BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

By Tali Loewenthal Kindness is often presented as a central virtue of the Jewish people. Abraham, the hero of our parshah, together with his wife Sarah, is a paradigm of kindness. One sees their hospitality to wayfarers at the beginning of the parshah, and later G-d says that He loves Abraham because "he will instruct his household after him to keep the way of G-d, doing charity and justice" (Genesis 18:19). "Charity and justice" signify acts of kindness, and the Talmud cites this verse when it declares that there are three distinguishing features of the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham: They are 1) modest, 2) merciful, and they 3) do acts of kindness. "Anyone who has these qualities," the Talmud goes on to say, "is fit to join the Jewish people." There are different opinions among the Sages as to whether these qualities are natural to the Jewish people or are special "gifts" from G-d. It is also clear that they are ideals t...

Releasing Guilt We all know what it feels like to feel guilty about something and many of us struggle with feeling guilty all the time. Guilt makes us feel that we are somehow unforgivable. While this experience is common, it is detrimental to our overall well-being. Feeling guilty generally promotes a sense of powerlessness-an anguished agonizing over a past action that cannot be changed . The problem with this is that it doesn't inspire us to forgive ourselves, make amends for mistakes, and move forward free of emotional baggage. Originally, guilt referred to the fine paid for proven wrongdoing. Once you made the payment, in time, amends or money, for what you had done , you were free-free of the sentence and free of the guilt. The problem with guilt as it is often experienced now is that it becomes a permanent state of mind for some people. In this case, it is a neurotic preoccupation rather than a fair assessment of wrongdoing followed by a course of action that leads to repa...

Did G-d Create Evil? By Aron Moss -------------------- Question: Did G-d create evil? Surely G-d made everything. So although it is people who actually do evil, it was G-d who must have created the idea of evil. But if G-d is good, how could He create evil? Answer: Here's the paradox: Goodness exists because G-d desired it; evil exists because G-d doesn't want it. If a human wants something, but doesn't actually do anything about it, nothing happens. You may want a piece of cake, but a cake will not materialize unless someone bakes it. But when you're a Divine Being, your desires create reality. With G-d, just wanting something makes it exist. After all, He is all-powerful; if He wants it, what can possibly stop it from being? He wanted a world, so it was. He wanted goodness, so it was. Now the same applies to G-d not wanting something: it too becomes reality. If G-d decides He doesn't want something, then that decision itself makes that thing exist. G-d's all-...