FOSTERING A VIBRANT RENEWAL OF JUDAISM IN POLAND
Our parasha for this week tells us the story of the construction of the tabernacle, the organization of the religious cult and many other aspects related to it. In other words, it tells us about the construction of a holy space in which the Eternal was to dwell among the Israelites. This story and all these descriptions provide an opportunity to pose and answer a fundamental question: what is holiness?[…]
The villages of Svaneti, a mountainous region in the South-West of Georgia, are incredibly picturesque. No wonder – they are perched against a backdrop of snowy peaks of Caucasus, the highest mountain range in Europe. However, this prime location is not their defining feature. What sets them apart from Alpine villages of, say, Austria or […]
Imagine that a great apocalyptic catastrophe happened on our planet and you are the only human that survived it. There is still a great abundance of everything, including food, so you don’t have to worry you would starve to death. Actually, at this moment the entire planet belongs to you, for there is no one with whom you have to share it. Thus, you have more than everything you have ever wanted, or even imagined to possess. Let’s also imagine that you have some sources of energy, like electricity, so your survival till your natural death would be easier.[…]
In the Quran, each surah (portion or chapter), is named either after its main theme or a memorable word that it contains. Since I learned this, each week I ask myself one question: what is one word that describes the essence of this portion? Some answers are easy to come up with. Parashat Bereshit, describing […]
Imagine that you live in pre-modern times and the technology we have today does not exist. Imagine that you are in the desert with a group of people and they expect you to lead out of this desert. They expect you not only to take them out of the place they camp, they expect you to guide them to the place they can settle and have ‘a normal life’. They are a group of refugees from the country they had been abused for generations. They are not the most moral and civilized among the people on earth, precisely because of the abuse they experienced: the system they were living under did not encourage them to live morally because it was not a good strategy of survival, those who cheated and stole were much better off.[…]
I remember it as vividly as if it only happened yesterday and not almost a quarter century ago. In early January 1999, when I was in fifth grade, my school took us to the cinema to see the newest Disney blockbuster, the Prince of Egypt. While I was familiar with the biblical story of Exodus […]
