60 Lessons
Covenant & Conversation The Politics of Responsibility
A nation that sees itself as responsible for the evils that befall it, is also a nation that has an inextinguishable power of recovery and return.
Behar The Economics of Liberty
Judaism has no class system. We are all God’s children, all precious in His sight, each with a contribution to make to the common good.
Emor Sanctifying the Name
The conviction that being a Jew involves the pursuit of justice and the practice of compassion is what led our ancestors to stay loyal to Judaism despite all the pressures to abandon it.
Kdoshim From Priest to People
Something fundamental happens at the beginning of this Parsha and the story is one of the greatest, if rarely acknowledged, contributions of Judaism to the world.
Achrei Mot The Scapegoat
The strangest and most dramatic element of the service on Yom Kippur, set out in Acharei Mot, was the ritual of the two goats, one offered as a sacrifice, the other sent away into the desert “to Azazel.”
Metzora The Power of Shame
The new social media have brought about a return to an ancient phenomenon, public shaming. Tthis gives us a way of understanding the otherwise bewildering phenomenon of tsara’at.
Tazria The Circumcision of Desire
Brit milah helps transform the male from baal to ish, from dominant partner to loving husband, just as God tells Hosea that this is what He seeks in His relationship with the people of the covenant.
Shmini Fire: Holy and Unholy
The holy is that segment of time and space God has reserved for His Presence. Creation involves concealment. About Nadav and Avihus death.