Red lines ... lines in the sand. The roots of these expressions refer to bellicose dares testing the boldness of presumptive trespassers. Moreover, their usage suggests grave consequences should trespass occur.How ironic, then, that the longing of Man...

In such a detailed and well known Torah portion, there is much to consider for a “word of Torah” – the escape from Egypt, the splitting of the sea, the raining down of manna, the “first” Shabbat for the children of Israel, and much more.  However,...

“It’s all up to the Man Upstairs!”  How many times do we hear this from people who are experiencing ill health or some other type of crisis? Usually this is followed by the request, “Please pray for me,” as if the person himself or herself...

 “We must speak and we must act”“I can’t do it!”  “It’s impossible.” “No way!”  How often we hear such a voice of reluctance, in others and in ourselves, when the task before us seems daunting, difficult, or undesirable. In parashat...

Recently, I took my daughter to the ballet. The first thing that she did when she opened the program wasn’t to read the synopsis of the story at the front of the program. She went straight to look at the cast of characters. She wasn’t looking to...

Our Torah reading for this coming Shabbat opens with the word “Vayechi” - literally “and he lived”. Ironically, however, our Parashah describes the final days and demise of our patriarch, Jacob. What might we learn from the apparent contradiction...

Of all of the people found in Tanakh, the one whom I have always wanted to meet is a rather elusive character. We don’t know much about her from the Torah itself, but what we do know is enough to have sparked imaginations for centuries. She has her...

This week, our Torah portion begins with Joseph being called upon to interpret two of Pharaoh’s dreams.  Before interpreting them, Joseph tells Pharaoh that his ability comes from God and that perhaps God is sending a message to Pharaoh through his...

This week we begin the story of Joseph, which will take up most of the remainder of the Book of Genesis. Our Torah Portion is Va’yeshev, Genesis 37:1-40:23. Actually, we first met Joseph two weeks ago, when he was born. Then the Torah told us, “God...

This week, we read Vayeishev, the famous story of Joseph—his dreams, his colorful coat, and his envious brothers. This story, like many others throughout the Torah, was first introduced to me in a fun and lighthearted manner: through the Joseph and...