torah

September 10, 2018

A Jewish perspective on justice, for Rosh Hashanah

A poetic prayer (piyyut) recited on the Jewish New Year declares Rosh Hashanah (which is celebrated today) to be “awesome and terrible,” because “Your kingship is exalted upon it / Your throne is established in mercy / You are enthroned upon it in truth / In truth You are the judge.” Continue Reading...

December 06, 2016

How humans became consumers

Consumption is arguably the first (or maybe second) economic concept mentioned in the Bible. After creating Adam and Eve and giving them the cultural mandate (“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”), Continue Reading...

June 02, 2014

The 10 Commandments Through A Contemporary Lens

Rabbi Benjamin Blech, Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University, reminds us that the 10 Commandments are not only relevant in our world, but needed more than ever. Writing at aish.com, Rabbi Blech says the Commandments are both universal and timeless. Continue Reading...

March 28, 2014

The Torah’s ‘Hearty Echo of the Gospel’

“Are there then no laws in the legal sense in the law of Moses?” asks Cornelis Vonk, the Dutch Reformed pastor and preacher. “Of course there are, but there is much more besides.” Continue Reading...

December 04, 2008

The Rabbis and the Credit Crunch

In the inaugural lecture of the Center for the Study of Judaism and Economics at the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, Nobel Laureate economist Professor Robert (Yisrael) Aumann talked about the link between economics, Judaism and the current economic downturn. Continue Reading...

August 03, 2006

Protestants and Natural Law, Part 8

To conclude this series, let’s recap what is meant by natural law by parsing the term. The “nature” referred to in natural law can mean different things, but I mean by it the divinely engrafted knowledge of morality in human reason and conscience, that which all human beings share by virtue of their creation in God’s image. Continue Reading...