The prerequisite to understanding any story is answering the question: What is its genre? This might seem like an easy task, but it’s really not. Let’s say that someone gets offended by a joke. The ...

The Torah teaches us to revere our mother and father (Lev. 19:3). This mitzvah is embedded within the Holiness Code. In observing it, we achieve holiness, as well as the wholeness of learning from the ...

Many of us find it hard to relate to the Torah portion of Vayikra. It focuses on a practice that is no longer in use today. We learn of various types of sacrifices and how they were to be fulfilled on ...

It seems that if you scratch the surface of the latest political debate in the United States about federal funding for many governmental programs, you will find a bedrock philosophical disagreement ...

After repeatedly denouncing and prohibiting the creation of statues, portrayals of the human form, or anything resembling idols—on pain of death—God issues an unusual command. In the construction of ...

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but hard words stir up anger” (Proverbs 15: 1). “Gentle words bring life and health; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit” (Proverbs 15:4). RECENTLY, JEWS BEGAN ...

Rabbi Ilana Grinblat has written a new book, “Blessings and Baby Steps,” (Behrman House, 2011) which synthesizes insights into Torah and lessons learned from giving birth to, and parenting, her two ...

One of my most memorable Torah lessons from elementary school was the one about the manna. This was the magical food that the Jews ate while traveling through the desert. It was some kind of amorphous ...

Israel is under fire — literally and figuratively. Hostages remain in enemy hands, rockets continue to fall on civilian areas, and the country faces waves of condemnation in international media and at ...