Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

Nobody makes something from nothing, not even God. But God molds the tohu va-vohu, the chaos swirling in the deep, and -- miraculous to say! -- life emerges.   Life is simple at first, then complex. Reflexive at first, then conscious. Life becomes.   It takes all that love, all that power, all that guidance, but life does emerge, waddle, and walk.   Mother, my own creator: Read more...

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Four score years ago in April 1943, the Jews of Warsaw rose in armed resistance to their German occupiers.   In the free world, Jews were celebrating Passover, the historic journey from slavery in Egypt and the journey through the dessert to the Promised Land millennia ago.  In ghettos of occupied Poland – even in the death camps – Jews were eating the bread of affliction for years yet even they could dream of freedom, “Now we are slaves, next year”.… Will there be a next year, they wondered? Will there be a next day?  Read more...

When I was a kid growing up, we would spend the first night of Passover Seder with one set of grandparents, and the second night with the other. I remember my grandfather, z”l, once greeting me with ‘Chag Sameach!’ Followed by a remark that on the holiday of Passover, I should always wear green. Read more...

International Women’s Day is a global celebration to lift up women’s achievements, whether political, economic, social or cultural.  It is intended to belong to "all groups collectively, everywhere". This idea of "everywhere" isn’t new for us; or it shouldn’t be. Read more...