One evening this week I went out for dinner. As I parked my car in the restaurant's basement, the power in the area failed. We could order only uncooked courses as we sat uncomfortably in the dark restaurant. Later, when I went back to my car I found that I had left my lights on and my battery was flat. It was going to take well over an hour for roadside assistance to arrive. Other than socially, the evening was becoming a disaster. I had left a mountain of work to get back to at home, and the night was getting later and later. Waiting on a bench on the sidewalk, I considered two options...

Engaging in the Story Media technology enables hitherto unimagined dramatic power. Special effects, with their synchronized visual and audial impact stun audiences again and again. The news media use visual impact to shape public opinion and manipulate public sympathies. Sitting in a movie seat or in front of a TV, demands no effort to engage in the drama. The drama is so compelling that it leaves an audience little choice about engaging in it. Theater is a little different. Unless it is a major Broadway-style musical production, theater requires more attentiveness. You need to follow ..

Shmot, 25 Sacrifice on Purpose While reading the small print of the Ba’al Haturim’s commentary onParshat Teruma, an idea leapt out at me: He quotes Rabbi Avahu’s observation that when Hashem asks the Jewish people to donate some of their precious commodities to the building of the Mishkan (Temple), He commands Moshe to speak to them without coercion; gently and persuasively. “Even for elicit donations for the construction of G-d’s Temple to be used for Israel’s own atonement, He demands that Moshe speak gently and respectfully to them. What (punishment) then lies in..

“And you draw your brother Aharon and his sons with him, near to yourself from among the Benei Yisrael to serve askohanim (priests) to me.” (Shmot 28,1) LOSS: Its Pain and Its Purpose Loss is painful. But we can reduce the risk of loss. We reduce the risk of loss when we increase our value and appreciation of what we have. Generally we tend to value what we had more than what we have. We appreciate things and relationships more after we have lost them than while we had them. Loss is often the consequence of taking things for granted; not a punishment, just the way Hashem..

“Every Man a Matchmaker” This essay, like many others, reveals its link to the Parsha near the end. However, unlike most of the others, this essay is not the outcome of learning a section from the Parsha, nor is the link its main feature. Rather, the content of this essay emerges from a need I have to comment on Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s excellent JPost op-ed: “Every Man a Matchmaker.”[1] Rabbi Boteach shows the concern of a thinker, the call to action of a leader, and the cry from the heart of a father. “Curing the singles scene,” he writes, “is one of the foremost priorities espec..

Shemot 35:1-4 Gathering the people together in the opening of our Parsha, Moshe promises a summary statement of the essence of everything Hashem has commanded us: “These are the matters that Hashem has commanded us to do them”, he declares. What follows is only one area of halacha, Shabbat; and even that area he treats from the perspective of its negative mitzvoth: “Anyone who does melachah on Shabbat will die” Hardly a moment of inspirational upliftment! Then, (in 35:4) he repeats his intention to summarize the essence of the Torah “This is the one matter Hashem ..

Shabbat Nachamu The actors and the audience Ours is a religion of conversation. We talk to G-d, and most of all like all good conversationalists, we listen for Him: listen... listen... listen. We are not spectators we are participants. We are not creations; we are partners in Creation. We are not an audience that gawks at lifeless objects of worship; we are the actors, we dialogue.  We dialogue with each other. We dialogue with the Torah and its Laws. We dialogue with the universe: King David could interpret the songs of nature and the music of the luminaries, Solomon the chatter ..

Parshat Shemot, 1:1-7 Stars or Insects? Shared responsibility means that each party carries 100% of that responsibility, not that each carries 50%.  So, when I suggest, as I do, that the Jewish nation was partly responsible for Egypt’s virulent anti-Semitism, that does not release the Egyptians from one iota of their responsibility. The Torah recounts a radical deterioration in the stature of the Jewish people in the first seven sentences of the Book of Shemot.  This deterioration began only after the passing on of Yaacov and his sons. The deterioration is clear from th..