The Neverending Conversation
Judaism is the open-ended, mutually-binding conversation between Heaven and…
Judaism is the open-ended, mutually-binding conversation between Heaven and…
Between God and the people is a mutual bond of love. The Israelites pledge themselves to be faithful to God and His commands. God pledges Himself to cherish the people as His treasure – for though He is the God of all humanity, He holds a special place in His affection (to speak anthropomorphically) for the descendants of those who…
The Holocaust does not tell us about God but about man. It tells us not about Divine justice but about human injustice. The question raised by Auschwitz is not ‘Where was God?’ but ‘Where was man? Where was…
Identity is not just a matter of who my parents were. It is also a matter of what they remembered and handed on to…
There is in Jewish history an extraordinary interweaving of history and prophecy, the natural and supernatural, the choices of human beings and the overarching tutelage of God. The suffering of Jews in the Diaspora is not Divine punishment but rather a consequence of exile itself – the loss of Providence, the hiding of the face of God, and being “left…
Judaism is a religion of rejoicing; of remembering where we came from, and therefore not taking our blessings for granted; of recalling the source of the good, and therefore not forgetting the larger truth that it comes to us from the hand of God; of knowing that what we have, God has placed in our trust, to be used for…
The beauty of Judaism is that it did not become traumatised by tragedy. Despite their suffering, Jews did not let themselves become defined by it. They mourned on Tisha B’Av and the other specified fasts but did not allow the rest of their days to be darkened by grief. They set limits to sadness. During the rest of the week…