The Difficult Journey to Redemption
Feb 7, 2009 By David M. Ackerman | Commentary | Beshallah
As an undergraduate, I studied American History, with a special focus on the African American experience in the nineteenth century. Black Americans of the time divided their lives into two distinct phases—before emancipation and after emancipation. The Civil War, of course, served as the hinge; by war’s end in 1865 millions of former slaves had become, in the parlance of the day, freedmen. Not that post-emancipation Black life in America was easy, simple, or beautiful. As we all know, it took another century for some of the basic promises of emancipation—the right to vote, some measure of equal opportunity, fair and equal access to public accommodations, among others—to become reality. But still, that moment came to represent the possibility of transformation, of reversal of fortune, of redemption, for many.
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A Personal Relationship to Torah
Feb 3, 2007 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Beshallah
In his parashah commentary several weeks ago on the beginning of the book of Exodus, our Chancellor-elect Arnold Eisen shared what I consider one of my favorite texts.
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Moving Forward
Feb 4, 2012 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Beshallah
What a wonderful feature of being human, that we are so different that even our shared experiences produce in us such a wide range of possible emotions. Despair, regret, aggression, complaint—the midrash imagines that different people, standing at the shore of the Sea of Reeds with Pharoah’s army closing in from behind, felt each in different measure.
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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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Role of the Synagogue Regarding Newcomers
Jan 26, 2002 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Beshallah
Young Ms. Goldberg walks into the doors of a local synagogue.
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God’s Presence in the Arms of Loved Ones
Jan 18, 2003 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Beshallah
On the occasion of this joyful Shabbat, on which we celebrate the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, (and this year, Tu Bishevat), I find myself more contemplative than joyful.
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A New Dayeinu
Jan 22, 2016 By Gerald Cohen | Commentary | Beshallah
As we progress through the cycle of Torah readings, we come to associate certain stories with a particular time of year: the creation story in early fall, Joseph and his brothers later in that season, the revolt of Korah in the summer. The story of this week’s Torah reading, however, has a double life in the course of the year: we associate it with the winter when we read the parashah in the cycle, but it also becomes the focus of our spring Pesah celebration in a few months.
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What Next? A Free People Finds Its Way
Jan 22, 2016 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Beshallah
From the air Eretz Mitzrayim, “the narrow land” of Egypt, reveals itself as a vast expanse of sand and stone broken only by the twisting dark line of the Nile. I saw this first hand as a student in 1985, but you can look as well through satellite photos. On either side of the great river, a thin strip of green extends for a few kilometers to the east and west. The Nile looks like a mighty green cobra whose tail points at the first cataract near Sudan, and whose broad triangular head is the delta fanning out to strike the Mediterranean Sea.
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