Prospect magazine just named the 65 leading intellectuals in the world.

First on the list was Richard Dawkins, known for his work in biology and for his polemics against religion. Dawkins on biology is an elegant, lucid and even enchanting explicator of science. Dawkins on...

I have enormous respect for Rick Warren, despite our deep disagreements on certain matters both theological and social. At this moment, in particular, along with millions of others I feel tremendous sorrow, solidarity and compassion for him, for Kay and for their entire family.

Never were the words of...

When something terrible happens whom do we blame: God, society or ourselves?

There is a case for the guilt of each in turn. Blaming God makes sense if God initiated the whole mess. A rabbinic story compares Cain's murder of Abel to gladiators in a ring. When...

Sukkot is a puzzling holiday. Just days after Yom Kippur we suddenly take to living in thatched huts. The usual explanation is that the holiday recalls the wandering of the Jews in the desert, and the sukkah represents either the booths that the Jews dwelt in as they traveled or...

Everything that is born, dies. We acknowledge our mortality, but should we give it much thought? The Spanish philosopher de Unamuno wrote that the syllogism that used to be taught in logic classes: Socrates is a man; all men are mortal; therefore Socrates is mortal, sounds very different when rendered:...

Recently I delivered the benediction at the Democratic National Convention. Rabbis should bless gatherings that represent roughly half the nation, and I would as willingly have offered a blessing to the Republican convention. But it soon became clear that how hard it is for some to think beyond politics.

Two thousand years ago, the Talmud noted (Avodah Zarah, 54b) that if a man has intercourse with his neighbor's wife, although justice would demand that she not get pregnant, "the world goes on its way."
   
You might see this as a lament, a protest or a...

The horrendous events in the Sikh Temple remind us that hatred is capable of bursting forth anywhere, at any time. Yet if one looks for a common denominator between the White Supremecist and the radical fundamentalist, between the communist oligarchy and the Fascist dictatorships, the binding thread is easy to...

The human journey begins in murder. One step out of Eden, in the Torah's recounting, Cain kills Abel. Right away, we are taught, the blameless Abel and the homicidal Cain are both part of who we are. So it has been ever since.

Don't call the alleged...

The Midrash, the rabbinic tales of the Torah, teaches that when the Israelites left Egypt, God enveloped them in "clouds of glory." When they wished for bread, God provided manna. When they craved meat, God sent quails. Once these wishes had been granted the people began to doubt, saying "Is...

The Omer marks the 50 days traveling the desert from Egypt to Sinai. It also marks the wave offering of the Temple on the second day of Passover. The wave offering was a measure of flour made from the first sheaves of barley grain that had been reaped.

Passover is known as the festival of freedom. But it might also be known as the holiday of love.

What was the most depressing condition of Egyptian slavery in the Torah? According to the Belzer Rebbe, the Israelites suffered most deeply not from slavery itself but from...

In the Bible God exiles Adam and Eve and declares that they will never be permitted to return to the Garden. If God's intention was to assure that humanity would be forever exiled from Eden, why did God not destroy the Garden? After all it seems the experiment was a...

Do you hover? Is your child's each vibration a source of concern to you? Honestly, do you harbor the suspicion that, without your patient, constant guidance, your teenager, or toddler, or ten year old, will topple into the abyss and never recover? In other words, was the term "helicopter...

In the Bible, we are warned that none can see the face of God. There is danger in God's exaltedness; to presume to look upon the Divine is to court destruction.

Yet at the end of the Bible, we are told that Moses saw God panim...

In Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver looks at his watch so often that his hosts the Brobdingnagians think he is consulting his god. In the first decades of the last century the historian of civilization's presumed decline, Oswald Spengler, pointed out that human beings had become obsessive clock watchers, mesmerized by that...

In the Bible, Jacob cries, Joseph cries, David cries. God says to a repentant Hezekiah, "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears" (Isaiah 38:4).

Repeatedly in the Bible, figures of great strength, figures of faith, pour out their souls in tears. The baby Moses...

Dear God,

Moses, placed in the basket by the river, kept silent, too frightened to cry.

Abraham, walking up the mountain with Isaac, kept silent, refusing to give way to the wild sounds of his own grief.

When Aaron's children were taken from him, Aaron was silent for there were...

Editor's note: There is a great Jewish tradition to dedicate the 29 days in the month of Elul to study and prepare for the coming high holy days. The time is supposed to challenge us to use each day as an opportunity for growth and discovery. On each of

I used to write books. Now, I write Facebooks. Somehow it is not the same.

There was a time when being sequestered in a room was not that difficult. When I wrote my first book there was nothing really on TV at 3 am. Netflix was...