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…

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…

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…