Rabbi Avi Weiss, is an American open Orthodox ordained rabbi, author, teacher, lecturer, and activist who is the founder of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in The Bronx, New York. He is the founder ...

Parshat Noach contained the story of humanities downfall, and eventual rebirth; not even ten generations from Noach had passed before the world sank once more to the precipice of utter calamity with ...

“You’re going to give four years of your life to the country and this job. When you leave, what do you want them to say about your time here?” This was the question outgoing Chief of Naval Operations, ...

Terach, Avraham’s (Abraham’s) father, is often viewed as an evil man and nothing more than an idol worshipper. A review of the literal text indicates otherwise. First of all, Terach’s son, Haran, dies ...

Neriya Hy"d's brother שיבח"א with the Torah in his memoryCourtesy of the family Parashat Lech Lecha opens with G-d’s first call to Avram, when he was 75 years old, telling him to leave Haran, his ...

In this week’s parsha, Sarah shows her greatness as well as her limits. On the one hand, suggesting that her maidservant, Hagar, be given to Avraham to bear him a child is nothing less than monumental ...

In many ways, the Noah and creation stories are parallel, helping explain God’s exhortation to Abraham: “Lech lecha me’artzecha” (Go for yourself from your land; Genesis 12:1). *In both, water plays a ...

Avram and Sarai decide to leave Canaan in a surprisingly abrupt fashion. Just a few verses earlier, at the beginning of Genesis Chapter 12, Avram was told to uproot his family and venture into the ...

Congregation Beth Israel’s Rabbi, Mathew Marko, hails from Brooklyn N.Y. and survived 18 years in California. His career adventures have included acting professionally at the Hippodrome State Theatre ...