Joyful Compassionate Abundance
I haven’t written as much on the Torah portions after two years of working pretty steadily at them. With my focus on the relationship between human beings and other animals, it was inevitable that I would have to struggle with the “meaning”
February 1, 2017, I began a Torah study project. These words described my intention: “Today I begin a new project of looking at the weekly Torah portions, searching for insights on food, ‘animal rights,’ agriculture and ecology.” The name of the section I
I read an article today in The Conversation that started me thinking. It talked about a demonstrable psychological link between those who believe in “creationism” and those who believe in conspiracy theories. The article reports that “The new study takes the role
This portion, Re’eh, includes what I believe is a pivotal statement with regard to animal sacrifice and the relationship between humans and other animals. It is a significant next step in the biblical Story of the Animals: Deut. 12:15-16 15 רַק֩ בְּכָל־אַוַּ֨ת
Five years ago when I started my blog, I wrote: “As we journey through our lives, we both eat and nourish, destroy and enrich. The great gift we have as human beings is that we can make conscious decisions about the balance
I watched Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale over the last couple of weeks. Visually, it is beautiful. Emotionally, it is searing, sobering and thought-provoking. The book was written in 1985, and the Hulu series began in 2017. I hadn’t read the book or
This year I read one of those books that you keep returning to, a book that gave coherence to my own half-formed thoughts and startled me into a journey of self-recognition and definition. The book was Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. In
Last year when I worked with this portion, I was struck with the ongoing “love story” these portions in Exodus tell, a love story between G-d and the Israelites. In Ki Tissa, I felt the deep wound in the relationship that resulted
Ki Tissa is one of the most extraordinary portions in the biblical year, and there’s a lot one could say about it. Last year I reflected on the beautiful love story this portion relates and the moments in which Moses acts as
Where Terumah suggested ways to understand the meaning of sacrifice through spatial arrangements, Tetzaveh offers additional insights by looking at the priests’ activity, their garments, the spaces they use and the role of blood. What we learn is that sacrifice is a