Articles in B’Har
Personal Liberation
Personal liberation from insecurity, worry, fear, doubt, or obsession, have been on my mind lately because I recently turned fifty. I am not usually one to dwell on birthdays, but this benchmark is not easily dismissed. Not because fifty seems old. It stopped seeming old a long time ago. But …
Behar Bechukosai: Fool Yourself
Do you ever fool yourself? The answer is likely yes because we all do. Every time you something wrong and find a circuitous argument to justify your behavior, you fool yourself.
The Torah forbids defrauding others in business. When you sell or buy from your fellow, do not wrong him. If …
B’har B’chukotai: The Workweek
The workweek is mundane, Shabbat is holy. Right? Well, maybe not. Let’s take a closer look.
The Torah presents the laws of the Sabbatical year. For six years, work your fields, on the seventh year you shall rest. This is remarkably similar in both content and language to Shabbat—for six days …
B’har: To Be Happy
Happy is the farmer who learns to trust in G-d. When Jewish farmers in Israel let their fields lie fallow on the Sabbatical year, they leave their fate to G-d. How do they feed their families if they don’t plant all year? G-d instructs us not to worry about that …
B’har B’chukotai: True Freedom
Freedom is one of humanity’s fundamental goas. Ever since Moses trumpeted the call, “let my people go,” people the world over valued and treasured freedom. Yet we sometimes apply freedom too narrowly. When we see a person indentured into servitude we chafe at the unfairness of it. When we see …
B’har Bechukotai: Grassroots Jews
Is It You?
Every movement likes to call itself “grassroots” because that means it arose from the people. It is better to lead a movement that everyone wants than a movement whose momentum is artificially generated. Grassroots means that the people’s desire generated the movement. When the desire generates a movement, …
Behar: Alone In The World
Entebbe
Next month will mark the fortieth anniversary of Israel’s finest hour, the hostage rescue at Entebbe. When the crisis began in June of 1976, Israel firmly believed that the fate of the Jewish hostages was the legal responsibility of France, under whose flag the airplane had flown when it was …
B’har: Jewish Pride
Sense of Self
Is pride a dirty word? It’s often listed alongside lust and greed, but is it really bad? I suppose it depends on what you are proud of. If you have Jewish pride, if you take pride in your Jewishness, it isn’t altogether bad, but if you take pride …
