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All Jewish kids get A's. It's a fact. They're all above average. They all go on to Stanford, Brown and Berkeley. They all are the champ in debate, first violin in the orchestra, the lead in the play, the captain of the team. But what happens when they're not? What happens when they don't excel? What happens when they fail? "You're not working up to your potential," a teacher once scolded me. And I suffered. Only years later did I realized that no one "works up to their potential." Such a demand is limitless; a requirement that can never be satisfied. Read more...

Some time ago, an eighth grade student came to my office to interview me about being a rabbi. It was Career Day at her school, and her assignment was to meet with someone in an job she found interesting and ask a list of pre-prepared questions, among them: "Do you have to wear a suit to your job? How much do you get paid? Is there much heavy lifting?" Read more...

When Jacob gathers his sons to his deathbed, he opens with this exhortation: "Gather round, that I may tell you what will befall you in the aftertime of days" (49:1). At the conclusion of his speaking, the Torah tells us, "this is what their father spoke to them; he blessed them, according to what belonged to each as blessing, he blessed them" (49:28). Already, then, a discontinuity between the opening of Jacob's discourse and its conclusion should be apparent. What is forecast to be a forecast is, once concluded, summed up as something else entirely, a blessing. Read more...

"Joseph lived to see children of the third generation of Ephraim; the children of Machir, son of Menasseh were likewise born upon Joseph's knees...Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years...."(Genesis 50:23, 26)   Read more...