An American Retreat from Syria Will Bring Disaster
Repeating Barack Obama’s mistakes.
December 21, 2018
The Conclusion of the Joseph Story Helps Explain Rabbinic Teachings about Repentance
Changing the past.
In this week’s Torah reading of Vay’ḥi, the Joseph story comes to a conclusion in his assurance to his brothers, who had sold him into slavery years before, that “You intended to harm me but God intended it for good.” In other words, the sale of Joseph unleashed a chain of events that resulted in his being made Pharaoh’s chief adviser, devising a plan that saved Egypt from a devastating regional famine, and being placed in a position to rescue the entire house of Jacob. Jonathan Sacks, following many commentators in arguing that Joseph did not reconcile with his brothers until it was clear to him that they had repented fully, applies to this tale an oft-cited rabbinic statement about repentance itself:
December 21, 2018
Hamas Can’t Disrupt Flights to Tel Aviv—Unless the West Cooperates
A lesson from 2014.
Zionism Is about a Nation, Not about a Race
The mistake of comparisons with either black nationalism or white supremacism.
The Conclusion of the Joseph Story Helps Explain Rabbinic Teachings about Repentance
Changing the past.
The Neo-Hasidism of Hillel Zeitlin
A universalist doctrine for the modern era.