I recently published a short piece on Exodus 22:24, normally taken as the prohibition on charging interest. It appears at thetorah.com, and is "reprinted" below. My own interest in this topic (pun intended) grows out of my work on the collection … [Continue reading] about What is Wrong with Charging Interest?
What to Wear?
Those who know me are aware that I don't have much of a sense of fashion. Before I met my wife, in fact, the very idea that there were clothes with colors that "match," or that certain colors look better on me than others, was unfathomable. I would … [Continue reading] about What to Wear?
Corporations and Covenents
Corporations are legal fictions, and recent ones at that. Growing out of royal and governmental "charters" in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, governments gave to individuals the right to create a legal body - a legal "person" - distinct … [Continue reading] about Corporations and Covenents
Poverty and its Relief
I recently had the opportunity to speak at Connecticut College on the topic of poverty and its relief in Jewish thought. It was great fun, in part because the discussion helped me to better articulate something that has been bothering me for some … [Continue reading] about Poverty and its Relief
Selling the Ten Commandments
I recently read Jenna Weissman Joselitt's book Set in Stone: America's Embrace of the Ten Commandments and discussed it with my class. The book tells a story about how and why Americans made the Ten Commandments a focal point for larger issues - … [Continue reading] about Selling the Ten Commandments