Midian’s Trek Into Darkness – Parshat Balak 2019

In the middle of the 2013 movie Star Trek: Into Darkness, Captain James T. Kirk and his second in command, Commander Spock, debate whether to trust Khan, a renegade superhuman who had recently saved Kirk’s life from the vicious enemy aliens called Klingons. Spock points out that though Khan had been helpful of late, there is …

Sins of the Past, Sins of the Present – Parshat Shemini 2019

In 1952, Henry Brockstein, a top executive at Utah Life Insurance (ULI) in Salt Lake City, found himself in a predicament. The majority shareholder of the company and chair of the Board, John Hollifield, wanted to hire him as the new CEO of the company and report directly to the Board of Directors. However, the board was …

Ritual Slaughter, Sacrifice, and Terror in New Zealand – Parshat Vayikra 2019

My family has an interesting מנהג. It is a tradition in our family to avoid becoming or marrying anyone who works with blood, whether a surgeon or שוחט, a person who does ritual slaughter for kosher meat. I assume this tradition has to do with the fear that people who are willing to slaughter animals have …

Taking Responsibility for Communal Sin – Parshat Ki Tisa 2019

When it comes to the 1956 film epic, The Ten Commandments, its most epic moment, may be at its ending. Unlike The Prince of Egypt, The Ten Commandments does not shy away from depicting Israel’s sudden fall from grace at Mt. Sinai. In the film’s unflinchingly critical depiction of פרשת כי תשא, we watch as the people …

Frank Pentangeli, Internet Ethics, and Truth – Parshat Yitro 2019

In 1974, Francis Ford Coppola directed and produced an award-winning sequel to his most famous film, The Godfather. In one of The Godfather II’s most dramatic moments, Frank Pentangeli, a former high-ranking member of the Corleone crime family, is subpoenaed to appear before a committee of the U.S. Senate. He is expected to testify in …

Be Someone’s Unwitting Angel – Parshat Vayeishev 2018

There is an article in The Atlantic Magazine that is very relevant to what we read this morning. As the article notes, research shows that siblings can have more of an influence over the lives of brothers and sisters than their parents. For example, siblings often imitate or aspire to surpass each other. In my own family, my …

Religious Articles and Prejudiced Accusations – Parshat Vayeitzei 2018

In my first year in college, I had a roommate who was not Jewish. My roommate was not just kind and very smart (he could solve a 4x4 Rubix cube in less than 60 seconds) but he also shared many of the same values that I had. He was close with his family, he loved baseball and …

Balaam’s Far-sightedness and Seeing the Other – Parshat Balak 2018

One of the greatest Disney films ever produced, The Lion King, has so many things going for it, from a star-studded cast, to Elton John songs, to some of the most beautiful 2-D animation you’ll ever see. But one thing it does not have going for it is realism. Every single character in the movie is a …

Searching for Moral Clarity – Parshat Noach 2017

The devastation the United States has experienced in recent weeks is indescribably tragic. Obviously, as we read of the torrential rains of the Great Flood in פרשת נח, our minds wander to the hurricane winds and waters that have laid waste to homes and towns and cities and societies this summer, throughout the southern United States …

Idolizing Monuments – Parshat Shoftim 2017

I’m sure you’ve noticed a pattern, recently, that has arisen in the news. Much ink has been spilled, hours exhausted, words used and abused in discussing the destruction of memorials and monuments. Boston, certainly, has had its own share of drama around this issue. The New England Holocaust Memorial, the six glass towers filled with steam, engraved with …