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How did G-d address the gold-sickness of His newly chosen people? He didn't abolish gold. He didn't even take away theirs. He told them to use their gold to build Him a Sanctuary.

Is it a bad, harmful deed? Is it the very face of death? Is it mere stupidity? Is it a potent opportunity for conquest and growth? Turns out, it's all four.

Strip life of its false starts, of its missed opportunities, naive presumptions, fumbling first attempts and learned-it-the hard-way experiences, and what's left? Nothing worth writing home about, let alone going through all that trouble to live a life...

Much is made of Abraham's valiant efforts to save the city of Sodom, how he went to battle with G-d on behalf of these very sinful people. But something about the story just doesn't add up...

Who can make the physical world a holy place? One who remains untouched by its coarseness, or one who has succumbed to its temptations and triumphed over them? And what about the one who is still stuck in the morass of the material?