I'm one who feels quite conflicted about sports today. I love athletics, I love moving and competing and I enjoy watching healthy competition. But today, I'm hardly interested in professional sports. I'm turned off by the denigration of sportsmanship caused by showboating and how personal gains often overshadow self-sacrifice and team success. The rampant drug use in cycling has left me mostly uninterested in a once July morning ritual of watching the Tour de France. And the NFL's questionable response to domestic violence, in comparison to drug and alcohol use, leaves me perplexed. Read more...

Long before discussions of labor law and corporate ethics emerged as topics for discussion in secular society, the Torah established a model for discussing the concepts of equity and fairness between employees and their employers, introducing employment principles regarding work agreement, fair wages, fair treatment, and the tenor of the overall relationship between employer and employee as topics of public debate. Read more...

As he ran through the trees, the lad's breath was beginning to come more easily, and the burning feeling in his face started cooling. He had been running for half an hour, and was getting in his running groove. This was a pace he could keep up for hours. He was far and away the best runner among his peers, and he took pride in that. He loved the solitude of the trail, and whenever he was angry or upset, he would go off on a run. Like now. Read more...

I've written in the past about my cycling. As a result of my time on the road, I've observed a fair amount of madness on our roads here in Los Angeles. Of late, I've been riding more indoors because of the distractedness and unpredictability of drivers. I've seen women putting on makeup and men shaving while driving. Texting and fiddling with a cell phone is the norm and disregarding the traffic signs is a given. Stop signs mean yield and 35 MPH really means no faster than 50, unless of course you're in a real rush! Read more...

This week's Torah reading includes several verses that define what the Israelites' relationship should be to several other nations: Read more...