Holy Bountiful One,  You give us life as a gift, to safeguard and to relish. If we only guard, we will never truly taste. If we rashly...

And Shechem the son of Hamor, the Hivvite, the prince of the land, saw her, and he took her, lay with her, and violated her. -Genesis...

In games we play the best way that we have to silence any doubt that we might win a game of sports, is winning, just as...

And became exceedingly wealthy, and he had prolific animals, and maidservants and manservants, and camels and donkeys. –Genesis 30:43 I count myself wealthy by the number...

We must resolve the conflict between instinct and what’s generally considered to be its antithesis, intellect. Although the former is more difficult to understand it should be...

And he said, "Are you my son Esau?" And he said, "I am." –Genesis 27:24 I like to think of myself as part of the...

When Abraham, admitting to the Hittites he was not indigenous, said “I’m a stranger who would like to be accepted as a resident,” he hoped to...

And she said to the servant, "Who is that man walking in the field towards us?”…And Isaac brought her to the tent of Sarah...

“Hurrah!” in a pre-messianic matter tells Jews to stand up and keep fighting. Even though I'm not a Superman, I'm of this mantra a tremendous fan, fulfilling it...

Drive out this handmaid and her son, for the son of this handmaid shall not inherit with my son, with Isaac. -Genesis 21:10 Think of what might...

It was not his ability to inspire people with interpretive comprehension that made Bruno Walter a great conductor, but his faith in music --- especially...

The Jewish calendar is guided by the moon.

Please look heavenward and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So will be your seed.. -Genesis 15:5 There...

You must see that it’s wrong that following the Shoah there can only be no poetry, because to save from Flood all living beings, Noah used wood God...

And I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and between you and between every living creature among all flesh, and the water...

When, as a shepherd, Moses turns, recovering a straying lamb, God tells him: “My name is ‘I Am,’” the God within the bush that burns, but strangely does...

Before we Jews assemble around the Sabbath table, we welcome angels, but before we say kiddush we send them all away, because we are not able,  till...

And his brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who grasp a lyre and a flute. -Genesis 4:21 Fresh out of the garden and...

Every day is new beneath the sun; Ecclesiastes got it wrong. His message I believe should be undone: that is the message of my song.   Everybody needs a...

For they will be nourished by the abundance of the seas, and by the treasures hidden in the sand. -Deuteronomy 33:19 I’ve never lived more than a...

And He said, "I will hide My face from them…” -Deuteronomy 32:20 Yes. No. I don’t know. Those are the three answers my students used to give me when I’d asked...

It’s possible the etrog was the fruit which God told Adam not to eat while Edened. He did, and therefore had to make himself a suit,  by sinful citron-induced pleasures...

Aquinas, who equated truth with joy, may not have realized the quite treacherously troubling fact that lies appeal to nearly all the hoi polloi, since passion for...

If I were to vote for the most poorly named Jewish ritual it would be fasting because, let’s face it, it ain’t. Empires rise and fall...

The practical and spiritual benefits of setting time aside for Shabbat dinner might be exactly the boost our households need.

I wonder if a major reason that the aged Abraham was willing to sacrifice his young son Isaac, son of his old age whom we...

God will once again gather you from all the nations, where Adonai, your God, had dispersed you. -Deuteronomy 30:3 I’m a rip off the bandaid kind of...

In Laval-ruled Vichy France, collaborationist was a term for someone worse than a collaborator, The difference hardly more than just semantic, Pétainist no less that the collaborator...

and you will observe and fulfill them with all your heart and with all your soul. -Deuteronomy 26:16 and to make you supreme, above all the...

This poem is a tribute to the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, who died on September 22, 2000, in the Hadassah Hospital that overlooks the...