Torah

This week's Torah portion, Naso, is a dramatic reminder of women's vulnerability. One of the most notorious ordeals regarding women is found within it.

I confess! I am a freeaholic. What is a freeaholic? I am addicted to offering things to other people for free. But there is no such things as a free lunch, so it is time to look at my own behavior.

I'm a rabbi. But I won't be observing the Shavuot holiday this weekend. Not because I don't have the time. It's because the traditional message of Shavuot doesn't speak to me.

Never has the spiritual force of revelation affected me more than it did on the early morning of May 31, 1998.

Some say her work is forbidden. Some might say it's a complete waste of time. Others remain silent. But Julie Seltzer, one of a few women in history t...

Many people associate the word "Torah" with the Five books of Moses, but according to Jewish wisdom, the Torah and what was given at Mt. Sinai was much more than a book.

Honey is the only kosher product that comes out of a non-kosher producer. So what were Israel's greatest scholars and mystical thinkers trying to convey as to uniquely regard it in Jewish law?

I fear sometimes that in our efforts to create more just societies, we can become self-righteous, indulging in the idolatrous practice of worshipping our own ideals.

I know so many people who have all the pillows they need and yet have trouble sleeping at night; they walk through their lives sleep deprived. What many don't realize is that the Torah already told them why they can't sleep.

For gays and lesbians who have fought for marriage equality, Lag Ba'Omer 2012 was an epic day on which a plague ended.

Sadly, many of us here in America reproduce this conflict's us-and-them ethos from 7,000 miles away, and so have thrown ourselves in on the side of escalation rather than resolution.

Holiness is meant to pervade all of daily behavior, not to inhabit the high points of experience only. Love means reaching out toward neighbors and the world with the same care, regard and generosity we normally reserve for ourselves and those closest to us.

It is a simple yet profound challenge -- be holy, imitate God in our own lives. It is the fundamental lesson that for Jewish civilization, the ultimate goal of life is not "happiness," it is "holiness."

All too often Jewish residents are intimidated into not putting up a mezuzah even though it is their right.

God tells Moses to tell Aaron not to come before the Holy of Holies regularly -- so that he will not die like his sons Nadab and Abihu -- because the Divine Presence appears there as a pillar of cloud always.

In traditional synagogues, many Jews refrain from playing instruments on the Sabbath. I treat this instrumental limitation as an opportunity to creatively explore the musical and spiritual possibilities that exist outside of instruments.

While it might seem "authentic" to parade around one's flawed inner world, not only is it not inappropriate to mask these character deficiencies, it is rather part and parcel of the healthy growth process of an actualized person.

While the right to self-defense is a principle deeply rooted in Jewish biblical and rabbinic sources, this week's Torah portion actually calls on us to think about how not to stand our ground as we respond to the needs of others.

We Jews protest and remonstrate against suffering. We don't excuse it. We don't justify it. We don't find beauty in it. We don't find spiritual purpose it in. We fight it and, to the best of our ability, cure it.

Did not Jesus occasionally but intentionally violate the Torah? In a word, no.

Leviticus essentially creates a primitive quarantine system. The idea is that the "camp" of Israel -- the tribes still wandering in the wilderness after leaving Egypt -- is to be kept pure.

This year, I will be counting the Omer and working to prepare myself for Shavuot. But I will harness, rather than abstain from, the joy that inspires so many of my reflections.

As we prepare to commemorate, Holocaust Remembrance Day, it is almost sickening to read how "the flesh and the skin were consumed in fire" (Leviticus 9:11), and even more so to consider these words and acts something God would command.

Religious ritual is a way of structuring time so that we, not employers, the market or the media, are in control. Life needs its pauses, its chapter breaks, if the soul is to have space to breathe. Otherwise, we may not be in Egypt, but we can still be slaves.

Rabbi Bruce Lustig shares a lesson from the Passover story regarding the imperative to work for social justice for all God's children, and how young people in his community at his congregation are taking this to the next level.