weekly insights

We Remember the Six Million. We remember each one, a unique person, with an irreplaceable story. We remember all who died and suffered....

Exodus 10-13 tells of dramatic events. Three more plagues exhibit the power of the Lord. The tug-of-war continues between Pharaoh and...

In the Book of Exodus we find a sequence of tense encounters between Pharaoh and the two Hebrew brothers, Moses and Aaron. The encounters...

Exodus: that foundational story of God’s liberation of the Israelites from slavery and their formation as a nation. Exodus opens with the...

As our Torah portion opens, Jacob has been 17 years in Egypt. His longing for his homeland is unmistakable. His longings reflect not only...

Today’s Torah portion appears to bring the saga of Jacob’s sons to a happy conclusion. In a tearful reunion, Joseph reveals himself as...

Have you ever been placed in a situation where your life, career or a relationship hung in the balance? A moment when your next choice of...

In December both Christians and Jews hold candle-lighting rituals. Christian families light the Advent wreath candles on the Sundays...

"Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau” (Genesis 32:4.) As Genesis 32 opens, Jacob, with his entourage of wives, children,...

Our Torah reflection this week, from Chapter 28 of Genesis, opens with Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, fleeing to Haran having just...

Genesis 26 tells a story from the adult life of Isaac. It is a story strikingly similar to a story about his father, Abraham, in Genesis...

“Where books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned also” — Heinrich Heine, German critic and poet (1797-1856) This quote...

“The Lord appeared to him [Abraham] by the terebinths of Mamre; he was sitting at the entrance of the tent as the day grew hot” (Genesis...

The figure of Abraham is central to our Torah reflections this week (Genesis 12:1 - 17:27). Actually, as the story opens he is called...

So, you think you know the story of Noah’s Ark? So did I until I began reading it with the help of traditional Jewish insights. The...

In the opening two chapters of Genesis the reader finds two different accounts of the creation of humankind. What are we to make of these...

Can Christian awareness of the Jewish festival Simchat Torah ('Rejoicing in the Torah') enliven their own Christian Bible reading? What...