The Ineffable Name and the Promise of Belonging When God appears to Moshe at the burning bush, it is a moment of revelation, and it is a moment of reintroduction. Moshe asks a simple but daring question: “When the people ask me Your name, what shall I say?” God’s response is a name and a statement of being, of presence, of time itself. God reveals the ineffable Name which is spelled with the four Hebrew letters: Yud–Heh–Vav–Heh. This Name does not describe what God does; it describes who God...

Heroism Born in Suffering Parshat Shemot  opens not with redemption, but with pain. The Torah tells us that a new king arose over Egypt “who did not know Joseph.”   With that forgetting comes fear, oppression, and cruelty. The Israelites are enslaved, their bodies broken by hard labor, their spirit crushed by decrees designed to erase them. And yet, what is most striking about Shemot  is that heroism does not appear as power or rebellion. It appears as quiet, moral courage in the face of...

Burial is a Loving Act In the final portion of the book of Genesis, we meet our patriarch Jacob at the end of his life. He is ill, aware that his days are coming to a close, and very focused on what will happen after he dies. He asks to be sick so that he will know to make the necessary preparations.  Jacob calls his beloved son Joseph to his bedside and asks him for one final act of devotion: “Do for me chesed shel emet, true kindness. Do not bury me in Egypt. Bury me with my ancestors in...