Essays: All Essays

Shavuot: Understanding The Purpose of Our Freedom

The Jewish Week
June 4, 2008

Since the second night of Passover, we have been counting the days of the Omer, which will culminate in the upcoming festival of Shavuot. In a certain way, we cannot help but feel that Shavuot is the...

Envisioning Israel's Future: Rabbi Steinsaltz on Israel at 60

Time
May 6, 2008

To see this article as it was originally published, click here. The continuation of the State of Israel depends on the ability of the state, or better still its people, to solve the problem of its...

Purim – A Memorial Day for Anti-Semitism

Originally published in The Jewish Week
March 2008

The colorful festival of Purim, with its banquet and mirth, is actually a Jewish Victory Day celebrating one of our many battles in the long, unending war against anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism...

The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same

October 2007

We are living in a time when things change very quickly – perhaps more quickly than at any other time in history.  Newspapers are bulkier and loaded with more content than ever before.  There always...

Re-Turning to God in the New Year

On Faith: A Conversation on Religion with Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham
September 2007

This essay was originally featured in On Faith, an online conversation about religion hosted by Newsweek and the Washington Post, to which Rabbi Steinsaltz is a regular contributor. To read more of...

Universal Introspection - A Message for the New Year

Syndicated column
September 2007

Where is the world going? Is it progressing in a positive way and moving toward some ideal state?  Or is it sinking lower and lower toward immorality and disarray? In Greek mythology, a Golden Age...

The Whole World Is Filled With Divinity

Parabola, Fall 2007 issue
August 2007

Under Jewish law, spoiling anything is a sin.  It is a sin like for a Jew, like eating pork. [The concept is called Baal Tashchit]. In the book of Deuteronomy [20:19-20], it is written that when you...

Good vs. Evil

July 19, 2007

For individuals and groups alike, hope tends to overshadow experience, becoming a fact of life rather than its greatest aspiration.  But in truth, hope clashes – and often unpleasantly so – with...