Another Way Of Looking At Things, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Weekly Parsha |
June 22, 2022
Visual versus Verbal
The Power of Language...
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This week’s Torah portion, Parshat Nasso relates the ancient and problematic practice of Sotah, in which a husband who experiences a “fit of jealousy” and is “wrought up” (Numbers 5:14) that his wife might have been unfaithful to him, can engage a ritual practice to discern whether she is innocent of wrongdoing. It is grotesquely patriarchal and filled with magical thinking that a yucky mixture of barley flour, earth from the floor of the Tabernacle, and water “induces a spell” that makes a woman’s “thigh to sag” and “belly to distend” if......
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Compassion and Empathy, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Weekly Parsha |
May 26, 2022
Making Our Laws Holy
When an 18-year-old (may his name be blotted out) walked into a gun shop and bought a pair of assault rifles and enough ammunition to create a war zone at an elementary school, he violated no laws. The gun laws in Texas and across many parts of the United States have been so debased as to make the unholy legal. The law walked hand in hand with the gunman up to the point in which he trespassed and then unleashed carnage, taking the lives of 19 small children and two teachers in what should have been......
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Compassion and Empathy, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Weekly Parsha |
May 13, 2022
Responding to Unscrupulous Leadership
Scandals involving clergy abound today, from misappropriation of funds to inappropriate personal conduct and outright abuse. Could this week's Torah portion provide guidance about how we might respond? ...
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Compassion and Empathy, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Uncategorized, Weekly Parsha |
April 27, 2022
Who you are in the field…
Several weeks ago I was teaching Torah to a group of students from around the country that has met weekly for several months. As the sessions meet in the evening time, it usually means that I’m occupied with bedtime routines for our three children right up until 6:59 PM, at which point I make a mad dash into the bedroom to start the class, and wish my wife godspeed for the remaining half hour (on a good night) of the various rituals, routines, and meltdowns that accompany bedtime. About 10 minutes into......
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Compassion and Empathy, Grief & Coping, Inspiring Story, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Weekly Parsha |
April 01, 2022
Contagion is Universal
Looking at how we all need help sometimes...
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Compassion and Empathy, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Weekly Parsha |
February 18, 2022
Moral Leadership
The last few weeks have been strange in Canada. A convoy of angry citizens has taken their tractors, semi-trucks, and construction vehicles and established illegal blockades of border crossings in Ontario and other provinces and occupations of the entire neighborhood outside Parliament in Ottawa, as well as protests in other major Canadian cities. This development is anathema to much of what Canadians think of themselves – nice, friendly, reasonable people governed by prudence and shared responsibility. It seems like a sudden shock to many. Where did this come from? In this week’s......
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Bring The Sacred Down To Earth, Compassion and Empathy, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized, Uncategorized, Weekly Parsha |
January 28, 2022
Seeing the Unseen
Over the last few weeks, the astronomy world watched each step of the James Webb Space Telescope unfold. Aside from all the usual nervousness surrounding a rocket launch, there were 344 single-point failures as it tried to help us see farther, deeper, and more clearly into the reaches of deep space. Miraculously, each step worked exactly as planned – NASA was hoping things would go smoothly, but with rocket science, a lot can go wrong even if the mission is well-planned and designed. There was a palpable sense of relief as the......
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