In this week’s Torah portion, Re’eh, the Torah writes: “You must destroy all the sites at which the nations you are to dispossess worshiped their gods, whether on lofty mountains or on hills or under any luxuriant tree. Tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts to the fire, and cut down the…

In this week’s parsha, Re’eh, the Torah writes, “You are children of the Lord your God, do not cut yourself (out of anguish) when someone dies.” Rashi comments: “Do not cut yourself when someone dies, as the Amorites do, since you are children of God and it is fitting that you should look nice and…

This week’s haftarah, the third of seven haftarahs of comfort we read following Tisha B’Av, begins by addressing the Jewish people as “aniya [afflicted]” and “soarah [storm-tossed]”. The meaning of the word soarah – storm tossed – is usually a reference in Tanach to a ship in rough waters, as in the phrase in the…

“If there is a needy person among you, one of your kinsmen in any of your settlements in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kinsman.  Rather, you must surely open your hand and lend him sufficient for their needs,…

Perhaps the greatest religious conflict, especially for Jews, is that between God’s infiniteness and God’s intimacy.  God is radically One, as the mystics put it, Ayn od milvado, “There is nothing besides God.”  So impossible and dangerous is it to anthropomorphize God, to take the risk of limiting God or pretending to know God’s essence,…

What are the Jews?  Not a religion, for there are many who would say they are Jewish but are not religious; not a nation, for a nation is identified with its land and shared culture and Jews have not had a land for most of their history and do not share cultural identities such as…

This week’s Torah portion Re’eh-“See” begins “See I place before you today blessing and curse, the blessing that you will listen to the Mitzvot….”  The Midrah on these verses quotes the two additional verses to bring to bear on our portion, “The mitzvah is a candle and Torah is light” and “The human soul is…

The Jews are an enigmatic people.  We are not a religion, for there are many who would say they are Jewish but are not religious; we are not a nation, a nation is identified by its land and Jews have not had a land for most of their history; and we are not a culture…