Reparations: Seeding a Better Future
The Past is Hard to Leave Behind
During the pandemic, many of us have turned to our comfort foods as we self-isolate.
Technology and Our Covetous Inclinations
During a recent Zoom meeting, a participant remarked that she dreaded video calls, lamenting, “Seeing everyone else’s beautiful homes makes me feel bad about mine.”
The Enslavement of Debt, Then and Now
“When you acquire an eved Ivri, Israelite debt servant, that person shall serve six years – and shall go free in the seventh year, without payment” (Exodus 21:2).
What is Holy to God? Each of Us
In the second century, Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai and Rabbi Eliezer, son of Rabbi Yosei, traveled from the Galilee to Rome to plead for the repeal of a royal edict forbidding Shabbat, circumcision, and the laws of ritual purity.
Stories We Tell: The Scholar and the Merchant
Stories We Tell: Whatever You Do, Don't Bite Off the Pitom
Stories We Tell: Don't Apologize to Me, Apologize to Him
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Navigating the Book of Leviticus
It All Depends: Finding the Middle of the Torah
Finding the midpoint in the Torah has long been a matter of considerable debate. Some scholars say the middle of the Torah falls in this portion, Parashat Tzav. But the answer to the question, where is the middle of the Torah, depends on many mathematical, theological, and phylosophical factors.