Parashat Vaera, which will be read this coming Shabbat in Jewish communities the world-over, opens with God preparing Moshe Rabbenu, Moses our great teacher, to encounter/confront the Pharaoh of Egypt, and ends with the graphic description of the Makkot,...

This week we begin the book of Shemot, Exodus. Our parashah, Shemot, meaning “names,” seems to be a misnomer. In the first few verses, we get a list of the names of Jacob’s sons who entered Egypt, and then “a new Pharaoh arose over Egypt who did...

There are certain things that some of us don’t discuss in polite conversation. Religion. Politics. Money. Maybe sickness. We certainly do not talk about death. However, at some point in our lives we become aware of our  mortality. To be human means...

By Rabbi James Stone GoodmanI had a conversation with a customs official one year while traveling to a foreign country. When he asked: occupation please, I said reading and writing. The man said, I mean what do you do for a living. I repeated: reading...

It is difficult to determine what is more fantastic: that our Torah is full of such dramatic stories of lies and deceit, or that the main characters in these stories are all the good guys.Jacob starts the cycle of duplicity. He tricks his father and his...

By Rabbi Jonah ZinnFinding meaning in the experiences of our biblical ancestors is an age-old struggle. With each weekly Torah reading, we seek to discern how these stories are relevant to our lives. These tales help us learn about ourselves. They provide...

Can you imagine the scene? Two brothers who fought mercilessly as children, who parted on nonspeaking terms,  who have not spoken to each other in close to 20 years, come together for Thanksgiving. How would they react to each other? What would that...

As a chaplain, I have the immense blessing of hearing people reflect upon their lives and share with me what insights have shaped them. Again and again, my breath is taken away by the resilience, wisdom, and creativity of our community. Very often I hear...

The traumatic effects of hatred are all around us. Killings, bomb threats, acts of violence and hateful rhetoric motivated by the evils of racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim hatred, anti-immigrant hatred, prejudice and every other form of hatred abound....

“We are in the midst of a mental health crisis, and we are trying to deal with it in a proactive, integrated, eyes-open response,” Rabbi James Stone Goodman writesI was conversing with Maimonides’ father, Maimon ben Yosef, who introduced me, when...

A man goes on a business trip to a foreign country with his spouse. In preparation for this journey, he studies a bit about the culture, the people and the laws of the land. There is much to fear, though the reward of traveling there outweighs the fear....

I once shared Shabbat with a friend who had also invited several environmentalists. Someone raised a question to the group: What was or is your greatest environmental sin? I sat in the corner with a friend, bonding over our embarrassment at our lack of...