Of Migrants and Midwives

While we know the names of Shifra and Puah, the Egyptian midwives who disobeyed Pharaoh and saved Jewish baby boys, in Parashat VaYislach we meet an unnamed midwife who is present for the precarious birth of Benjamin. According to Genesis 35:16-19, while our migrant ancestors were on an arduous journey en route from Beth El...
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An Echo of Shofar

At the end of June, my husband and I took our daughter, Zohar, to Harrisburg. She was six months old at the time. We each put on a tallit (the baby’s was a black onesie screen-printed with an image of a tallit) and gathered in a tent on the Capitol steps along with rabbis, cantors...
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The Just Harvest of Summer

The intoxicating smell of ripe fruit is just too enticing. My niece takes a bite from one of the peaches we have been picking from an orchard this morning. As the juice runs down her chin, she gives me a sheepish smile as if asking if it is OK for her to be doing this....
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The Holiness of Blemishes

Those of us concerned for the basic human rights of the physically and mentally disabled can easily be dismayed by this week’s Torah portion, Emor. For while Leviticus promises universal access to the sacred, this portion seems to restrict direct access to God to an ever- smaller subset of a tiny priestly minority. This portion...
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True Teshuvah

When does Jacob do teshuvah for swindling his brother Esau out of birthright and paternal blessing? Reading over the brothers’ reconciliation in Parshat Vayishlach, I am struck by all that is missing. How can the brothers truly reconnect if past hurts are left buried? As Esau approaches, Jacob’s actions show concern but not contrition. He...
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Sukkoth: Expanding Our Awareness of the Harvest

When does Jacob do teshuvah for swindling his brother Esau out of birthright and paternal blessing? Reading over the brothers’ reconciliation in Parshat Vayishlach, I am struck by all that is missing. How can the brothers truly reconnect if past hurts are left buried? As Esau approaches, Jacob’s actions show concern but not contrition. He...
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Re-digging the Wells of Justice

I’ve always felt a little bad for Yitzchak Avinu. He perennially seems to be in somebody else’s shadow. In Parashiot Lech Lecha, Vayera, and Chayei Sarah, he is a plot device in the story of Avraham and Sarah, more an idea – the promise of a child and heir, the threat of his being taken...
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Klinghoffer and Me

Last week, my worlds collided. I once trained as an opera singer, and though I have traded Gluck for gemara, I remain a fervent supporter of the arts. I have a weekly appointment that brings me within a block of the Metropolitan Opera House, at Lincoln Center, and I often stroll through the plaza, admiring...
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The Fishpond

My in-laws have a koi pond in their backyard. When we visited them over Sukkot, my son Barzilai—a year and three quarters old—fell in love with it. “Peepch!” he said all weekend—wonderingly, demandingly, enthusiastically—as he dragged me to the pond’s edge to peer into it; “Peepch! Mahm! [Fish! Mayim!]” This was not the first time...
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Net Neutrality: The Torah of the Donkey

In this week’s Torah portion, parashat Balak, we read the story of the mighty Moabite king Balak, who wants to hire the prophet Bil’am to curse the children of Israel. Balak places increasing pressure upon Bil’am, first through Moabite and Midianite elders, and then through elite princes. Both times Balak sends esteemed men, but God...
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