Torah as Our Guide and Companion
The Heart of Torah: How Our Actions Bring it to Life
What makes the Torah different from any other book we read?
I posed this question years ago to a group of second graders as we began a lesson about Simchat Torah.
What Does it Mean to Be Human?
Wholly Jewish: Denis: Coming Out and Showing Up
Hosted by Jewish performance and ritual artist Shira Kline (she/her), a.k.a. ShirLaLa, this season features interviews with LGBTQ+ Jews from the Union for Reform Judaism's JewV'Nation Fellowship.
The Divine is No Ordinary Parent: Lessons from One God to One People
No other Torah portion is as well known or fires the imagination as much as Parashat Noach – but the story includes a number of problematic elements.
Deuteronomy: Becoming the Master Storytellers
The Passover Haggadah famously distinguishes between the wise and wicked children by the singular choice of the wise child to identify with the story: "It is because of what the Eternal did for us [me] when I ca
Do Not Make Yourself a Pesel, Lest Torah Become an Idol
In the next parashah, Moses will tell the Israelite people: "Thereupon the Eternal One said to me, 'Carve out two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain; and make an ark of wood.
All You Need Is Love?
"All the world needs is love." We hear that refrain in our music, in our theologies, in conversations prosaic and profound.
The Gift of God's First Creation
The more complicated our lives become, the more difficult it is to count our blessings. At times, we may become overwhelmed by feelings of anger, loneliness, frustration, despair, or sorrow. We may be wracked by physical pain or unable to free ourselves from serious bouts of depression. As in this week's Torah portion, B'reishit, darkness precedes light and chaos precedes order. Metaphorically, we may have so much on our plates that we can't decide what to do first and when we do, may frequently lose focus. Sometimes I begin my day by saying to myself: "I have so much to do, I wish today were 48 instead of 24 hours." Consequently, I rush to accomplish as much as I can, often feeling harried and dissatisfied, not fully able to enjoy moments for which in hindsight, I wasn't fully present. When we begin the cycle of Torah readings each year, however, I am reminded that God's first creative act, even before God brought the sky and earth into being, was to create light. Darkness already existed on the face of "chaotic waters" (Genesis 1:2). Yet as God's spirit glided over it, God created light, choosing not to inject the light into the darkness, but rather to create it as a distinct entity which God proclaims to be good (1:3).
Learning Lessons From and With God
In many ways, Parashat Noach is filled with as many theological problems as answers. Chief among them is why after creating the world and all living things, God destroys "all that lives under the heavens" (Genesis 6:17). The reason that God gives is the "violence" or "lawlessness" (chamas) of humankind. Yet what about such godly virtues as patience, love, and forgiveness? Apparently, God possesses less of them than one might wish. Does saving Noah, his family, and a male and female of all living species in order to ensure continued reproduction make up for God's actions? Is saving them a sign of mercy or of pragmatism?