Judaism’s core lies in community. On Shavuot, the “time of the giving of our law,” we gather together to receive the Torah, making a covenant with God, in the name of the Jewish People. We are given the Torah and 613 commandments to build our community, our relationship with God and our relationships with one …
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Boldly painted on the sides and rears of many TATA trucks and tractors are the words “INDIA IS GREAT.” Alongside an open lotus flower, symbolizing purity, these words hold true on a number of levels. First, India is great in terms of the country’s size and diversity of natural resources. India is the world’s largest …
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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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What exactly is “organizing”? It’s a term people are using a lot more these days. From Wall Street to Tahrir Square, people are organizing for different kinds of change. But the idea of organizing from the ground up toward a common goal often makes people uncomfortable. Why is that? As a fundraiser at AJWS, I …
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Originally published in The Berkshire Jewish Voice. “It’s great that you are going to India. But why do you have to travel over there? There is so much to do for your own people here. Or in Israel.” As I boarded the British Air flight lugging my pack overflowing with antibiotics and sunscreen, this question, posed by a family …
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