Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

 The human mind presents us with both a marvel and a mystery.  Capable of mastering a remarkable range of complex tasks, of remembering obscure experiences or facts, that same organ will also forget an important appointment, an acquaintance's name, or the contents of this morning's breakfast.  Simultaneously able to outperform a computer in our supple manipulation of data into concepts, each of us also faces the unpleasant reality that we continually forget information we desperately desire or need. Anyone who has reviewed notes taken in college or remarks scri Read more...

Finally, our society is beginning to discuss the countless ways in which we have made life difficult for the people who are lame, blind, deaf, mute, or who suffer from one of the many physical impediments that can restrict their lives.   Read more...

Jewish education forms the backbone of our communities. We assure the community of vitality and endurance through the Hebrew studies of our children, the outreach programs for those considering conversion, and the continuing education programs for other seeking adults.  And those programs need our support. Consider today's Torah portion. God instructs Moses to take a census of the Jewish People in order for each Jew to pay a half-shekel tax to maintain the central communal institution of Jewish learning--the Mishkan (Tabernacle).   The Mishkan, a Jewish school!?! Read more...

At its deepest core, America prides itself on the rule of law -- the   insistence that no individual, however wealthy, influential, popular or powerful, is superior to the rules which govern human conduct. Above any individual -- even the President of the United States -- are a body of laws which translate general principles into legal guidelines for harmonious living.  Read more...

Our culture is materially opulent and spiritually starved.  Throughout American communities, lavish homes and well-furnished schools provide our children and ourselves with abundant physical comforts.  We have all the possessions we can imagine.   Our richness in things is counter-balanced, however, by our poverty in time.  Read more...