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Re’eh 5776: A New Meat to Eat?
All summer I have been thinking about meat. No, it is not just the smell of BBQ, but it has been my research project to investigate the status of cultured meat for the Committee on Jewish Law and...
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Nitzavim 5777: Returning from Exile, Accompanied by the Divine
Chapter 30 of Deuteronomy returns to themes explored back in Chapter 4—alienation from God, exile, and then return. Exile as presented here is both physical and spiritual in nature. This passage...
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Rosh Hashanah 5777 Day 1: Practicing Judaism
When I was a kid we had a set of toys from my father that was pretty special, because my dad was pretty special, and still is. As a physician who trained in the sixties, he had one of those old-time...
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Rosh HaShanah 5777 Day 2: We Have Sacrificed Nothing
“You have sacrificed nothing, and no one!” This powerful statement came from Khizr Khan, a patriotic American immigrant from Pakistan who reveres the US Constitution, and who with his wife stood up in...
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Yom Kippur 5777: Open the Gates of Mercy
לשנה הבאה בירושלים Next year in Jerusalem! This enthusiastic declaration concludes the most important home ritual in Judaism, the Passover Seder. After hours filled with scripture, songs and symbolic...
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Sukkot 5777: Do You Wear Tefillin on Hol HaMo’ed?
Given the great quantity and complexity of halakhot leading up to the festivals of Pesah and Sukkot, we seldom focus on the question of whether to wear Tefillin during the middle days of hol hamo’ed...
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Sukkot 5777: Building it is Better than Being Inside
Sunday was a day of frenzied construction for my friends and me on a farm in upstate NY. Thirty-two of us were gathering to celebrate the first days of Sukkot together, but that meant intense activity...
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Bereshit 5777: Only One Immortality at a Time
You know what demands keen knowledge? Naming things. The ability to observe and identify one’s environment is no small task, and yet Adam is capable of naming every animal, even before eating from the...
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Noah 5777: A Tale of Two Dystopias
Does it feel lately that the fate of the world is at stake? If so, the Torah seems intent to validate and deepen our concern. Here we are just days before one of the most disconcerting elections in...
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Lekh Lekha 5777: Moving the Matriarchs from Objects to Subjects
How dashing and heroic does Abram appear in his devotion to God! With alacrity he relocates upon command, risks everything to rescue his captive nephew Lot, and circumcises himself and all of his...
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VaYera 5777: I Will Fear No Evil
Fear is the sharpest of two-edged swords. In psychological terms, it triggers the fight or flight response, either clarifying the mind to organize effective action, or causing a person to flee or even...
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4 Existential Questions Worth Asking on Thanksgiving
Published by The Forward, Nov. 22, 2016 Thanksgiving is the most Jewish of American holidays. It recalls the Torah’s instruction that “when you have eaten your fill, give thanks to the Lord your God...
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Toldot 5777: The Hungry Games
A satiated person cannot understand the hungry person. This basic truth is expressed in the proverbs of many cultures (this gender-neutral version is of Irish extraction), and is the key to...
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Vayigash 5777: A house divided no more?
Is it only two brothers who face off in the dramatic opening of our portion, or do they carry upon their shoulders the weight of future history—the division of their two respective kingdoms, Judah and...
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Shabbat VaYehi 5777: Like An Ass that Drinks Wine
In the August Wilson play, “Fences,” recently brought to screen with stand-out performances by Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, the male protagonist Troy torments his son Cory to the point of driving...
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Bo 5777: Memory Cards for the Mind; Power Packs for the Arm–For Women and for...
Chapter 12 of Exodus introduces Israel to the rituals (setting their sacred calendar and the Pesah rite) that will attend their exodus from Egypt. Chapter 13 shifts perspective to the future...
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Yitro 5777: Getting Married to God
The liturgy of Shabbat is suffused with wedding imagery. This theme is most pronounced in the prayer Lekha Dodi, which depicts the marriage of God and Israel, and also the union of two aspects of God,...
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Mishpatim 5777: Head Home Little Bird!
A little gosling is all alone in a field, hopping mad. Perhaps it is cheeping at every stranger who passes, “Are you my mother?” But according to the Talmud, each stranger is asking, “Are you my...
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Terumah 5777: A Gift from Titus
The Arch of Titus in Rome is simultaneously one of the saddest and most exciting places for a Jew to stand. It is but a short distance from the Colosseum, the stadium made famous by its cruel sports,...
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Zakhor 5777: On the Road with Amalek
This Shabbat is both Titzaveh and Shabbat Zakhor—in addition to all the normal reasons to go to shul and hear the Torah, there is a special commandment to listen to the Zakhor passage and think about...
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