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Truths You Can Use

Noah is the biblical hero who builds an ark, saves the animal kingdom and helps rebuild the world after a great flood. In spite of his heroism, he is not without fault. Consider his seeming lack of concern with anyone outside of his own family. Why did he not ask God to consider saving others or…

A classic Jewish joke… When two Jews gather together, expect at least three opinions. Our tradition embraces debate and discussion. Argument becomes a vehicle to truth. I confess, however, a frustration with the debates of today. In Judaism the purpose of debate is to find the truth. In politics the purpose of debate is to…

  A great children’s song starts with the words, “I have two eyes to see with, two hands to wave with, and two ears to hear with.” I have one objection. In my experience, we may hear sounds with our ears. But we hear people with our hearts. Martin Buber, the great Jewish philosopher of…

A friend once taught me a powerful saying: “The Perfect is the enemy of the good.” This pithy piece of wisdoms speaks to those of us who worry about everything. When everything has to be perfect, we dwell on each detail and never get anything done. In preparing of the upcoming Jewish holiday of Sukkot,…

“At times,” wrote Hans Zinnsser “the dead are closer to us than the living, and the wisdom and affection of the past stretch blessing hands over our lives, projecting a guardian care out of the shadows and helping us over hard places.” Last month we were are reminded of this truth by an extraordinary man…

During the Olympics this year, a video caught my eye. It begins with a woman biking in the rain. Then we hear snippets of different languages as mothers begin to wake up their groggy children in bed. The same moms prepare meals, drive their children to the gymnasium, to dance practice, to the pool and…

In the Jewish Bible reading cycle, we just read about the first major leadership transition. Moses hands over the reins to Joshua, and he challenges him with a noble goal. “Be strong and of good courage!” As I was teaching this passage, someone asked about the meaning of courage. It is a word we use…

The next thing you do can change the world. Maimonides, the great sage of the 12th century, uses a powerful metaphor to teach this lesson. At this cusp of the New Year, imagine that the scales of the universe are perfectly balanced between good and evil. What happens next will cause God to tip the…

Sometimes wisdom literally falls into your hands. That was the case when my three-old-son climbed up a shelf at our local bookstore to grab his favorite book. He unintentionally knocked over the one next to it.The book that landed in my hand was called Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes.Pete happened to look…

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Last week my colleague Rabbi Jason Miller shared the story of a 21-year-old college student named Brett Cohn. Cohn decided to do a little experiment. He hired a film crew, some body guards, and several photographers with bright lights and microphones. He then asked them to accompany him as…
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