How do we know what events will be remembered? What will go down in history as something extraordinary? Something life-changing? Living in the present, we can never know if an event will stand the test of time. Unless, of course, that event is the splitting of the Red Sea. An event so monumental that even as it was happening, it was as if it was already recorded in the annals of history. Read more...

Growing up in Israel meant that in my junior and senior years of high school "interfaith dialogue" translated into spending a few shabbats and holidays a year with a blended group of Israeli high - schoolers, who stood at every possible point on the "Jewish belief and observance spectrum." These seminars were organized by Gesher, who saw (and continues to see) this form of dialogue as their mission. We believed that if we could learn together, and live together for these intense periods of time at Gesher's dwelling in Tzfat, we would transform our country. Read more...

One morning on the way to school, my son Jeremy asked me, "Are the stories of the Torah real?" Read more...

The Nazis took my uncle Henry at the very beginning of the war. He survived more than five years as a slave. Young and strong, he was a carpenter, and they needed carpenters. At first, they moved him from camp to camp, including a stay at Pleshow, where Schindler's list was born, and finally, Auschwitz. A slave laborer, he helped build the camp. When the Allies advanced, he was taken on the infamous Death March from Poland into Germany. He was liberated by the American army in 1945. Read more...

What is it to write a poem about war? About death and destruction? About salvation and redemption? This week's Torah portion contains one of the most famous poems in the Torah - the Song of the Sea/Shirat Hayam. The images and metaphors in this poem are powerful and inspiring. The song imagines both realistically and fantastically the events at the splitting of the sea, it brings the reader to a moment of ecstatic praise, and then supplies the words of praise themselves. The poem moves from description to praise of God deftly and beautifully. Read more...