Um, This Is My Seat
Humans are often creatures of habit. People tend to regularly take the same route to work, choose the same restaurants to eat in and create routines for their daily tasks. Along these…
The Jews of Charles Dickens
As has been frequently reported, anti-Semitism is on the rise. Beyond strengthening our own Jewish identities, what can we do? There are often simple, non-threatening actions that can…
A Modern Scholar
Respected Biblical commentators are rarely university professors or radio personalities. Even less common is for them to be female. And while her credentials were certainly not the norm,…
The Blessings of the Amidah: Destruction of Our Enemies
The nineteen blessings of the Amidah make up the core of the Jewish prayer service. The twelfth blessing was actually added after the destruction of the Second Temple. This blessing calls…
The Blessings of the Amidah: Destruction of Our Enemies
The nineteen blessings of the Amidah make up the core of the Jewish prayer service. The twelfth blessing was actually added to the prayer after the destruction of the Second Temple. This…
A Product of His Environment
Moses was an expert at recognizing the small details that affected his life. His life had lots of ups and downs. Cast into the Nile in a basket as a baby to avoid being drowned by…
A Bio of Barak
Barak the son of Avinoam does not have much in common with Barack Obama, who is now being inscribed in the pages of history as the forty-fourth president of the United States. While…
How Israel Got A King
The first king of Israel, Saul, the son of Kish, from the tribe of Benjamin, was anointed by Samuel the Prophet approximately 400 years after the Israelites conquered the land of Israel.…
Honoring Those Who Have Passed
Sometimes the world seems a bit like alphabet soup. There are organizations that function by acronym alone (such as NJOP -- the National Jewish Outreach Program, not to be confused with…
Torah, To What Can I Compare Thee?
Various biblical verses and rabbinic texts compare the Torah to different natural resources to teach us about the greatness of the Torah in terms that can be readily understood. After…