“If there are two people and one of them honors you and the other disparages you, are they the same in your eyes or not?” This is the question that the kabbalist Rabbi Yitzhak of Acco reports in the name of Rabbi Avner as being the essential question of equanimity, a state necessary in order […]
SHORT ESSAY: Getting Beyond Praise or Blame (Parashat Pinchas) Read More »
Venatan meimav. The rock will give its waters. This is how God instructs Moshe to get water for the thirsty people, how He wants things to work in His world: The rock will give its waters. You just have to ask for them, to speak gently to the rock, and the rock will unlock
SHORT ESSAY: Going with the Flow (Parashat Chukat) Read More »
Before I begin, I would like to thank my mother for graciously allowing me to write a guest blog on her blog this week and for her Torah which constantly inspires me. I would also like to to thank all my teachers at Yeshivat Maale Gilboa where I studied this year. Particularly, I am grateful
Guest Blog by Medad Lytton: Parshat Chukat-Balak Read More »
אל נא רפא נא לה El na refa na lah. O Lord, please heal her, please.(Numbers 12:13, in this week’s Torah portion) These five Hebrew words are Moshe’s prayer to God to heal his sister, Miriam, after she has been afflicted with leprosy as a divine punishment for speaking slanderously. The text tells us little
Parashat Beha’alotekha: On Healing Read More »
There is a lot of pain that is surfacing in our world, A lot of injustice and suffering and fear. There also continues to be a current of uncertainty and unease and even confusion. How does a person hold steady amidst it all, without denying either the suffering — of self and other — or
SHORT ESSAY: Shalom Is a Container (Parashat Naso) Read More »
Vayehi kol hashofar holekh vehazek me’od. The sound of the shofar blast on Mount Sinai is described as getting stronger and stronger. Rashi points out that this is a sign of its divine origin; when a human being makes a sound, the sound gradually gets weaker and weaker; only God’s sound keeps increasing in strength.
SHORT ESSAY: Getting Stronger (Parashat Yitro) Read More »
We feel that everything needs to be done before we can be free, before we can rest and have peace and “get there,” wherever we are trying to get. We have to first complete our to-do list. Then we will have earned peace and maybe even redemption. But we are not there yet. And then
SHORT ESSAY: On Not Finishing the Baking (Parashat Bo) Read More »
Eheyeh asher Eheyeh. I will be what I will be. This is how God tells Moshe to introduce Him to the people of Israel this week. This name of God reminds me of the song: Que sera, seraWhatever will be, will beThe future’s not ours to seeQue sera, sera The implication of “I will be
SHORT ESSAY: I will be what I will be (Parashat Shemot) Read More »
The Torah portrays a world in which God does care about a single person, no matter how messed up. (Click image to read more)
SHORT ESSAY: You Matter! (Parashat Vayetze) Read More »
I was taking a walk the other day, feeling a little glum, when I noticed the ginkgo tree up the street. The sky was blue and the sun was shining on it just so, making its yellow leaves radiant and aglow. I stopped in wonder and thought, “Thank you, God, for this gift today.” I
SHORT ESSAY: The Sun Rises Just For You (Parashat Vayishlach) Read More »