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I've struggled to write this Dvar Torah. When times are tough, I find no comfort in complaint, and am instead silenced. Raised by British immigrants to the United States, who were themselves raised by Polish and Lithuanian immigrants to England, I was taught to "keep calm and carry on." One of my favorite books is Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. This masterpiece deals with events of the French Revolution of 1789. Here is an excerpt from the famous first paragraph: Read more...

This next week, our country will elect a new president. A general fear of the unknown looms over us like a wall cloud before a tornado. We do not know where it will hit or when, or if at all, but the green, dark sky teases us about what might come. One scary aspect of this election is the name-calling and labeling, and the neglect of any concern about how we might falsely characterize others in an attempt to draw people nearer to our own point-of-view. We are each of us born into this world without a name, character or story. Read more...

Here, they are one people with one language for them all, and this is merely the first of their doings-- now there will be no barrier for them in all that they scheme to do!" (Genesis 10:6) This week’s parasha contains two disaster stories. The first and more famous of the two is the story of the Flood, when humanity’s thirst for violence brings about the destruction of the world. The second is the story of the Tower of Babel, when instead it is the drive to power that leads to the disintegration of the human community. Read more...