Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing some perspectives on the arc of the Genesis narrative leading to Abraham and how some of its eternal truths and enduring challenges might speak to us in our contemporary context. As we complete a summer that was the warmest on record, the emergency of climate change becomes even more apparent. The Genesis stories serve as one more reminder of our responsibilities to our planet’s wellbeing and the security of the generations that will follow us. (If you are starting to read these texts midweek, you may want to start from Monday’s Kavanah for context.) Bereishit – Stories of Destruction There are three stories of cataclysmic destruction in the book of Genesis. The first is the flood that restarts creation. Distraught over the evil that has overtaken the world, God erases it all and renews creation with Noah and his descendants. Only a [...]

Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing some perspectives on the arc of the Genesis narrative leading to Abraham and how some of its eternal truths and enduring challenges might speak to us in our contemporary context. As we complete a summer that was the warmest on record, the emergency of climate change becomes even more apparent. The Genesis stories serve as one more reminder of our responsibilities to our planet’s wellbeing and the security of the generations that will follow us. (If you are starting to read these texts midweek, you may want to start from Monday’s Kavanah for context.) Bereishit – the Creation of Humanity Humans are created twice in Bereishit. In the first iteration “Man is created in His image” and yet “male and female did God create them.”* Clearly the author of this story is at pains to assert that the “image” of God inherent in [...]

If you were writing a Torah for our times, where would you begin? Would you start with the stories of Abraham and Sarah, or would you begin with Moses, Aaron, Miriam and the Exodus? Alternatively, would you start with King David—the first Biblical character that evinces some actual archeological evidence? Any of those choices might be the natural starting place for a history of the Jewish people, however, our ancestors began their story telling with a multi-layered story of creation. So doing, they reveal a particular orientation to human existence that is extraordinary in its scope and implications. Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing some perspectives on the arc of the Genesis narrative leading to Abraham and how some of its eternal truths and enduring challenges might speak to us in our contemporary context. As we complete a summer that was the warmest on record, the emergency of [...]