Torah Portion of the Week

Lurking within is the Holy Urge

Parshat Toldot 1 F WE COULD X-RAY OUR HEARTS — NOT THE fist-sized muscle, but the pulsating center from which our dreams and desires...

a SLOW bURNING eXPLOSION LIKE THE sUN

Parshat Shmot SOMETIMES, THINGS GET WORSE before they get better. Sometimes, things get worse even as they are getting better— as...

War Damage

Parshat Naso Who fought the first religious war? The answer, according to Genesis, is Cain and Abel: "Cain brought an offering to the...

gATEWAY OF THE pERSECUTED

Parshat Vayetze Jacob, escaping his murderously angry brother, more or less stumbles unto "the gates of heaven," described laconically in...

Power to the People

Torah' for Israel's Jubilee May 1998 (first published Jerusalem Report) For 50 years, Israelis have allowed the state to shape their...

Jewish Intimacy: Nitzavim VaYelech

Losing God and Finding Him is Part of What it Means to be a Jew GOOD NEWS: WE ARE NOT THE FIRST generation to be fraught with alarm over...

parshat hashavua

this is about the Torah portion of the week So here will be all kinds of writings from the Torah portion of the week.

michaodenheimer

Freedom, climate change and the Pandemic

“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” So begins Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s book “The Social Contract.” I’ve been thinking...

Micha Zvi Odenheimer

Language, Prayer, Compassion, Interpretation

Happy Chanuka! What follows are some words of Torah that I offered on Saturday night in honor of the 25th anniversary of the passing of...