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.

Jewish law is commonly divided into two groups: laws that govern our relationship with God (bein adam la’Makom) and laws that govern our relationship with our fellow person (bein adam l’chavero). Thus ...

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 ...

On the one hand, we do not have a new guest this week. On the other hand, we do have an opportunity to assemble all our previous talks on Parshat Mishpatim. In this parsha G‑d legislates a series of ...

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 ...

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 ...

This week’s Torah portion picks up immediately following the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The Jewish people had just experienced the loftiest G-dly revelation in the history of mankind. One can ...

The modern state of Israel was established in 1948 amid many internal dilemmas and conflicts. For example, there were the different approaches of the Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi. Then there was the ...

Parashat Mishpatim: The laws of love Judaism has often been called (derogatorily) a religion of law, but the truth is that it gave the world the great idea of a God of love.