Posts Tagged: Golden Calf
The Golden Calf: A Reminder That Anarchy Is Closer Than We Realize
Writing for the Denver Post in 1896 about Mark Hanna — President William McKinley's version of Elon Musk — the American writer Alfred Henry Lewis...
What Does God Look Like? Not What You Think
The dominant theme of the Torah this Shabbat is the episode of the Golden Calf. Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days and 40...
Explaining God’s Absence — and How to Find Him
Earlier this week, an official in France’s far-right National Front party was suspended after footage emerged of him denying the magnitude of the Holocaust. In the...
Without Justice, There is No Compassion
At the height of the drama of the Golden Calf, a vivid and enigmatic scene takes place. Moses has secured forgiveness for the people. But...
Celebrating the Victories of Others
If leaders are to bring out the best in those they lead, they must give those people the chance to show they are capable of...
How Leaders Fail: Courage to Oppose the Mob
Leaders can fail for two kinds of reasons. The first is external. The time may not be right. The conditions may be unfavourable. There may...
Judaism is About Taking Personal Responsibility
The sequence of parshiyot, Terumah, Tetzaveh, Ki Tissa, Vayakhel and Pekudei, is puzzling in many ways. First, it outlines the construction of the Tabernacle, the portable house...
Siblings in Synch
The Jewish People had been busy inaugurating the Mishkan, the sanctuary in the wilderness and G-d's first official dwelling place on earth. A whole week...
Two Types of Religious Encounter
Framing the epic events of this week's sedra (Bible portion) are two objects - the two sets of tablets, the first given before, the...
The Building of the Tabernacle and the Jewish Ethnogenesis
As soon as we read the opening lines of Terumah we begin the massive shift from the intense drama of the exodus with its...
The Weight of Leadership
With the recent inauguration of an American president, another Israeli election, and heated issues about gun control against the background of another...
The Sandy Hook Children Belong With Their Parents, Not in Heaven
I know he was trying to be comforting, but President Obama's comments at Sandy Hook about God perpetuates the myth that we humans ought to...
The Morality of Love
Something implicit in the Torah from the very beginning becomes explicit in the book of Devarim. God is the God of love. More than we...
A Path to Social Order and Human Freedom
Bemidbar takes up the story as we left it toward the end of Shemot. The people had journeyed from Egypt to Mount Sinai. There they...
