Health, well-being and, ultimately, collective redemption will come from home, family and land being part of a sacred system where each feeds the others. This is the heart of an agrarian Torah.

This year during Shavuot, the Jewish holiday which marks the end of the harvest, I am reminded of my commitment to alleviate hunger.

Infamous for circling the wagons, the Jewish people forgets its deep roots in conversion. Shavuot is a chance to reconsider our commitment to the image of the Jewish people and the image we portray when it comes to the convert in our midst.

Saturday night is the anniversary of the giving of Torah at Mt. Sinai. Strange, isn't it, that on the holy day we celebrate the Giving of the Law, we traditionally study the Book of Ruth, the most transgressive of the Bible, a book that explicitly defies a Divine command.

The books of Ruth and Judith are signs to women of the ministry, for which they must take clear and conscious responsibility, knowing, indeed, that God is with them, in them, calling them on, as witnesses, ministers and leaders.