Several weeks ago I settled into the passenger seat of my friend's car and launched into an impassioned monologue about my current moral dilemma... eventually I heard a sniff from the other side and looking over saw she was crying. She has been widowed for a year and a half and had just made another "mistake." It brought home to her (again) the difficulty of making important and less important decisions all by herself. She still wasn't used to it. Read more...

Walk into any synagogue and you'll see them in the sanctuary.  Generally, they're above the Aron (the Ark), or on a wall.  Walk into many churches and you'll be greeted by the same sight.  The two tablets of the Ten Commandments have become the eloquent symbols of religion, good and decency throughout the western world. Read more...

What are you willing to die for? In the course of our daily routine, there are certain focal points -- actions, comments or individuals -- which can ignite our passion like nothing else. While these things may not receive a great deal of conscious thought or even our waking effort, their significance lies in how important they are to our sense of identity, of worth, or of meaning.   Read more...

Why did it take the Israelites forty years to get from Egypt to Canaan? (No, it's not because Moses refused to ask directions...) In forty years they could have circumnavigated the globe. In reality, the Torah tells us that it only took them three years to walk to their encampment on the east bank of the Jordan River. They then waited another thirty seven years to enter the Land of Israel. Why? Read more...

Each year as we read Parashat Ekev, I am reminded of how very different the God with whom I share a relationship with today is from the God of my childhood imagination. No longer do I envision God as the big guy in the sky, sitting on a throne as would a king, taking on human emotions or characteristics. Yet, as I read the haftarah, I am always drawn to one verse that takes me back and leaves me pondering how it is that God of my childhood might not be so different than God with whom I relate today. Read more...