After the Golden Calf, the first repair isn't a speech — it's a gathering. What a shul losing half its staff and Team Israel in Miami have in common.

The Torah's first instruction for the eternal light: the olives had to be crushed. This week, anemones bloom again in fields along the Gaza border.

God handed Moses a procurement list for the Tabernacle — down to the dye colors. Then: everyone whose heart is so moved.

The parsha with the Ten Commandments is named for a Midianite priest. A lot of people heard what God did. Yitro moved.

God made four promises of redemption. Nobody was ready to hear them. He started anyway.

Israelis chose "homeward" as their word of the year. Moses named his son "stranger in a foreign land." The parsha that starts Exodus moves in one direction.