The Past Leading to the Present
Oct 30, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayera
The unusual Hebrew phrase “lekh lekha” occurs only twice in the entire Tanakh: at the beginning of last week’s parasha when God instructs Abraham to leave Haran, and this week, when God asks him to offer up his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice (Genesis 12:1; 22:2).
Read More
Abraham: Knight of Many Faiths
Oct 23, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
It is hard to reconcile the glaring gap between promise and fulfillment in the story of Abraham.
Read More
What Is a Sukkah, Really?
Sep 30, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Sukkot
During the festival of Sukkot in 1974, while on sabbatical in Israel, the Schorsch family took a trip to Sharm El Sheikh on the Straits of Tiran.
Read More
The Truth about the Exodus
Apr 30, 2005 By Burton L. Visotzky | Commentary | Pesah
This past December, I went with my wife and two adult children on a family vacation to Egypt.
Read More
The Significance of the Tenth
Jan 15, 1994 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Bo
The tenth plague finally shatters Pharaoh’s resistance.
Read More
Accounting for God’s Silence
Jan 22, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Beshallah
In his utterly engrossing autobiography, A Tale of Love and Darkness, which came out in Hebrew in 2002, Amos Oz describes the elderly maidservant in the home of his maternal grandparents in Ukraine as being stone deaf.
Read More
The Flood and Creation
Oct 16, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Noah
Midrashim often draw big ideas from the smallest of linguistic anomalies.
Read More
An Exegetical and Archaeological Experience
Aug 19, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Re'eh
This past June, our family journeyed to Israel 鈥� to reenergize our spiritual selves, to reconnect with the land and people of Israel, and to introduce our daughter to friends and family.
Read More