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Listening: The Cornerstone of Leadership
Feb 23, 2008 By Charles Savenor | Commentary | Ki Tissa
In this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tissa, the Children of Israel stand at a crossroads between faith and fear, commitment and rebellion.
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Dressing to Lead
Feb 16, 2008 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Tetzavveh
Which candidate looks most presidential? Sadly, this question often determines our votes.
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Football’s Spiritual Prowess
Feb 9, 2008 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Terumah
It was a demonstration of will; nothing short of unbridled desire to succeed led the Giants to their Superbowl victory over a nearly perfect Patriots team that will be remembered favorably by history.
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Nostalgia, Memory and the Building of Judaism
Jan 26, 2008 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Yitro
As is often the case with buildings in Lower Manhattan, 211 Pearl Street was caught in the sights of a developer seeking to level the property and replace it with a grand modern building.
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The Power of Collective Prayer
Jan 19, 2008 By Edward Feld | Commentary | Beshallah
There are powerful moments when a community comes together, moments in which each individual feels his or her energy directed to common purpose.
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Lighting the Darkness
Jan 11, 2008 By Lisa Gelber | Commentary | Bo
It’s difficult not to notice darkness at this time of year; so many of us set out for work in the dark and leave our places of business long after the sun has set.
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The Lessons of Va-era
Jan 5, 2008 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Va'era
This week’s parashah abounds in venerable theological problems, beginning with its name and opening verses. How could it be that God “appeared” to the ancestors but that some aspect of God—or some truth articulated in God’s name—was not “made known” to them and will be revealed only now, to Moses? The answer that seems most persuasive to me bears a lesson that, like so many others in the Torah, is not so much theological as ethical; it teaches far less about the nature of God than it does about human responsibility.
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The Attention Seeking Bush
Dec 29, 2007 By David M. Ackerman | Commentary | Shemot
A recent collection of one-liners and witticisms entitled 1,003 Great Things About Being Jewishcontains a section called “What Passersby Said About the Burning Bush.”
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Jealousy As a Test of Virtue
Dec 14, 2007 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Vayiggash
Gifts can make you crazy. Picking them is hard, and so is accepting them with grace.
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Joseph the Righteous One
Dec 1, 2007 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Vayeshev
I have always been deeply curious as to why—of all the characters in the Torah—the Rabbis attributed to Joseph the appellation, “ha-Tzadik” (the righteous).
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Jacob’s Struggle Is Our Struggle
Nov 24, 2007 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Vayishlah
“In olden times when wishing still helped, there lived a king whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was so beautiful that the sun itself, which was seen so much, was astonished whenever it shone in her face.”
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Blessings From a Deathbed
Nov 22, 2007 By Charles Savenor | Commentary | Vayehi
Laying on his deathbed, Jacob beckons for his grandchildren, Ephraim and Manasseh.
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Why Are We Called the People of Israel?
Nov 17, 2007 By Edward Feld | Commentary | Vayetzei
We are called not the People Abraham, nor the People Isaac, rather we are called the People Israel, named for the third of the patriarchal family, Jacob.
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Poor Isaac
Nov 7, 2007 By David M. Ackerman | Commentary | Toledot
Poor Isaac; wedged between “exemplary” Abraham and “vivid” Jacob, he exhibits very little personality of his own.
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The Wisdom of the Wilderness
Nov 3, 2007 By Lisa Gelber | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah
When I lived in Seattle, I set aside one day each summer to visit Mount Rainier National Park and hike some trails there.
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Subverting Abraham As a Knight of Faith
Oct 26, 2007 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Vayera
In a world in which so much violence and pain are caused in the name of religion, how can we read the story of “the Binding of Isaac” as anything but what Phyllis Trible would call a “text of terror”?
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Why the Jews?
Oct 21, 2007 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Noah
Why did the Creator of all humanity decide upon the surprising step of establishing a special relationship with one small segment of humanity?
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The Many Qualities of Abram
Oct 12, 2007 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
Abram in the light; Abram in the dark. Abram with men at war; Abram with women at war.
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Making Meaning From Chaos
Oct 5, 2007 By Mychal Springer | Commentary | Bereishit
The opening words of B’reishit are exhilarating. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
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Normalcy and Covenant
May 19, 2007 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Bemidbar
Numbers always stands in pointed contrast to Leviticus. The overarching order of the book of the Torah that we have just completed — the routines of sacrifice, the hierarchies of priesthood, the distinctions between purity and pollution, permitted and forbidden — all this soon gives way to B’midbar, “in the wilderness,” to challenges of a different sort. The book starts by counting the people and arranging the camp for travel. But soon, we know, all those counted will be held responsible for the spies’ rebellion. Moses’ cousin Korah will attempt insurrection. The camp will wander without hope of reaching the Promised Land. We turn from Leviticus to Numbers, aware that the real world awaits us there: the one in desperate need of sacred order. We, like the Israelites, clearly have a lot to learn,
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