Thoughts on Parashat Sh’lach Our Torah portion for this week tells us a story of 12 spies sent by Moses to investigate the Promised land before conquering it. They return forty days later, carrying a huge cluster of grapes, a pomegranate and a fig, to report on a lush and bountiful land. But ten of […]

Thoughts on parashat Beha’alotcha

As the old joke goes, “Ask two Jews, you will get three opinions!”. Indeed, Judaism is a religion of intellectual pluralism and it itself resists monolithic interpretations in almost any area of human life and spirituality. Our religion is fundamentally a religion of action: we are bound by the same ethical and […]

Thoughts on parashat Nasso.

One of the fundamental philosophical and at the same time practical problems underlying all religions is how to control things that are beyond our control. Therefore, throughout history intoxicants received religious, and often legal attention. One of the ways in which our religion[…]