6 items across all libraries
The constant challenge of balancing the spiritual and the material in daily life, using Jacob's twenty years in Haran as a model. The Chassidic insight that the border between Jacob and Laban...
On the goal of making the world a better place, examining how Jacob tried to balance Torah study with the practical demands of supporting his growing family in Haran. His wife Leah's naming of her...
The Jewish capacity to keep their balance when confronted by extremes, using Abraham sitting calmly at his tent during an intense Divine revelation as the model. The ability to be simultaneously...
The relationship between mind and heart in Jewish thought, using the verse about the Sedra's system of courts and the metaphor of a person as a tree. The mind representing reason and the heart...
The tragic death of Aaron's two sons on the eighth day of the Sanctuary's dedication, explaining it through their spiritual ecstasy that caused their souls to leave without fulfilling their full task...
Whether Jewish teaching is a flight from reality, arguing through the example of Aaron's sons that the authentic Jewish path is to draw holiness into ordinary life rather than abandoning the world....