Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

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...

Last year, my kids and I walked from our home to the park a few blocks away. My son Jeremy decided to roller-skate there, even though he was still learning how. He could skate on his own during the smooth stretches of sidewalk, but needed help to keep from falling over bumps. We progressed at the pace of snails with my letting go whenever the sidewalk was even and holding his hand whenever he encountered a bump. (It took us almost half an hour to reach the park only a few blocks away!) Read more...

In a commentary on Miketz written in 1996, Dr. Jo Milgrom asked her readers to engage in a revealing experiment:   Read more...

In her 1975 book Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, one of the foundational works of 3rd wave feminism, Susan Brownmiller writes: "A female definition of rape can be contained in a single sentence. If a woman chooses not to have intercourse with a specific man and the man chooses to proceed against her will, that is a criminal act of rape." However, she then must add in the very next sentence, "Through no fault of woman, this is not and never has been the legal definition." (8) Read more...

Our Torah portion is so full of "highlights" and stories that create "bestsellers" that the first verse of our portion, "And Ya'akov leaves Be'er Sheva, and goes to Charan" seems to get lost before you even know that it existed. Read more...