It is not without some irony that 432 Park Avenue, the tallest residential building in Manhattan – and, for that matter, the entire western hemisphere – reached its peak just in time for the story of Tower of Babel.
October 18, 2014
Timshel
Occasion(s) / B’reishit
John Steinbeck may not be the most obvious place to begin a discussion on biblical philology and theology, but for the purposes of understanding the drama of the Garden of Eden, if not the human condition as a whole, it is as good a place as any.
October 15, 2014
The Revisitations of Yizkor
Occasion(s) / Shemini Atzeret, Yizkor
Over the next twenty-four hours, as we celebrate the festival of Simhat Torah, you might ask yourself the following question: Why do the Jewish people have not one, but two holidays to celebrate Torah?
October 03, 2014
As a Driven Leaf
Occasion(s) / Yom Kippur
As a Driven Leaf stands as Rabbi Milton Steinberg’s most famous book, and arguably, the single most significant contribution to the literary canon of American Jewish theology.
September 24, 2014
The 615th Commandment
Occasion(s) / Rosh Hashanah
Twenty years ago this fall, my cousins Jonathan, Benji, Michael, and Rafi took a trip that would change their lives forever. As many of you know, my Manchester-born mother and Glasgow-born father arrived in America shortly before I was born. My mother’s sister never left England.
September 23, 2014
With God’s Love We Forgive
Occasion(s) / Erev Rosh Hashanah
Once upon a time, in a small shtetl in the Pale of Settlement, there lived two young women of marrying age. Two promising men from a neighboring village were identified, arrangements were made, and the town began to prepare for the upcoming double simcha.
September 13, 2014
Attitude of Gratitude
Occasion(s) / Ki Tavo
I have no idea if Wharton Business School Professor Adam Grant is familiar with rabbinic literature, but I suspect the author of the bestselling book Give and Take would enjoy reading the fifth chapter of Pirkei Avot, The Ethics of the Fathers. Chapter 5, mishnah 10 states:
September 06, 2014
Abnormal Evil
Occasion(s) / Ki Tetzei
Resting in a book review in this week’s New York Times is a question whose origins can be traced to the beginning of time and the inner reaches of the human soul.
June 13, 2014
The Will to Believe
Occasion(s) / Sh’lah L’kha
Considering the events that followed his medical school graduation in 1869, it was neither evident nor imaginable that the career of William James would turn out the way it did.
June 06, 2014
Two Leaders in One
Occasion(s) / B’ha·alot’kha
One of my great regrets of my years in Chicago is that I never took a class with Dr. Benjamin Sommer. When I was a doctoral student at the University of Chicago, Dr. Sommer was a professor of Bible on the other side of town at Northwestern University.