Off the Pulpit Archives

The Torah teaches in rapid succession that if you see someone’s sheep or ox astray, you should return it. If you see someone trying to raise their fallen ox, you should help them. Don’t take the eggs of a bird...

During the Limmud South Africa conference I had a chance to go on a two day safari. The experience of seeing rhinos and elephants and lions and zebras outside of a zoo is exhilarating. But it is also a religious...

In his youth the great scholar Rabbi Hayim of Volozhin was an indifferent student who decided to abandon his studies and go to a trade school. On the night he told his parents of his decision, the future Rabbi had...

A lot depends on our similarities. Unless we worked the same way, all designs would fail, medicine be ineffective, and human society become impossible. Yet we also affirm that each individual is unique. No two people look, think or act...

We are all in favor of kindness, unity and accord. But let us pause for a moment to praise gruffness, disunity and argument.  Mordecai Kaplan put it this way: “Who would want the prophets to have joined Dale Carnegie’s course...

Growing up in my parent’s home, there was only one thing that was permitted to be thrown inside the house — challah.  Each Friday night after the blessing on the bread, my father would break up parts of the challah...

On Tisha b’Av, we are reminded of the destruction of the Temple and other tragedies in Jewish history. Ritual is both an aid to memory and an insistence that our sorrow be within limits.  Shiva prescribes that the mourner must...

The Roman poet Horace wrote, “it is your affair when your neighbor’s house in on fire.” For two kinds of people, it is of concern for two types of reasons.  Some worry about the neighbor’s house being on fire solely...

Judaism is often called a tradition of deed, not of creed. It is certainly true that Judaism emphasizes one’s actions. The Torah assumes that the heart will always be divided and no one can erase the negative thoughts or bad...

Jacob fools his father and steals his brother’s birthright. Esau swears to kill him. Decades pass. Jacob hears that Esau is coming with 400 men. Yet when they meet, instead of vengeance, they fall on each other’s necks and weep....