the final and first months of the Hebrew year. But Purim is by far the lesser holiday. True, the Jews of Persia escaped from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat VaYikra/HaHodesh 5775: For the Sins of the Leader
If the first two books of Torah can be understood according to their Hebrew names—Bereshit, the book of origins, and Sh’mot, the book of names (or identities), then this week we begin Vayikra, the book...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat HaGadol 5775: Withdraw Your Hands and Take Hold of Pesah
Shabbat HaGadol represents the internal emancipation that was the necessary precondition for the Exodus. Technically, the Israelites were still slaves on the tenth of the month, but when Moses called...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pesah 5775: Disarming the Angel of Death
There is a wild story at the end of the seventh chapter of B. Ketubot about Rabbi Yehoshua b. Levi. He is praised for visiting patients afflicted with the dreaded “ra’atan” disease (apparently some...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat Shmini 5775: The Body and Soul of Kashrut
I recently booked that rare flight which offers menu options, and was curious to peruse the fourteen choices currently available: Kosher, Asian Vegetarian, Dairy Vegetarian, Low cal/chol/fat,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat Tazria Metzora: Tzaraat and Sex Trafficking
The double parashah of Tazria-Metzorah this Shabbat draws us into the strange realm of negaim, blemishes of the body, clothing and even homes that signal impurity and require urgent attention. This...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat Aharei Mot Kedoshim 5775: Making and Unmaking Distinctions
Many years ago a teacher challenged me to name a mitzvah that had no personal significance. It took but a second for the word shatnez to cross my lips—I just couldn’t think of any spiritual insight...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat Emor 5775
Perhaps the most radical idea in Jewish theology is that God’s holy status is dependent upon human conduct, specifically on the behavior of Israel. Far from being an “unmoved mover,” the God of Israel...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat BeMidbar and Shavuot 5775: God Speaks in the Wilderness
The summer after graduating college, I went backpacking with a friend in North Cascades National Park in Washington. The sun shone brightly on Lake Chelan as we were ferried deep into the woods,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shabbat Beha’alotekha 5775: Criticizing the Rabbi
במדבר פרק יב, א-ב וַתְּדַבֵּר מִרְיָם וְאַהֲרֹן בְּמֹשֶׁה עַל־אֹדוֹת הָאִשָּׁה הַכֻּשִׁית אֲשֶׁר לָקָח כִּי־אִשָּׁה כֻשִׁית לָקָח: (ב) וַיֹּאמְרוּ הֲרַק אַךְ־בְּמֹשֶׁה דִּבֶּר יְקֹוָק הֲלֹא גַּם־בָּנוּ...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Korah 5775: Collective Punishment and Individual Justice
Does God believe in collective punishment? That certainly seems to be the impression this week when God tells Moses, “Separate yourselves from this group and I will instantly annihilate them!” (Numbers...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Vayetze 5776: Jacob the Refugee
It’s not just that Jacob is a refugee when he arrives at the well near Haran; he also has a presumptuous attitude. This much is apparent from the first sentences that he utters to the local men....
View Article