Torah portion

The specific complaints of the Israelites in the wilderness illustrate their inability to develop mature, adult relationships.

Parashat Beha'alotcha illustrates three paths of achieving meaning in life.

Miriam and Aaron's criticism of Moses, and Miriam's punishment of leprosy teach lessons of sibling and communal responsibility.

The prohibition against the direct counting of the Israelites cautions us to remember the human faces behind abstract statistics.

The Rabbinic and Hasidic understandings of gossip focus on the impossibility of repairing the damage it causes.

The Israelites' troubles, and indeed our own troubles, begin when we turn away from God.

The stage of journeying through the wilderness is an essential part of the transformation from slavery to freedom.

The curses in Bechukotai were actualized during the Holocaust.

The fundraising campaign to build the Mishkan (Tabernacle) teaches us that in true Tzedakah, the giver benefits as much as the taker.

The manna tested the character of the newly freed Israelites.