Mishpatim is one of the more prolific parshiot in terms of mitzvot. Close to 10 percent of the mitzvot of the Torah are in Mishpatim. What sometimes gets lost in translation is the … more

I am a big of a fan of Menachem Begin. One of the things I most admire about him is his tenacity in serving as opposition in Israeli politics for close to 30 years before becoming Prime Minister … more

The first pasuk of our parasha, Yitro, states, “Now Moshe’ father-in-law, Yitro, the chieftain of Midian, heard all that G-d had done for Moshe and for Israel His … more

A Talmudic passage (Sotah 11a) offers a scenario relating to Pharaoh’s decision to enslave the Israelites and murder their male babies. “Said Rabbi Chiya son of Abba in the name … more

At the recent wedding of the daughter of very old friends, I was enjoying the palpable joy at the tisch when the father of the bride asked me to lead Maariv.  I had a moment of angst as I … more

The concluding section of our parasha, Beshalach, contains the account of our ancestors’ mortal combat with Amalek, the marauding desert tribe that sought to destroy us after our departure from … more

The late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach founded a synagogue in Berkeley during the 1960s in order to reach out to the many young Jews who had drifted away from Jewish tradition. He named it the House of … more

Jewish history is a series of encounters with evil rulers. Pharaoh, whom we have been reading about up until this week’s Torah portion of Beshalach, was just the first tyrant who persecuted us. … more

On a whim, I checked out the website of a renowned Judaica store to see what’s available these days. That the only Judaica I really buy these days are books, and I felt a little out of … more

May 1948. Tough times for the Jewish people, particularly for Jews struggling to claw out a place for themselves in a land they hoped to claim as their own. A few months after the United Nations … more