Posts Tagged: Jeremy Rosen
The Torah Tells Us That Faith Is Better Than Magic
This week, we have two very different Torah pashas combined into one. Yet despite their differences, there are some important themes running through them. The first...
Don’t Try to Be Happy; Try to Feel Joy and Gratitude
The American Constitution says that we have the right to happiness. What is happiness? Can the pursuit of happiness be a right, an experience, a...
On Purim, Remembering Amalek Means Remembering the Holocaust and Confronting Hate
The Shabbat before Purim is always called Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat when we remember. What are we to remember? Exodus Chapter 17:14, and Deuteronomy Chapter...
Don’t Be Tempted by False Messiahs
Among the fascinating laws in this week's Torah portion is one that is significant because of what it says about miracles, signs, and false messiahs....
What to Make of Henry Kissinger?
Whatever you may think of Henry Kissinger, he has been one of the most influential secular Jews by birth (outside Israel), in world affairs in...
The Lesson of Moses: Stay Optimistic and Don’t Give Up
The Book of Devarim, the last book of the Torah, is dominated by the personality of Moses, even more than the previous three books. It...
The Power of Prophecy
Three people are called prophets in the Torah — Abraham, Miriam, and Moses. And yet Moses, the greatest of them all, is usually referred to...
Threats Don’t Work; Values Make People Do the Right Thing
I have always resisted threats, and felt it counterproductive to employ them to enforce or encourage people to become religious. We know that warning troubled children...
Failed Priests and Prophets — and Reflections on Modern Israel
There seems to be a permanent state of conflict in all religions -- between religious authority and individual spirituality, or mysticism. Religious authority values conformity, control,...
Shabbat Vayikra: The Power of Ethical Leadership
The Book of Exodus -- which we have just completed -- provides us with two examples of leadership. First, there is Pharaoh, an omnipotent autocrat,...
Shabbat Vayera: Not Lot
Lot does not seem to be a very nice person. His uncle (and brother-in-law) Abraham takes him under his wing, after Lot’s father dies, and...
Parshat Lech Lecha: No One Is Perfect
Abraham is the first, full character study in the Torah. The “ten generations” between Adam and Noah, and then again between Noah and Abraham, are...
Shabbat Bereishit: Disobedience
After the first chapter of Genesis describes the creation of the physical universe, the rest of the book goes on to deal with the often-ambivalent...
Shabbat Shuvah: Why God Hides
The Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is always called the Shabbat Shuvah, or the Shabbat of Return. In the Torah reading this week, Moses...
