Thoughts on Parashat Ki Tavo

What are the Jewish values? Typically, when this question is raised, the following values are mentioned: devotion to live in community (Israel), education (Torah), governance of life by law (halacha), truthfulness and trustworthiness (emunah), justice and righteousness (tzedek), kindness and taking care of others (chesed), respect and dignity (kavod) and responsibility (acharayut). They all have their social and their religious dimension, and traditionally they were all put under one umbrella: belief in God. They can also be put under another umbrella: fixing up the world (tikkun haolam).[…]

Thoughts on Parashat Ki Teitzei.

I visited Poland over the last few weeks to perform my dad’s funeral and to help my mother to find herself living in new circumstances, without him. Not having a car throughout most of my four weeks’ trip I was dependent on public transportation. One day I got on the bus in Przemyśl and I went to the driver to get a ticket. I had no change in my wallet, so the driver could not sell me the ticket because[…]

Thoughts on Parashat Ekev

This week’s Torah portion includes a beautiful vision of the Promised Land, spoken through the mouth of Moses on the eve of its conquest:

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and[…]

Thoughts on Parashat Va’etchanan.

The Torah contains the Divine laws. These laws are our moral and ritual guidelines on how to live a just and happy life, filled with blessings. The core of our moral code is Aseret ha-Dibrot – The 10 Commandments, which we find in this week’s parasha, Va’etchanan, the second parasha of The Book of Deuteronomy.[…]

Finish what you start

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe,” Albert Einstein reportedly said. He also said that “Nothing happens until something moves.” Indeed, constant movement seems to be the essence of everything. This is one of the few empirical truths we should also consider as normative. To stop, to do nothing, is a fundamental violation of the principle[…]

Thoughts on Parashat Pinchas

Is there a general rule of how we should deal with evil? Should we fight back, respond with poker face or with doing good to an evildoer, hoping that he will become aware of the wickedness of his behavior and will return to the right path? The answers to these questions are dependent on what we believe about the nature of evil: does evil exist objectively? Or maybe certain human actions are only evil ‘in our[…]