By Dr. Halina Postek Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, […]
Balak: Are we a people that “dwells alone”?
By Dr. Halina Postek July 22, 2016/16 Tammuz 5776 – This week’s Torah portion Balak is the only parasha in the entire Torah in which the conveyed events are made known to us not because the Israelites participated in them (they were the ones who witnessed all the other events described in the Torah). Rather, we […]
Korach: Problems with Democracy
By Dr Halina Postek July 8th, 2016/2nd Tamuz 5776 A year has passed since the Israelites left Egypt. That is enough time to forget the bitterness of slavery, humiliation and persecution. This period of time was long enough for the process of the idealization of the past to begin. Now Egypt seems like a land […]
Parshat Bamidbar
By Rabbi Yoel Kahn, PhD, DD, Congregation Beth El, Berkeley, CA June 11, 2016 This week’s Torah portion begins with precision in time and vagueness in geography. We begin reading this week from the fourth book of the Torah, parshat Bamidbar: The Eternal spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, […]