This week, as I prepare to travel to Israel, I am conscious as I always am when traveling to a country whose primary language is not English, of the importance of language.  Even with the function of the Hebrew I have learned over the years, there inevitably comes those moments when a single word makes all the difference in my ability to articulate my thoughts and/or my Israeli friends’ ability to understand my words.  (How much more so in a place whose language I am not as familiar with as I am Hebrew.) One missing word, one wrong word, one misused word – one word can change the Read more...

This week, we read the double Torah portion of Matot-Ma'ase, completing the book of Numbers, meeting the Israelites as they approach the Promised Land.  Knowing that entering the land of Israel brings to fruition the original promise from God to our ancestors, one might expect the Torah to focus on the destination - on the place that is to be an end to the years of wandering in the desert.  And, we might even expect that the Torah would be full of all that will happen once our people enter the Land of Milk and Honey.  Yet, as the final chapters of desert wandering unfold, wha Read more...

Occasionally, we hear of an act of self-sacrifice so sweeping and powerful that it commands the respect of all who encounter it:   A mother and father who willingly undergo life-threatening surgery to try to save the life of a beloved child; a Rabbi, nun, or minister who works with people suffering from highly contagious illnesses without regard to the threat to their own lives,  brave men and women who volunteer to serve as soldiers in dangerous missions or wars because the cause is just, civil rights volunteers who stand up to the prejudice and hatred of their own societies Read more...

It is a well-known truism of the rabbinic/Jewish approach to reading the Torah that this text is of such a level of holiness and significance that every word and sentence must carry meaning. Finding that meaning, however, isn't always an easy task. Sometimes a text is full of strange details and vocabulary and events that are hard to comprehend. Sometimes a text challenges us ethically or seems difficult to relate to the radically changed circumstances of our lives and societies compared to those of our biblical ancestors. Read more...

So much goes on every day, that it seems impossible to keep up with the array of human activity. Troops march to different parts of the globe, unemployment and disease strike specific groups of people, natural disasters ravage a variety of communities, our environment succumbs to human greed, our politicians legislate, initiate and posture. With so many different activities occurring at the same time, all of them of vital importance, how can we possibly keep up?   Read more...