Bamidbar

Protecting the Youngest and Neediest of God's Children

By NOAM KATZ

In Parashat Bamidbar, Noam Katz, a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City, points out that is our communal responsibility to protect the rights of children, society's most vulnerable members. Hundreds of thousands of children serve in armies throughout the world, often forcibly recruited, and we as Jews must commit ourselves to ending these barbaric practices, with action and advocacy.

Turning Our Backs

By RABBI BRADLEY SHAVIT ARTSON

"How can God dwell in a human heart that is completely absorbed with its own self-interest?...Tzorkhei tzibbur, valuing the needs of the community, is the bottom line of meaningful Jewish survival."

Why Counting People is Forbidden

By BRENT CHAIM SPODEK

We can count people for good, or we can count them for ill, but ultimately, the Jewish tradition thinks we shouldn't count people at all. So writes Brent Chaim Spodek for the American Jewish World Service’s weekly Torah commentary.