This week we read a double portion, Behar-Bechukotai, and tucked within its verses is one of the Torah's most breathtaking and honest conversations between Gd and the Jewish people. In Bechukotai, Gd lays out a remarkable two-path proposition: walk in My ways, fulfill your obligations to one…
Take a moment and think about your home. Why do you have the things you have, the artwork on the walls, the furniture you chose, the tablecloth you always set out for company? Some of us decorate for comfort, we want to feel at ease in our own space. Some of us follow a style we love. And ma…
There is a story told of two merchants who had been rivals for decades… same street, same trade, same town. They argued over prices, competed for customers, and whispered unfavorably about one another to anyone who would listen. One winter, a fire broke out and destroyed one merchant's sho…
This week's double portion, Tazria–Metzora, is among the most challenging in the Torah to teach, and precisely because of that, among the most important. It describes a mysterious skin condition called tzaraat, which generations of translators have rendered as "leprosy." It is not leprosy.…
Imagine a group of travelers making their way through a vast wilderness. Their guide, wise, experienced, chosen by the community itself, leads them confidently. One evening, he misreads the stars and they camp a mile off course. Some whisper, “Perhaps he was never fit to lead at all.” Bu…
