Author: Meghan Froy

According to Numbers 35, if a man killed someone accidentally — what today we would call manslaughter — he should be sent to a “city of refuge” to live out his life. This is a form of exile, but it’s also an opportunity to live free from the threat of retaliation by the victim’s family, at […]

In last week’s Torah portion, we saw that Moses fiercely resisted God’s call to lead the Israelites and God had to reassure him of success multiple times before he finally acquiesced. But after returning to Egypt, Moses’s first confrontation with Pharaoh shook the little faith he had. When Pharaoh refused to free the Israelites and […]

When God approaches Moses at the burning bush, Moses is initially reluctant to return to Egypt to free the Israelites. He asks God, “When I come to the Israelites and say, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘what is God’s name?’ — what shall I say?” God answers with […]

Legacy admissions refers to the practice, long common at elite universities, of giving preferential consideration to the children of alumni. The practice has come under fire for favoring the already-privileged and undermining the notion of higher education as a meritocratic means of social advancement. Given the role of legacy admissions in limiting the number of Jewish students […]

If you’ve ever seen an airplane in-flight safety video, you have probably seen the part where passengers are told what to do if the cabin loses pressure and oxygen masks deploy. As these videos tell us, if you are traveling with someone who needs assistance to put on an oxygen mask, put on your own […]

Today, we start chapter 11, the final chapter of Tractate Nedarim. We continue the discussion of women’s vows that can be nullified by their fathers or husbands (or, in the case of a betrothed woman, both). Numbers 30:14 singles out a specific type of vow that husbands have the right to revoke: Every vow and every sworn obligation of […]

This week we begin reading the Book of Exodus, which tells the story of the Jewish liberation from Egyptian bondage and the establishment of a covenant with God. The story is often told in a linear fashion, moving from darkness to light, from servitude to salvation. But the Hasidic master Rabbi Mordechai Leiner of Izbica […]

Whatever kind of relationship we’re in, many of us tend to naturally gravitate towards defined roles. In a marriage, for example, one partner might love cooking, the other cleaning. One might do home repairs, while the other is the social organizer. As a result, when we lose a loved one, we may be thrust into […]

There are two books of the Hebrew Bible set entirely in diaspora: Esther and Daniel. In both books, the Jews face an existential threat from hostile foreign authorities. In both books, a few select Jews who have been noticed by authorities for their wit and beauty adopt non-Jewish names (Hadassah becomes Esther, Daniel becomes Belshazzar) […]

In his later years the renowned Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, suddenly announced that he was going to Switzerland to climb in the Alps. “Why?” asked his astonished students. “Because when I come face to face with the Creator of the universe,” mused Hirsch, “I know He will look down at me and say ‘So, Shimshon, did you […]