Words matter. Words can create or destroy — a life, a reputation, a relationship, a movement, a moment. And words can create worlds. The first words spoken in our world were, “Let there be light. And there was light.” (Genesis 1:3) Creation here...

“It is not happy people who are thankful, it is thankful people who are happy.”  I love these words and find them so fitting for Sukkot. Coming on the heels of the Yamim Nora’im, the Days of Awe, Sukkot reminds us to stop, recognize the world around...

So you got fat [Deut.32:15]. God would have suckled you with honey from a rock and oil from a flinty stone, butter of cattle, milk of sheep, fat of lambs, but you became thick and kicked.You got private. You suffered silently. Well, you can always come...

Moses spoke to his successor, Joshua, and told him a couple of things, but what I remember most is the phrase “be strong and courageous.” I loved it when our teacher talked courage.Moses told Joshua not to be afraid, that G*d would accompany us, that...

“ . . . . and God will gather you in from all the peoples to which Hashem, your God, has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the Earth, your God will gather you in . . .”  — Deut. 30:3-4 Even if we are at the ends of the Earth....

In this week’s parasha, Ki Tavo, Moses instructs the Israelites on the laws surrounding the bikkurim, the first fruits. He tells the people, “When you come in to the Land … you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the Land … and put it...

Ki Tetze means “when you go out.” The people are standing before Moses, who is downloading, in one long song, his remembrance of years past and fervent hopes for the future.  They are standing at the edge of one world imagining, perhaps, the trials...

Yesterday, I was on the verge of correcting someone about something. I thought it would be too disruptive though, and embarrassing to them as well, so I held my tongue for a few minutes. Then, I checked the book from which I was going to prove myself...

A relatively new film shows triplets separated at birth as part of an experiment that was designed to discover whether it is nature or nurture that determines who each individual is to become. While the ethics of such an experiment are certainly questionable...

In the beginning, when G-d was creating the world, humans were created in G-d’s image. That we were created b’tzelem Elokim, “In the image of G-d,” has been a positive and a negative for the Jewish people. It is a negative concept if G-d is a...

I ran into one of the prophets at Schnucks. He was looking over the fresh fruit. Someone spotted him and he signed a cantaloupe with this: I love you with all my broken heart.Then he started to recite poetry. Three weeks I sat in sadness, he declaimed,...

This coming week brings one of the most difficult days of the Jewish year. From Saturday night through Sunday, we will observe Tisha B’av, the day that commemorates many of the tragedies of Jewish history.In particular, we commemorate the destruction...