“One is obligated to recite a blessing for the bad just as one recites a blessing for the good, as it is stated (in Deuteronomy 6:5): ‘And you shall love the ETERNAL your God with [...]

Ben Zoma said… Who is rich? Those who are satisfied with what they have. בֶּן זוֹמָא אוֹמֵר… אֵיזֶהוּ עָשִׁיר, הַשָּׂמֵחַ בְּחֶלְקוֹ (Pirkei Avot 4:1) This two-thousand year old text connects deeply to the American holiday [...]

“...Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.” (Genesis 32:29) לֹ֤א יַעֲקֹב֙ יֵאָמֵ֥ר עוֹד֙ שִׁמְךָ֔ כִּ֖י אִם־יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כִּֽי־שָׂרִ֧יתָ עִם־אֱלֹהִ֛ים וְעִם־אֲנָשִׁ֖ים וַתּוּכָֽל׃... In this [...]

“Jacob awoke from his dream and said, ‘Surely the ETERNAL is present in this place, and I did not know it!’ Shaken, he said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the [...]

“I want to remind you again why we are all running.” Four months into our training for a 26.2 mile race, no reminder seems necessary. But it is. More than 70 of us are gathered [...]

There’s some strange math at the beginning of this week's Torah portion. We learn that our matriarch Sarah dies at 127 years old. But the Torah enumerates the years of her life in a rather [...]

This past Monday marked the Hebrew yahrtzeit of the death of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. I remember precisely where I was when I heard that Rabin had been shot: right here in Los Angeles at Shabbat morning [...]

Word Games When I was a kid, I loved riddles. At summer camp, after lights out, we would play word games, trying to guess for example how two men perished in a small cabin in [...]

אֵ֚לֶּה תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת נֹ֔חַ נֹ֗חַ אִ֥ישׁ צַדִּ֛יק תָּמִ֥ים הָיָ֖ה בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו אֶת־הָֽאֱלֹהִ֖ים הִֽתְהַלֶּךְ־נֹֽחַ׃ “This is the line of Noah: Noah was a righteous man (tzaddik); he was blameless in his age; Noah walked with God.” — Genesis [...]

This Shabbat we begin the reading of our Torah again with Parashat B’reisheet, the very first portion of the five books. It includes two stories of the creation of the world. We are told that humanity was [...]