What is justice? Most definitions of justice are circular. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as, “the quality of being just, impartial, or fair.” When you try to figure out what it means to be just, impartial or fair, you get more…
Do the Clothes Make the Man?
Clothing is a leitmotif in the Joseph narrative. His father gifts him the coat of many colors; his brothers rip it off his back and dip it in blood; Potiphar’s wife grabs his shirt as he flees from her advances;…
Yaakov Avinu, The Flu and Acing Your Job Interview
If you were to look at a list of the all-time marquee fights, you would see Ali v. Frazier, Pacquiao v. Mayweather, Mayweather v. Mcgregor (maybe) and the Hulk v Abomination, to name a few. I don’t know if you…
Finding Female Empowerment in Judaism, Part II: Women’s Customs
In my prior article, Finding Female Empowerment in Judaism, Part I: The Stories of the Bible, I highlighted several Bible stories that demonstrate and exude female empowerment. I will now continue the series by examining women’s spiritual roles in the…
Parashat Vayetze: Yaakov, the master of a silent art form
The pen is more powerful than the sword, yet there is something more powerful than the pen: We live in talkee-talk world. We have talk radio, tv talk shows, news-talk and various other channels of people talking or communicating in…
The Mizrahi Project: The next generation of Jews are Mizrahi
When one feels like “the other” it is a surreal experience. Even more surreal is to feel like an outsider in a space that is so familiar. This is the Mizrahi experience in Ashkenazi Jewish communal spaces. It is to…
Isaac: A biblical introvert
We know less about Isaac than any of the other patriarchs. In the major events of his life he is acted upon – being bound for the Akedah and having Jacob steal the birthright by fooling Isaac in old age.…
Finding female empowerment in Judaism, Part I: The stories of the Bible
Judaism comes with a set of beautiful morals, including everything from making the world a better place to giving and donating. Another value I recently learned is very Jewish is female empowerment. Many tales of the Bible embody and exemplify…
D’var theory: The ancient and contemporary polymath
It often seems like one’s academic major in higher education is a blood-bound oath, and America’s culture of specialized labor promotes that stoicism in kind. Judaism by contrast touts the polymath, a person of wide-ranging knowledge or skill, as the…
Parashat Hayeh Sara: Maintaining our identity
The traditional Shabbat Torah reading this week is the section called Chayai Sora – our early history after the life of our matriarch Sora, or Sarah. We meet up with a number of key figures in the unfolding saga of…