Parshah Musings

I’m wondering whether I should stay in yeshivah—as my rabbis here suggest—or whether I should focus on getting a degree or joining my father in business.

I can understand the outrage. Isn't a tax that devolves on everyone equally, regardless of his or her ability to pay, patently inequitable?

For us "copper" folks, occasionally well-intentioned but dragged down by the weaknesses of the flesh... how tempting to concede in despair and leave the building of G-d's sanctuary to the spiritually successful "gold" and "silver..."!

He held two backpacks, one full of sandwiches and the other money. He strolled down the aisle offering the patrons a choice: "If you have, please give. If you need, please take."

We arranged an appointment. I came prepared. I made my pitch, explained our plans, emphasized the opportunities that lay ahead and then paused. The pause. That time it didn't work.

Hospitals, retirement villages, anti-discrimination commissions, museums, and Yiddish theaters. All are worthy causes and deserving of support, yet they are not our communal priority...

Judaism takes an inverse attitude to conspicuous consumption.