At the risk of disclosing a spoiler, I would like to begin this week by discussing the 2019 film, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” Tom Hanks plays the beloved American … more

The institution of the Haftarah, reading a passage from the prophetic literature alongside the Torah portion, is an ancient one, dating back at least 2000 years. Scholars are not sure when, … more

Sacrifices, the subject of this week’s parsha Vayikra, were central to the religious life of biblical Israel. What is deeply relevant today is the critique of sacrifices we find among the … more

Melanie Reid, a journalist with The Times of London, is a quadriplegic who, with a wry lack of self-pity, calls her weekly essay Spinal Column. On Jan. 4, she told how she, her husband, and others in … more

Tetzaveh, with its elaborate description of the “sacred vestments” which the Priests and the High Priest wore “for glory and for splendor,” seems to run counter to some … more

Two words we read towards the end of our parsha, Mishpatim, — na’aseh ve-nishma, “We will do and we will hear” — are among the most famous in Judaism. They are what … more

Our parsha, Beshalach, begins with an apparently simple proposition: “When Pharaoh let the people go, G-d did not lead them on the road through the land of the Philistines, though that was … more

Sometimes others know us better than we know ourselves. In the year 2000, a British Jewish research institute came up with a proposal that Jews in Britain be redefined as an ethnic group and not … more

Due to a production error … more

She is one of the most unexpected heroes of the Hebrew Bible. Without her, Moses might not have lived and the story of the Exodus would have been different. Yet she was not an Israelite. She had … more