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Jul 31, 2017, 7:31 AM

The Fast of 9 Av is almost upon us, but you can't say it sneaks up. For three weeks, starting with the Fast of 17 Tammuz, we intensify our mourning from week to week and from day to day....

Esther Goldenberg

Jul 21, 2017, 11:55 PM

Broken Promises

My first year teaching in DC I started the year as an assistant in 4th grade, but in early November I became the first grade assistant. There was a little boy in the first grade class who needed more of...

Jul 21, 2017, 11:44 PM

Sometimes True Power Isn’t Using It

This week's Torah portion (Matot/Mas'ey) can teach us a lesson about the incendiary events on the Temple Mount/Haram Al Sharif. Firstly, we are exposed to how the Torah permits women to be seen as property subjugated to men. If...

William Hamilton

Jul 21, 2017, 6:44 PM

Essential Israel

The Bible’s overall story is driven by a journey to the land. Abraham and Sarah’s arrival in the land launches our Jewish story. Their descendants’ return to the land under Cyrus the Persian ruler brings the Bible to a...

Jul 21, 2017, 10:44 AM

Leonard Cohen, the Sisters of Mercy and Disability Advocacy

Being a self-advocate is not easy. When we have one specific problem, it is reasonably manageable to report on the problem and be involved in finding a solution. But as we discovered last week, in Parshat Pinchas, successful self-advocacy...

Jul 20, 2017, 1:49 PM

The prophetic voice

The sharp truths of the biblical prophets' message of exile and return are equally essential today (Matot-Masei)

Eliezer Shemtov

Jul 20, 2017, 10:46 AM

Why is life so complicated?

If G-d is the source of goodness and is omnipotent, why does He make life so difficult? Why does he obligate the soul to leave its world of peace and spiritual clarity in order to descend to a cruel and...

Ben-Tzion Spitz

Jul 18, 2017, 5:55 PM

Matot-Masai: On Capital Punishment

Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness; it is the one crime in which society...

Ariel Ben Avraham

Jul 16, 2017, 11:15 PM

Parshat Matot-Massei: Unifying consciousness in goodness

“When a man vows a vow to the Lord, or has sworn an oath to bind a bond on his soul, he does not pollute his word. According to all that is going out from his mouth he does.”...

Jul 16, 2017, 5:30 PM

What Do We Have to Kvetch About?

In our cycle of Torah readings this time of year, we read how for 40 years our ancestors trekked through the wilderness, far from cities and civilization. They trudged along without the luxury of interstates, service plazas, or travel...

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