There are many ways to relate to property. Other than owning possessions, our Torah portion teaches us of four alternate ways in which objects can be in our possession. It also details our responsibility towards them in case they become damaged while under our care (Shmote / Exodus 22, 9-15), based on the level of benefit gained and financial value allocated to that benefit. The Mishna (Baba Metzia 7, 8) summarizes these 4 modes of possession for us: Read more...

“Great is human dignity, for it overrides a prohibition in the Torah,” is a famous assertion found over and over again the Talmud, holding out a challenge and an opportunity for all of us to prioritize people over rules, and to elevate human dignity over systemic consistency. How easy it is to allow ideology to obliterate human worth, to permit devotion to an ideal to render invisible the individual before us. Read more...

One of the charges most frequently leveled against Judaism is that of excessive legalism.  According to this accusation, Judaism is obsessed with the petty and the restrictive rules that make Jewish life onerous and irrelevant.  By focusing on endless regulations, Judaism, it is claimed, misses the bigger picture.  Read more...

We live in an age awash in nostalgia for the good old days that never were. In speeches, movies, paintings, and stories, we invent a time in which there was no crime, no violence, in which men were chivalrous and women were modest. In that fantasy world, father knew best and mother was the happy homemaker. Children, of course, were seen but not heard. Read more...

We live in an age of radical autonomy.  Each individual zealously guards his or her own independence from everybody else.  We resent when someone presumes to tell us what is right or wrong, seeks to impose external limitations to our discretion or our behavior.  In the words of a popular song, we assert, "It's my prerogative!"   Read more...