Sukkot: The Season of Our Joy
The Torah reading for the Shabbat of Sukkot (Exodus 33:12–34:26) includes the reconciliation between God and Moses following the Golden Calf, the inscription of the second set of the Ten Commandments, and the verbal covenant that accompanies this second giving.
Family Trees, Branches, and Identity
The Book of Genesis involves a patchwork of stories. These are held together by an overarching framework that I refer to as "the ideological overlay."How are we to understand this structure? Picture eggs in an eggcrate.
Eat, Drink, and Be Merry – Even in a Pandemic
Aligned with the rhythm of our earth turning on its axis, our season of returning (
Noah and How We Live with One Another in Our Time
Every few years we are treated to the same news item. It proclaims breathlessly that a new expedition to Mount Ararat has located remains of Noah's ark. Of course, it always turns out that the boat was not found after all, and future reports will run the same course.
Entering the Void
PARASHAH OVERVIEW
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Moses sings his last song, a love poem to God and a chastisement of the people, who are not worthy of Adonai. (32:1-6)
Earning the Privilege of Walking Before God
What Noah is to humanity, Abraham is to the Jewish people. Both were destined to initiate something new: Noah became the ancestor of a renewed humankind; Abraham revolutionized faith by relating to God in a new way.
God as Matchmaker
With so many matchmaking and online dating services, it's no surprise that people are looking for love, but as a recent Pew study1 shows, their search results in marriage less and less often. That's because relationships of any kind are seldom easy.
Are the Floodwaters God's Tears? Essential Tools for Beginning Anew
"I am establishing My covenant with you; never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth" (Genesis 9:11).
What to Remember and What to Forget
Our Jewish tradition speaks frequently about the gift of memory. One of the most devastating illnesses of our times is Alzheimer's, a disease that destroys memory. Families are overcome by anguish when parents no longer recall who their children are.