Are the values and opinions we hold dear really our own? We all take pride in thinking for ourselves, but are not many (all?) of our personal positions an echo of the culture we were raised in, or drawn from the last social media posting we read? From the shop of...

In the beginning G-d created the Heavens and the Earth... The High Holiday prayer books have been shelved, the Sukkah is stored away (or at least that's the plan), and we start reading the Torah again from the beginning. The custom of restarting the Torah readings at...

We've all become amateur meteorologists. In the northeastern United States the weather during the past week has ranged from cloudy to fog to rain, with rain having more than a fair share. Under normal circumstances, we would stay inside under shingled roofs, and take...

Yom Kippur is tomorrow night. What happens on this, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar? "Kippur" is often translated as atonement -- to make reparation for bad deeds, and restore a relationship damaged by those offenses. That is a good description -- but why is...

One restless night, Benny, who was having trouble making a living, had a vivid dream. His dream showed him, in precise detail, the whereabouts of a stuffed backpack with two million dollars cash, at the bottom of a dumpster on the Virginia shore. He woke from his...

"How could you forget? You knew we arranged to meet for coffee at 1:30 today!" "Really -- it just slipped my mind. I'm sorry. I just forgot." "What do you mean you just forgot?" "I don't know. My memory isn't perfect. These things happen." "Well, if it was really...

I was about 15 years old when I lost a Siddur (prayer book) on a backpacking trip near the summit of New Hampshire's Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the Northeastern United States. It must have fallen out of my pocket at a pit-stop along the hike. After my return...

We're told in this week's Torah portion that when a murder victim is discovered, the elders of the city closest to the site where the body was found gather and say "Our hands did not spill this blood, and we were not witness to it (Deut 21:7)." They then pray for...

Is it easy to make a moral choice? Moshe, our teacher, tells us that it is, at least in principle: "See that I have placed before you today 'blessing' and 'curse'. The blessing, if you will listen to the Commandments of HaShem your G-d which I have commanded you...

In the Talmud, the Sages tell us to study the skies, or more specifically the calculations of the calendar: "says Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmeini in the name of Rebbe Yochanon: from where do we know that it is a Mitzvah to calculate the seasons and the months? For it says,...

The Torah portion of Dvarim, beginning the last of the 5 books of Moses, is universally read on the Sabbath proceeding the Ninth of Av, when we commemorate the destruction of both Temples and other tragedies throughout Jewish history. Each week's reading is divided...