Moshe wrote the first portion of the Torah (from Bereishit until Matan Torah) and awoke early to build an altar at the foot of the mountain, together with twelve stone monuments, one for each tribe.

I heard Nechama Leibowitz zt”l speak only once in my life. At the urging of a teacher and mentor, Dr. Joel Wolowelsky, I crashed an annual summer seminar for educators, while I was still in college.

This week’s Parshah, Parshas Mishpatim, marks the switch of the Torah offering a narrative of many of the events that had preceded the giving of the ten commandments; from henceforth, most of the ...

In Parshat Mishpatim we find many commandments. The Parsha has a certain frame, a certain structure to it, and part of it is having the commandments split into different paragraphs (Parshiyot). In one ...

The name of this week’s parsha is much more indicative of its contents than is true of most parshiot. A parsha’s ‘name’ is usually one or two key words taken from the beginning of the parsha and it is ...

When you acquire a Hebrew slave, that person shall serve six years—and shall go free in the seventh year, without payment. And it doesn’t become more coherent after that. In fact, Parshat Mishpatim is ...

This week we read parshat Mishpatim, the parsha of “Laws”. Amongst the plethora of laws there inscribed is the well-known injunction of ''ayin tachat ayin - an eye for an eye''. It states that if ...

Our guest this week is Rabbi Daniel Weiner, Senior Rabbi of Seattle’s Temple De Hirsch Sinai. Rabbi Weiner received a B.A. in Communication Studies from UCLA, where he was Commencement Speaker in 1986 ...

More than twenty years ago I read a wonderful book the title of which I’ve never forgotten because it states such a profound and obvious truth – Where ever you go – There you are! The book was written ...

To bring God inside, we must be open to allowing the strange to reside within and to hear each and every voice. In the Talmud (Bava Batra 7b) there’s a disagreement about whether or not a group can ...

The Talmud states that the source of prayer is the biblical phrase “And you shall serve Him with all your heart” (Deuteronomy 11:13). Service is usually associated with action. One can serve with ...