Evergreen
The Sephardic Exodus to the Ottoman Empire
How Jews fleeing Spain and Portugal transformed the region.
Interpretive Independence
The Torah expects us to be our own autonomous interpreters of divine will, turning to Jewish legal experts only when we reach our limits of understanding.
No Neutrality: Silence Is Assent
The laws of nullifying vows teach us that our silence and inaction in the face of contemporary injustice and oppression is akin to assenting to it.
Seeing Their Faces But Not Their Doors
The Israelites' dwellings in the wilderness provide us with a model for ensuring the existence and dignity of housing for all members of society.
Not Seeing Is The Sin
Like Balaam, we should open our eyes to seeing the problematic paths we take in life.
Jewish History, 1914 to 1948
The Jewish experience between 1914 and 1948 begins and ends with war. In 1914, WWI began, a watershed in both European and Jewish history, as it marked the end of four great empires: the Tsarist, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and German Reich.
Should Jews Sell Guns?
Selling the tools of violence to people prone to violence violates the biblical prohibition of "setting a stumbling block before the blind."