Book Club March 2021 – Call It Sleep, Henry Roth When Henry Roth published Call It Sleep, his first novel, in 1934, it was greeted with critical acclaim. But in that dark Depression year, books were hard to sell, and the novel quickly dropped out of sight, as did its twenty-eight-year-old author. Only with its […]
Friday, February 26, 2021/14 Adar, 5781 Parashat T’tzaveh Exodus 27:20–30:10 Dear Friends, This week, as we are celebrating Purim, leading into Shabbat, and then celebrating Shabbat Tetzaveh, I cannot help but think about costumes. Costumes and dressing up is an important part of the festival of Purim, as we mask ourselves, dressing up, often, as […]
The Counterpoint of Leadership One of the most important Jewish contributions to our understanding of leadership is its early insistence of what, in the eighteenth century, Montesquieu called “the separation of powers.”[1] Neither authority nor power was to be located in a single individual or office. Instead, leadership was divided between different kinds of roles. One […]
Friday, February 19, 2021/7 Adar, 5781 Parashat T’rumah Exodus 25:1–27:19 Dear Friends, The Shabbat before Purim is called Shabbat Zachor, or Shabbat of Remembering. In addition to reading the words of Parashat Terumah (the Torah portion, which talks about building the Tabernacle), we read a small section of Torah referred to as Parashat Zachor: Remember […]
The Home We Build Together The sequence of parashot that begins with Terumah, and continues Tetzaveh, Ki Tissa, Vayakhel and Pekudei, is puzzling in many ways. First, it outlines the construction of the Tabernacle (Mishkan), the portable House of Worship the Israelites built and carried with them through the desert, in exhaustive and exhausting detail. The narrative takes almost […]
Friday, February 12, 2021/30 Shevat, 5781 Parashat Mishpatim Exodus 21:1–24:18 Dear Friends, Judaism is often described as a religion that emphasizes deeds. This characterization originates from this week’s Torah portion. There are three separate biblical verses in which the Jewish people promise to take on the teachings of Torah. When Moses tells the people that […]
Vision and Details Our parsha takes us through a bewildering transition. Up until now, the book of Shemot has carried us along with the sweep and drama of the narrative – the Israelites’ enslavement, their hope for freedom, the plagues, Pharaoh’s obstinacy, their escape into the desert, the crossing of the Red Sea, the journey […]
