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Back to JTS Torah Online's Main pageInspiring Our Institutions
Mar 17, 2007 By Steven Brown | Commentary | Pekudei | Vayak-hel
The detailed description of the completion of the Mishkan in all its splendor can overwhelm us with a plethora of information, blinding us to the power and importance of this week’s double parashah concluding the book of Exodus.
Read MoreThe Challenges and Joys of Parenting
Nov 25, 2006 By Steven Brown | Commentary | Toledot
Parshat Toledot is the epitome of the challenges, struggles, ambivalences, and joys of parenting.
Read MoreTeaching Our Jacobs and Esaus
Nov 9, 2002 By Steven Brown | Commentary | Toledot
Recounting the gestation, birth and maturation of the Bible’s most famous twins, Esau and Jacob, reminds me of a wonderful PBS film entitled, “How Difficult Can It Be? The F.A.T. City Workshop.” F.A.T. stands for Frustration, Anxiety, Tension. Through a series of simulations and exercises, Richard D. Lavoie, a gifted special education teacher, turns a group of highly accomplished adults into learning disabled students in a matter of minutes. He reminds us that children with learning differences or disabilities experience them not only in school, but twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, leading to daily frustration, anxiety and tension in their everyday lives. During a poignant moment in the film, Lavoie comments that fairness is not treating everyone the same, it’s giving everyone what she or he needs.
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