One of the things I find most inspiring about studying Torah is that the biblical characters are human. They may be our valorized, mythical ancestors, but they also consistently make mistakes, leaving a record of paradigmatic human foibles from which we can learn. There is one biblical failure, however, that I have always struggled to …
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“God has told you, human, what is good, and what Adonai requires of you: Only to do justice, and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God. Then will your name achieve wisdom.” These beautiful and tantalizing words from the prophet Michah close the haftarah portion that accompanies this week’s parasha, Balak. Beautiful, because they lay …
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Parshat Emor closes with one of the most famous and controversial pronouncements in the Torah: If anyone maims his fellow, as he has done so shall it be done to him; fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Just as he inflicted an injury upon a person, so shall it be inflicted upon …
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The American Jewish community has been lauded in many circles for its generosity. Jews gave 12% of all charitable gifts over $1 million in America in 2001-2003, despite making up less than 2% of the population. And it’s not just the wealthy among us. Although there has not been a great deal of comprehensive research, it …
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Text with Texture is a weekly blog series (featured on Tuesdays) that explores the rich and textured material found in On1Foot in connection with what’s happening in our world today. Working at a non-profit, I think a lot about generosity—with money and with time. Here at AJWS, we depend on our supporters to give us …
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This weekend marks the Jewish holiday of Purim. Purim is generally thought to be a relatively light-hearted holiday, celebrated with feasting, drinking, costumes, giving gifts to friends, and general silliness. But this year as I did a pre-reading of Megilat Esther, the biblical book which describes the events we commemorate on this holiday, I couldn’t help …
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