In this week’s Torah portion, Ki Teitzei, the Torah writes: “If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Send the mother bird…

What should our response be to living in a time in which we are aware of so many tragedies around the world as they happen?  The seminal book of Musar, Misilat Yisharim, writes that we must always ask, “Mah chovati baolami”, What is my obligation in this world?”  Everything which happens is a test for…

We are blessed with a community that is vibrant and diverse.  Many Shuls would be overjoyed to have the liveliness that hundreds of young professionals bring to a community, the wisdom of dozens of accomplished thinkers and politicians, and the commitment that many vatikin, those who have been members of the community for decades, bring.…

The Talmud tells the following story in tractate Berachot 10a: “There were hooligans in Rabbi Meir’s neighborhood who caused him a great deal of anguish. Rabbi Meir prayed for God to have mercy on them, that they should die. Rabbi Meir’s wife, Berurya, said to him: What is your thinking? On what basis do you…

In this week’s Torah portion, just 40 days after receiving the Divine Revelation at Mount Sinai, the Jewish people become anxious that Moses their leader will not return from on top of the mountain and they make for themselves a golden calf.   In the midst of their sensual, noisy, Dionysian worship of the calf…