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This is a challenging Parasha to read. However, the Exodus story is a classic example appreciating the good that happens by remembering the bad. Throughout history, this narrative from slavery to freedom has been used by others to escape tyranny, for example: The founding fathers of The United States of…...

Friedrich Nietzsche said, “He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.” We have seen this time and time again throughout history. A classic example is the experience of B’nai Yisrael in Egypt. Slavery was brutal, they worked incredibly hard; so hard they didn’t even have…...

“The Character of the Happy Warrior” is a poem by William Wordsworth. It begins: “Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he That every man in arms should wish to be?—It is the generous Spirit, who, when broughtAmong the tasks of real life, hath wroughtUpon the plan that pleased his…...

Oliver DeMille in his book Thomas Jefferson Education writes that "leaders perpetuate freedom, prepare people to know what freedom is, what is required to maintain it, and who exert the will to do what is required." Moshe understood human nature. The Yetzer Hara (evil inclination), tests us to become better.…...

In Ecclesiastes it says, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). However, when it comes to Torah, there is the ability to experience Torah in a new way. Ideally, we all ought to become better every day; that pathway of change enables us to become a new person.…...

Parashat Mishpatim begins with the words "These are the rules (statutes) that you shall set before them. When you acquire a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free, without payment" (Shemot 21:2).וְאֵ֙לֶּה֙ הַמִּשְׁפָּטִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר תָּשִׂ֖ים לִפְנֵיהֶֽםכִּ֤י תִקְנֶה֙ עֶ֣בֶד עִבְרִ֔י שֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים יַעֲבֹ֑ד…...

The final chapters of Shemot focus on the construction of the Mishkan or Tabernacle. Instead of the Jewish people turning to idolatry, as they did by making the Golden Calf, the Mishkan provided the means for the Shechinah (or Divine Presence) to dwell among B’nai Yisrael until the Temple was…...

As John Maxwell says “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” According to as Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks leadership requires knowing when you need to take a stand against a crowd or knowing when to be a peacemaker. The Torah reminds us in Parashat Ki Tissa about both individual and collective…...

People are attracted to causes. Charities, fighting diseases, and conquering hunger are some of the many causes that people are attracted to. People are also drawn to form communities amongst people who have similar goals or values. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks writes “What Moses had to do after the Golden…...

America's Founding Fathers were more than just statesmen--they were intellectuals, and they knew the importance of their ideas and how to best communicate them to the American public. Throughout their speeches and addresses to the public, editorials, essays, and pamphlets they published we see them expressing the principles of importance…...