Willing to sacrifice

By Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky
Published on March 21, 2013

The mind of the midrashist drifts effortlessly over the face of the Tanakh as verses from the Torah conjure up similar verses and phrases from other sacred books. Thus, our parasha’s descriptions of the thanksgiving offerings and the free-will offerings call to mind a phrase found in Psalm 50: “The one who sacrifices a thanksgiving offering honors me.”

First Fruits

Published on September 5, 2012

Earlier today I bit into a crisp, bright green plum. The plum, a new variety at my local farmers’ market, showed up for the first time this week. It is hard to believe

When your brother will be low

By Rabbi Lisa Edwards
Published on May 15, 2012

He flopped down on the couch in my study, looking pale, upset. “What is it?” I asked, imagining a bad diagnosis.

Engraved Ideas

By Rabbi Elazar Muskin
Published on May 17, 2011

In 2008, the Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed written by Marisol Leon, a young woman who graduated from Yale in 2007 and returned to teach in the same public middle school she had attended:

Refining Our Souls

By Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater
Published on March 22, 2011

The aphorism “you are what you eat” first appeared in French and then in German in the 1800s, and was then brought into English in the 1920s by nutritionist Victor Lindlahr, the inventor of the “catabolic diet.” Hippie foodies later adopted the phrase in the 1960s.

Recognizing a Community

By Rabbi N. Daniel Korobkin
Published on March 1, 2011

When looking for biblical themes on the importance of community, one needs look no further than those portions at the end of Exodus that deal with the construction of the mishkan (Tabernacle). This special structure represents the collective spiritual power of the Jewish people, which is far greater than the sum of the individual parts. Separately, the individual Jew does not have enough spiritual energy to bring the Divine Presence, the Shekhinah, into this world. But when the Jewish people join in the construction of a communal edifice, a structure that represents their collective worship and spiritual energy, the Shekhinah eagerly embeds Itself within the people.