The Light in the Ark Amid all the drama of the impending Flood and the destruction of almost all of creation, we focus on Noah building the ark, and hear one detailed instruction: Make a tzohar for the ark and terminate it within a cubit of the top. (Gen. 6:16) There is a difficulty understanding what “tzohar” means, since […]
A Drama in Four Acts The parsha of Noach brings to a close the eleven chapters that precede the call to Abraham and the beginning of the special relationship between him and his descendants, and God. During these eleven chapters, the Torah gives prominence to four stories – Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the generation of the […]
The Trace of God The story of the first eight chapters of Bereishit is tragic but simple, creation, followed by de-creation, followed by re-creation. God creates order. Humans then destroy that order, to the point where “the world was filled with violence,” and “all flesh had corrupted its way on earth.” God brings a flood […]
Individual and Collective Responsibility I once had the opportunity to ask the Catholic writer Paul Johnson what had struck him most about Judaism during the long period he spent researching it for his masterly ‘A History of the Jews’? He replied in roughly these words, “There have been, in the course of history, societies that […]
The Courage to Live with Uncertainty For each of us there are milestones on our spiritual journey that change the direction of our life and set us on a new path. For me one such moment came when I was a rabbinical student at Jews’ College and thus had the privilege of studying with one […]
Beyond Nature Are we naturally good or naturally bad? On this great minds have argued for centuries. Hobbes believed that we have naturally “a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.” We are bad, but governments and police can help limit the harm we do. Rousseau to the contrary […]
Righteousness is not Leadership The praise that Noah is accorded is unparalleled anywhere in Tanakh. He was, says the Torah, “a righteous man, perfect in his generations; Noah walked with God.” No such praise is given to Abraham or Moses or any of the prophets. The only person in the Bible who comes close is […]
True Morality Is there such a thing as an objective basis of morality? For some time, in secular circles, the idea has seemed absurd. Morality is what we choose it to be. We are free to do what we like so long as we don’t harm others. Moral judgments are not truths but choices. There […]
Individual and Collective Responsibility I once had the opportunity to ask the Catholic writer Paul Johnson what had struck him most about Judaism during the long period he spent researching it for his masterly ‘A History of the Jews’? He replied in roughly these words, “There have been, in the course of history, societies that […]
A Tale of Four Cities Between the Flood and the call to Abraham, between the universal covenant with Noah and the particular covenant with one people, comes the strange, suggestive story of Babel: Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and […]
