One of the most troubling facets of the Torah is its apparent acceptance of the dominant patriarchy that pervaded the ancient world (and much of the modern world too).  The Ten Commandments are clearly addressed specifically to the men (“Don’t covet your neighbor’s wife”) as are many of the mitzvot, the preponderance of heroes are men, and even God is addressed primarily in masculine terms.  Of late, that male perspective and focus has become a bit of a stumbling block for those who would look to the Torah for vindication of the notion of the equal worth of men and women.  In Read more...

God Bless You.  Three words said so easily when someone we care about sneezes.  Grateful that the loved one’s breathing has been restored and hopeful that illness is not coming near, we invoke God’s blessing without hesitation and with joy and glee.  Yet, these same three words – God bless you – in almost any other context leaves some of us squirming, wondering how un-Jewish it sounds to walk around saying God bless you to everyone and under any circumstances. Read more...

Every culture identified insiders and outsiders, those select few who represent communal ideals and the despised few whose differences make them seem threatening to the rest of us.  For the vast majority, straddled between the ideals and the rejects, life is an effort to seem more like the former and to distance us from the latter.  The emotional security of the majority seems to require construing some unfortunates as demons, rather than as fellow human beings simply trying their best to get along. Read more...

In the realm of biology and chemistry, interactions lead to further interactions, as the energy of one unit creates the response of the next, which in turn launches yet another process. Everything is connected, and everything is part of a series of responses and influences. What goes around comes around. Read more...

Well over a decade ago, my last-surviving grandmother passed away. A week or so after our period of mourning ended, my mother sent me some of her furniture, figuring (correctly) that I and my wife could use it in setting up our home. As the movers carried in my grandmother's furniture, I had an eerie sense that something wasn't right. This, after all, was hers, not mine. She should have it, not me. I realized then, in a more concrete way than before, that we really never own the things around us. We borrow them for a while, and ultimately we return them. Read more...