Guest Columnists

Life Lessons From the Parshah - Ki Tisa

The Jewish people could be just as stiff-necked in their loyalty to G‑d as they were in their disobedience.

Why were the first set of tablets given with such fanfare?

“Hmm… Thank G‑d, I do work quite hard (my kid said so!), but what is really important? What would I do if I were completely worry free?”

When is there an obligation to name the source you are quoting? And what does that really teach us?

The problem is not just that we make a poor choice in the moment, but when we fail in our goals, we fall into the depressing cycle of the “willpower trap” that keeps us locked in failure.

We walked past shops that looked like they'd been bombed away. Smoke was rising from the burning debris. A family looking through a heap of rubble at a place they once called home...

An Ark that is both spacious and spaceless. Whole and shattered Tablets positioned side by side. What lesson can we glean from this?

After such an interface with the Divine, how could they have transferred their loyalty to an idol? The Talmud responds by telling us that the Jews were, in fact, above this unseemliness. So what happened?

The lesson that I needed to learn was that of responsibility. As long as my mother “owned” the results of my actions, I didn’t have to. It was only when I was the one who had to deal with the consequences that something shifted . . .

She arrived in New York wearing a floor-length yellow sari and couldn’t care less about what she no longer had. She feels differently today.

Where was the Jewish leadership during the sin of the Golden Calf? Why were they not able to stop the sinning before it got out of hand?

Sometimes our mistake has devastating consequences. In just a moment of thoughtlessness, lives are shattered. The damage is irreversible. Relationships are severed, reputations sullied beyond repair.