Go, worship the Lord your God! Who are the ones to go? Moses replied, “We will all go, young and old. We will go with our sons and our daughters, our flocks and our herds; for we must observe the Lord’s festival.” (Exod. 10:8-9) Jewish tradition declares that “God, Israel and the Torah are One.” […]
Were we to compare our patriarchs’ impact on Judaism, Isaac would be a distant third. First place is a tie between his father Abraham, the champion of faith and hospitality, and his son Jacob, the spiritual wrestler. Isaac’s problem lies in how few columns in the Torah are devoted to him. Other than having survived the trauma of the Akedah, the information in parashat Toldot, is basically it. Isaac is best summed up as his father’s son and his son’s father. Like Abraham, Isaac experiences a famine and has his wife taken by a king. Like Jacob, Isaac’s future wife is discovered at a well. Even in Toldot which begins: This is the story of Isaac, son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac, the focus shifts in the very next verse to what will develop as Jacob’s story rather than the tale of Isaac.
What does it mean to be part of a global Jewish community? For many of us, the concept can be difficult to truly grasp. My father, sisters, and I recently had the chance to understand a little more about it, though, during our recent visit to the Progressive/Liberal Jewish Community of Amsterdam (LJG) when we met in […]
We envision our new website as a central online hub of activity, insight and updates that strengthen and advance our global movement. That’s why we’re opening our website to submissions from constituents in congregations, communities, rabbinical schools, jewish education centers, youth cubs and more. Please click through to read our submissions guidelines for direction and […]