As soon as the people leave Egypt, they begin to complain. Moses, frustrated, asks “Why do you try the Lord?” The word for “try” is “tenasun” which is Hebrew has the same two letters, nun and samach,...
Teaching young children has always been a joy for me. One of teaching’s special advantages is the clarity that emerges from conversation with people under...
Every age brings its difficulties. It is true that with all the advantages of our age, it can still seem as if everything is going wrong. It may or may not help to know that this is...
As the New Year approaches we are reminded again of the scourge of loneliness. It is the first thing that the Torah deplores: “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18). We are...
I remember the conversation very well. It was a discussion among a group of assorted friends, from a variety of backgrounds. One or two were true scholars. The...
When we see a beautiful building, we don’t see the girders that shape it underneath. They are not considered picturesque. When we see a beautiful person, we do not see the bones. The skeleton is not considered lovely....
There is nothing like travel to remind us how often proximity makes us intolerant. In another country, when we see a custom that is different from our own, we think, ‘well they have different assumptions and ideas...
We all have received blessings at one time or another. We have certainly received compliments. Over the course of time, we learn that sometimes the compliments are clearly flattering....
