What's for dinner? What's the best restaurant? Going from store to store to find the right ingredient... How is it that when we travel and when we are home, food is a central component of our conversation, of our thinking, of our planning, of our action? For better or worse, for us as Jews, food is certainly central to our consciousness (for better or worse). How is it, that something that can be so mundane captured the imagination and spirit of our people? Preparing our ancestors for entry into the land of Israel, Moses says to the Israelites: Read more...

Ten years ago, when my children were now almost three years old, they had reached a stage in life in which they liked to be helpful to their mother and to me when we were busy with household chores. As we prepared a meal, they liked to help rip up the lettuce, or open a package, or mix the food in a bowl. As much as I appreciated their helpfulness, there was also a drawback to their voluntarism: they often didn’t finish the job they had begun. Read more...

Well, the statistics are in, and the news isn’t good. Hate crimes, it seems, are more popular than ever. Perhaps it’s because the economy isn’t as robust as we would like it to be; perhaps it’s because we live in an age of rapid social change and there are people who resent the changes and feel powerless because of them. Or perhaps the rising violence is because there are simply people willing to do evil and lacking the self-restraint (or the communal restraint) to stop them. Read more...