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Do we have to cross-over to inherit "Heaven" or "Hell"? Is it possible to experience either of them while still in one's lifetime? How did Moshe navigate his continuous movement between the realms of reality between which he continuously vacillated? How can you be a leader of people when you are also defined as "Ish Elokim" – a man of God, a spouse to God? Read more...

The opening scene of this week's Torah portion is remarkably surprising. God speaks to Moses (ok - that's not so surprising, as it is after all, the most common phrase in the Torah). But what God says is a bit surprising: "I am Adonai. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as El Shaddai (Almighty God), but I did not make myself known to them by my name Adonai." (Exodus 6:2-3) Read more...

A tale is told about twins who were born to a poor couple in a small village. The midwife who attended the birth was inexperienced, and even though she tied a thread around the wrist of the first born, in the confusion of the delivery and the cleaning up of the infants, and attending to the mother, who had suffered a difficult labor, by the end of the day, the thread had come off, and no one knew which boy was the elder. After fretting about the situation for a few days, the father finally said, as much to himself as to anyone else, "Well, what does it matter? Read more...

One of the blindnesses of human nature is our recurrent ingratitude and our appalling lack of memory. Saying please always comes more readily than stopping to say thank you. Somehow, acknowledging assistance never seems as urgent after we’ve already gotten the help we wanted in the first place. Read more...