I hope that most of you who read this page are aware of my podcast entitled: Wrestling and Dreaming. You can hear it at wrestlinganddreaming.podbean.com or other sources for podcasts. 

Occasionally, I will post to this page a brief summary of the content of the podcast. I hope you will listen to the podcasts to hear my thoughts in their entirety.

This week, my topic was unity: a word very much in the news in our nation.

At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion of Beshalach, we read that God did not lead the people along the way of the Philistines because God was afraid that the people would encounter a war and desire to return to Egypt. 

I gave a midrashic interpretation to one of the phrases in that passage which I felt could be read to emphasize God’s concern that the people might abandon any unity which they felt upon leaving Egypt if they faced a crisis. 

I then discussed the fact that this is, in a sense, counterintuitive to what would be ideal behavior. It should be at times of crisis that we pull together, that unity is strengthened to face the crisis and shared some thoughts on our nation’s situation with COVID.

I hope you will listen to the podcast and wish everyone a Shabbat Shalom.