Are there Different Kinds of Anger?
In the Torah, anger is the Hebrew word harah. But in many verses, the word is paired with ahff – connecting to the nostrils. What do nostrils have to do with anger? The Torah tells us: G-d formed a Human from the soil’s humus, blowing into his nostrils the breath of life: the Human became…
The Perils of Keeping Score
Most of our relationships (especially the impersonal ones) are transactional in nature. If you buy a candy bar or an airline ticket, goods and services are quantified and exchanged. We can, by the same token, hire a cleaner or a plumber – both are “clean” transactions. But those very same services, if provided within a…
Was Moshe Tempted To Retire?
When Korach first challenges Moshe, Moshe is unable to respond – he falls on his face. Why? Is it possible that Moshe cannot believe that anyone would want his job?! Moshe’s work was incredibly difficult. He had to constantly interact with Almighty G-d. And at the very same time, Moshe was supposed to lead and…
Free Speech In The Torah?
People are suggesting that Elon Musk, trillionaire, should do something positive for humanity. Everything else notwithstanding, I suggest that Musk has already done so: he bought Twitter/X, and made it the biggest market for free speech mankind has ever known. I think that history might well show that free speech becomes as important a legacy…
Yearning for the Bad Old Days
The Torah tells of a man who was collecting wood on Shabbos. Once, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, a fellow was found gathering wood on the sabbath day. Those who found him as he was gathering wood brought him before Moses, Aaron, and the whole community. (N. 15:32-33) G-d sentences this man to…
Flight of Fancy? The Metaphor of Wings
Flight has often captured our imagination. There is something about breaking free from the earth, soaring through the sky like a bird, and seeing the world from a more elevated perspective. The dominant metaphor for flight has always been wings, enabling birds to leave the ground and fly, to even seemingly hang in the air,…
Our Environment Matters
So… G-d tells Abraham to look up into the sky, to see all the stars visible at night. “This will be the future of your offspring,” declareth The Lord. “Jews will live as white minorities in black-dominated cities.” As with most jokes, this one works because there is more than a grain of truth in…
The Way We Fix Things with Those We Love – and Those We Do Not
Everyone knows about the concept of atonement – a pathway to continue a relationship with G-d despite our sins. In the Torah, atonement, kaparah, is about creating a protective layer, so that we can still come close to G-d despite the enormous gap between man and G-d. We never get to “undo” something that was…
Who Leads Change: Grassroots or Rabbis?
Change is a very sensitive topic among observant Jews, in no small part because the most common attack on traditional Judaism is to use history to show how much Judaism has changed. Pointing out that what we do today is not necessarily the same as what we did in yesteryear invariably calls today’s practice and…
Why Do People Need to Talk?
Criminals get caught when they brag. They seemingly cannot help it. All these “hidden camera” interviews where government workers or politicians let the cat out of the bag to a perfect stranger over a drink (with perhaps some sexual attraction thrown in for good measure) are pretty much the same thing. Look at all the…
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