There is a particular quality to the German countryside that is difficult to explain to someone who has never stood inside it. I love the American countryside. The long fields of Ohio and Indiana, the quiet dignity of a country road disappearing into the distance, the sense that the land goes on forever and the […]
The Vow and the Village Read More »
The Sower and the Seed “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when
The Sower, the Tares, and the Enemy’s Seed Read More »
There is one letter in the entire Torah that every scribe is required to write broken. In Numbers 25:12, G‑d grants Pinchas a brit shalom—a covenant of peace. The word shalom contains a vav, and that vav, in every valid Torah scroll ever produced, must be written with a deliberate fracture in its vertical line. Under any other circumstance, a broken
There is a rule in Jewish law that most people encounter and move past without registering how strange it is. You cannot say Kaddish alone. Not “it is preferred that you gather with others.” Not “community is spiritually beneficial.” The prayer simply cannot be said. If you are one of the nine greatest saints, mystics,
The Quorum and the Congregation Read More »
The Growing Seed He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain
The Weed, The Kitchen, and The Sleeping Farmer Read More »
Jesus told stories. That much everyone agrees on. What those stories were, what form they took, what argument they were making, and who they were aimed at — on those questions, two thousand years of Christian reading have produced something that bears only passing resemblance to what was actually happening. This series is a recovery
G‑d said to Balaam: You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed. — Numbers 22:12 Balak watches the first oracle end and does the only thing his frame allows him to do: he moves Balaam to another mountain. Not because the first location failed—the oracle came through with complete clarity. Not because he
Picture Moses before the rock. Not the strike—the moment before it. The rod is raised. The people are behind him, assembled as they have been assembled a hundred times before, with the same complaint they have lodged a hundred times before. Miriam is three days in the ground. Aaron stands beside his brother, the last
Og, King of Bashan, and the Tragedy of Seeing Without Perceiving The battle at Edrei takes three verses. Numbers 21:33–35 dispatches it with the economy of a ledger entry: Og came out, Israel fought, Og fell, his sons fell, his land was taken. No eulogy. No elaboration. The narrative moves on without looking back. But the Talmud
The catastrophe of Korach begins with one of the truest sentences spoken in the wilderness. This is what makes the story so difficult to read honestly. If Korach had lied, distorted revelation, or denied Sinai outright, the narrative would be simple. Instead, Torah presents something far more unsettling: a man speaking genuine truth while moving
