Guest Columnists

We equate money with security, success, power, comfort or self-esteem. It follows then that when we lack money, it feels like we lack everything that makes life worthwhile and meaningful.

The story does not say where the dove found the leaf, nor how this convinced Noah that it was safe to unseal the door of the vessel that had kept him and his family safe for an entire year.

What was Noah's plan that offered him solace, hope, and rescue?

Siblings. How do we understand the intense rivalry intertwined with unwavering loyalty

What’s wrong with materialism, whose fault is it, and how can we fix it?

It is not by accident that the Ark was shaped like a truncated pyramid.

This time Noah had no choice -- the world was in his ark and he, as captain, had to take care of it...

To touch some of heaven’s radiance, then curve gracefully back towards the earth in a glorious ray of colors that are manmade reflections of G‑d’s truth and hope for mankind . . .

The waters of the flood are like the waters of a ritualarium -- a mikveh -- where the waters spiritually cleanse the dross that accumulates in the course of our life's endeavors. The world received a spiritual cleansing, and this set the course of history on a course of hope and purpose.

An island of decency in a sea of depravity, was the hallmark of Noah. And so G-d despaired of Noah's generation and decided to begin anew the task of creating a human species worthy of its vaunted status.

It’s a safe bet you’ve not traveled to Hadhramaut, never mind heard of the location. It is an ancient region located somewhere in the hardscrabble deserts of eastern Yemen.

Theology can at times be more challenging than keeping Shabbat, avoiding non-kosher food and the other mitzvot that govern our lives. We too are challenged by our faith system...

The souls of the masters are called the "Fish of the Sea," swimming in the Ocean of Higher Reality... that's where you find the depth of life, expanded consciousness, absolute concepts and the never-ending beauty of inner soul

A famous talk by the Lubavitcher Rebbe analyzes the lives of Noah, Abraham and Moses as milestones in humanity’s journey from an instinctive selfhood to a true concept of “love” for one’s fellow. We also encounter the basis of the Rebbe’s groundbreaking approach to “outreach,” and how to relate to those who are supposedly spiritually “inferior” to oneself.

Despite its violent and threatening nature, the flood is not just an enemy to be overcome or obliterated. It’s the very vehicle that pushes and elevates the ark to greater heights . . .

One can well understand then that Noah was worried about bringing new life into the world. Why give birth, toil and work the program that living entails if all that is built could at a point in the future also be destroyed!?

I've been a renegade since kindergarten. At university, the invite was to become a card-carrying member of (shhh… shhh) the Communist Party. And in my forties, the big-wide-world beckons that I fade the rebel's stain and dip myself in dyes of the Bourgeoisie. House, stocks, retirement fund… life insurance. All that stuff...

I loved to play with my grandmother's matriyoshki, sweeping the set off the shelf and enclosing one within her mother until all that stood before me was the ancient matriarch of the set. Silent. Robust. Red. Fat and pregnant with maybe fifteen smaller versions of herself. It crosses my mind that these matriyoshki are a visual model for a secret of the universe...

As a mother, I have a responsibility to teach my sons to do the right thing. But the right thing can mean, at least ephemerally, getting along and cooperating . . .

Two men fall down a chimney...

Civilization was utterly corrupt, and G‑d was greatly disappointed, to the extent that He wanted to destroy everything and start again with only Noah and his family. But is the world any better now?

It is absurd to think that an ark the length of a football field-and-a-half can house the nearly million species of animals that roam the Earth.

How can it be that mere theft brought a much worse punishment than open rebellion against G‑d?

Ascending in holiness is not a simple matter. It involves an intrinsic danger, to which Noah fell prey. When one is occupied with a world that is entirely holy, he lives in it alone, and he is liable to forget that there are other people that exist in the world.