Post I Hope to be… Maladjusted? On December 19, 1963, Martin Luther King gave an unusual speech at Western Michigan University. He said: “Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other… Read More
Post Are Imperfect People Deserving of the Torah? My teenage son came to me on the Sabbath with a real dilemma: “Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) is impossible,” he said. I understood him and, to be honest, a… Read More
Post Jonah: What a Storm Can Teach You About Repentance Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), the day we spend fasting and praying for repentance, is always rough for me. Fasting means no coffee. Last year, I dragged myself out of… Read More
Post Live for Today This week we start reading the Torah over again from the beginning. At the end of each day of creation, the Bible counts the day: ‘one day’, ‘second day’, ‘third… Read More
Post Noah: The Flood, the Tower, and the battle for Western Civilization This week’s Torah portion, Noach, tells the stories of two failed societies. In each of these two stories, we encounter a breakdown in values that leads to dissolution and destruction…. Read More
Post Noah’s Lesson of Faith The story of Noah and the ark is a well-known and beloved Bible story. But one verse stands out as puzzling. After Noah builds the ark as God had commanded… Read More
Post Redemption God Style There is a joke that describes a dialogue between a poor Jew and God. “God, what is a million dollars to you?” the Jew asks. “It is not even a… Read More
Post Respond to Suffering Like King David Throughout our lives, either for reasons we create, or for reasons unbeknownst to us, we experience tragedies, feel pain and suffer. Why? This Jobian question disturbs us throughout our period… Read More
Post Sukkah of Faith The Biblical commandment to build and sit in a sukkah (temporary dwelling) during the festival of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) is very beloved by the People of Israel. I recently… Read More
Post Psalm 1: The Best Way to Combat Evil Much has been written about the first Psalm. Rav Yudan, a fourth century Palestinian scholar, considered it “the choicest of all Psalms.” That being said, it is incumbent upon us… Read More