The Sea Didn’t Just Drown the Egyptians, it Drowned Their Power Over Our MindsImmediately after the Jews walked through the Red Sea, they reacted in a peculiar way. And on that day, G-d saved Israel from the hand of Egypt, and Israel saw Egypt dead on the seashore. (Exodus 14:30)But wait a second—weren’t the Israelites already […]
Messages from 2025
Kintsugi Judaism: Honoring the Breaks, Celebrating the Repair This morning, I ran into a friend who is a collector of fine art. He mentioned his interest in Kintsugi, the Japanese art of reassembling broken ceramic vessels and sealing the cracks with gold. Two central ideas emerge from this: don’t discard something just because it’s broken, […]
The Call Your Didn’t ExpectIf you’ve ever looked closely at a Torah scroll, even if you can’t read Hebrew, you’ll notice that every letter is carefully written—but, in this week’s Parsha, something surprising jumps out; the last letter of the first word is an aleph, but it’s written smaller than all the other letters. Why?The small […]
From Dunkin to Divine: What We Really Make“And they brought the Mishkan to Moses…”After the construction of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was complete, the people brought all its components to Moses. He then stood up the walls and erected the structure. But there’s a striking Midrash, quoted by Rashi, that raises a question: The materials were too […]
The Women Who Carried Us This week’s parsha introduces what is arguably the first recorded fundraising campaign in Jewish history: Moses said to the entire assembly of the Children of Israel: This is the word that G-d has commanded, saying: Take from yourselves a portion for G-d… everyone whose heart motivates him shall bring it… (Ex. […]
Purim 5785-2025 A Sister Who Wouldn’t One of the puzzling aspects of the Purim story is Esther’s decision to invite Haman—the arch-enemy of the Jews—to a banquet with King Achashverosh. Ostensibly, she did this to plead with the king to rescind the decree against the Jews, but why invite the very person responsible for their […]
When Flaws Become Features”You shall place both stones on the shoulder straps of the ephod, remembrancestones for the Children of Israel.” (Exodus 28:12)Moses was commanded to make special garments for the Kohen Gadol—the High Priest. Among these was a garment resembling an apron, called the ephod. On its shoulder straps were two precious stones engraved with the names […]
The Gift You Were Born to Give Anyone with familiarity with Jewish communities knows that capital campaigns are par for the course. The first Jewish fund-raising drive in history is when Moses asks the people to contribute to the Tabernacle, the portable synagogue accompanying the Jews throughout the desert and even when they first entered […]
Consider the Possibility that You Are a ThiefAnd these are the ordinances that you will place before them. (ibid. 21:1)A sizeable quantity of this week’s Torah portion deals with the laws of theft and damage. What significance is there in giving these laws immediately after the Ten Commandments and revelation at Sinai (last week’s Torah portion)? Here’s […]
Email and Mt. Sinai An article in the Wall Street Journal mentions a new way for companies to reach their customers: email. Yes, the medium that many deem as archaic and, on its way out, is actually making a comeback for certain purposes. In fact, recent studies have shown that money spent on email marketing is more effective […]
If Only I Saw a Miracle (Then I Would Change) This week’s parsha introduces us to the concept of manna, the heavenly bread that nourished the Israelites in the wilderness. We refer to manna as a concept because it is more than just food—it is an ideology. Many struggle with the idea that millions of people were fed […]
Before inflicting the final plague, death of the firstborn, Moses warned Pharaoh that “your servants, will come down to me and prostrate themselves” and beg the Israelites to leave Egypt. (Exodus 11:8). Why didn’t Moses say that Pharoah would also come and plead for the Jews to leave; why only his servants? (Especially considering that after the plague, Pharaoh himself […]
Starbucks and Pharaoh Imagine if you were miraculously given superhuman power and had the ability to confront an evil monarch, someone who has persecuted, oppressed and murdered tens of thousands of people. How would you approach him? Would you address him in a respectful way or would speak in an insulting and degrading fashion? Whether […]
The Hostage Deal and Moses’ Patience The announcement of the hostage deal brings with it a whole host of emotions. We are, of course, overjoyed that the hostages will be coming home, yet anxious about the prospect that many terrorists are being released and that the situation in Gaza is fluid. Frustrated that Israel […]
Discovering Your Inner Youth It is the end of an era. Jacob has finally been reunited with his beloved Joseph and he lives the final seventeen years of his life in peace, surrounded by children and grandchildren. Joseph had two sons in Egypt and now Jacob, soon to die, talks to Joseph about them. Now, […]
Ad Vingerhoets is a professor of psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. The thing that makes him unique is that he is an expert on crying and has spent over twenty years “studying when and why we cry, and how the study of crying may help us obtain better insight into human nature.” According […]