This week’s parsha, Mishpatim, is full of various and sundry laws, thus giving the parsha its name. Mishpatim occurs at an interesting time in our people’s history. We are a free people, having escaped from slavery 15 chapters ago. We are in the desert, at the foot of Mount Sinai. We have been given the …
I want to share with you one of my favorite Talmudic stories from tractate Baba Metzia. The rabbis are debating whether an oven that had become impure could be purified. This may not seem like a terribly entertaining or amusing discussion- yet- it is God’s gleeful response which calls this story to mind right at …
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart’.” Exodus 10:1 What is good about being hard-hearted? When might it be important? Sometimes you need to stand up to a bully- Grades K-4 When friends are pressuring you to do something you shouldn’t do and you need to say …
Can you believe it’s 2015? Don’t you just want to stop the train, keep time from moving relentlessly forward, and freeze the moment? I think this is kind of a natural, universal human desire. We long for certainty in an uncertain world, we long for stability in a world of constant change. The …
