Author: Isi Genn-Bash

The Psalmist knows that even our most fundamental relationships can fail us, but that being failed by our family does not mean that we are without belonging.

The environmental crises of our age can feel like sevenfold curses: extreme heat, floods, species loss, resource scarcity, anxiety, inequality, and uncertainty. Yet Parashat Balak suggests that the religious response to a curse is not despair.

At a time when we are fearful of many things, almost all of them completely beyond our power to control, it is excellent advice to stay as cool as we can, to keep our heads while all about us are losing theirs, and to carry on, as normally as possible, with our lives.

This week’s double parashah, Vayakhel–Pekudei, reminds us that we are commanded to slow down for the Sabbath and that it is with all of our senses that we encounter the divine.

In a world where many of us often feel beset with troubles on all sides, pausing each morning to thank God for what is good in our lives feels life-affirming.

Achieving agreement about who should be in charge is important, but perhaps more essential is reassuring each other that even if we face change, we are still working together to achieve a higher purpose.