Human Being, The

Being a Jew requires forcefulness and a commanding nature—qualities seemingly incompatible with humility . . .

Are you hero or victim? The hero who never cries nor feels the fear, the panic, the regrets that are part and parcel of his condition? The victim who never encounters his bravery nor feels the transcendent power of rising above death, if only for a moment...

What is Judaism’s economic system? Is there one? In promoting free enterprise, the Torah is clearly capitalistic. But it is a conditional capitalism, and certainly a compassionate capitalism.

Bad things happen. They happen to good people. Contrary to common perception, bad things also happen to bad people. The difference is not so much in what happens, but in what happens to the person

Leviticus 25 sets out a number of laws whose aim is to correct the tendency toward radical and ever-increasing inequality that result from the unfettered play of free market economics.

The last Mishnah of Tractate Taanit Talmud, Taanit 26b. discusses Tu B'Av, the day when eligible girls of Jerusalem would dress in white and dance in the vineyards. They would call out, “Young man, lift up your eyes and see, what will you choose for yours...

The double portion begins with G-d speaking to Moshe on Mount Sinai about the laws of the Sabbatical year. Rashi explains that just like these laws were explained at Sinai, so too all the general laws and details of all the commandments were explained at ...

Some people question the use of an alcoholic taking personal inventory and admitting to his wrongs early in sobriety. What's the point of trying to clean house when you still have the same character defects?

There are those critics of the Twelve Steps who say that personal humility along with submission to a Higher Power degrades alcoholics and makes them feel spiritually bankrupt...

A deeper examination of the nature of humility and self-assertion reveals that not only are they not mutually exclusive qualities, but that indeed one cannot operate without the other.