Lift Your Eyes … From Your Screen “I will praise God with my life.” – Psalms 146:2 Not only prayer or mitzvot — life itself can be an act of praise. I think of this every Sunday when my iPhone tells me how much time I spent staring at its screen in the week prior. […]
The Language of Your Soul In the coming weeks, each weekly parasha begins with a dream. During the month of Kislev (in the northern hemisphere) we experience a decline in our energies, and lights. We withdraw inward. The external hibernates; the internal awakens. One of the characteristics of human consciousness (as opposed to AI) is […]
The Main Thing Is … To Hope “Optimism and hope are not the same. Optimism is the belief that the world is changing for the better; hope is the belief that, together, we can make the world better.” ~ Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World (page 166) Rabbi Sacks’ words, said years […]
Now, you are to take exceeding care for yourselves [le-nafshoteikhim] … or as Robert Alter renders the clause, “And you shall be very watchful for yourselves” (Deut. 4:15). With these words Moses warns the Israelites against worshipping idols, the work of human hands. Over time, the Sages broadened the mitzvah of self-care, which may be […]
We Await the Rainy Season, and Healing Last week, here in Israel, we began to pray for God to “give us dew and rain to bless the earth” in our daily Amidah. We now find ourselves, after a long, hot summer, waiting for the Yoreh, the first rain of the season — a rain that […]
Seeing Hagar, expelled and wandering, encounters a messenger/manifestation of God, who promises her a son who will thrive. She exclaims: “You God of Seeing!” and adds “Have I actually gone on seeing here, after his seeing me?” Is this just surprise at surviving the encounter? Or has she also learned something? Harold Kushner suggests she […]
“From the darkness, we plead — to arise tomorrow morning and start again from ‘In the beginning.’” ~ from a popular song by the late Israeli songwriter Naomi Shemer Over the past two weeks, we have finally been privileged to witness the return to Israel from Gaza of the remaining living hostages. Not all of […]
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility The month of Elul is devoted to rethinking, to questioning the path we have been on — that is, to teshuva. The past two years, as a result of the war and the process of social fissure, and as the truth of the dreams we had dreamed about ourselves […]
Religious Ritual Requires of us Ethical Behavior This week’s parasha opens with the bringing of first fruits (bikkurim) to the Temple and the statement made by the person who brings them. That statement is what is read and expounded at the beginning of the Passover Haggadah, where the verses serve to summarize the history of […]
A Revolution In Mentality … “When you come into the land …” — The transition from wandering in the wilderness to life in a settled land requires a change in lifestyle and in outlook. Moving from the life of a persecuted minority to that of an independent people on our own land requires a revolution […]