Trade between countries is a good thing. It enables people in Canada to have freshly squeezed orange juice at their breakfast table, and people in Brazil to have maple syrup at theirs. It has created tens of thousands of jobs…
When you think of laundry, you probably think of piles of dirty clothing, sitting at the bottom of the laundry chute, waiting to be sorted into darks, lights, and whites. But to a very specific subset of human beings, laundering…
Natural resources are a hot topic right now, as the earth continues to fill with more people but not more resources. In the era of technological leaps and blindingly fast innovation, humans also seek more resources than ever before. In…
In the spring of 1453, the great city of Constantinople stood at the edge of collapse. For more than a thousand years it had been one of the most important cities in the world, the capital of the Byzantine Empire,…
When Words Become Visible What Tzara’as teaches us about the reality of speech Parshiyos Tazria and Metzora are among the most puzzling sections in the Torah. The Torah spends so much time discussing discolorations on skin, changes in hair color,…
Pithom, Egypt 1314 BCE Shimon stomped into the house kicking up dust, and wordlessly headed straight to the back of the house to change out of his work clothes. Rachel instinctively knew that he was coming from his brother’s house.…
If a man told you in 1968 that within a decade hundreds of millions of people would starve to death every single year, that by 1985 the earth’s population would be beaten down to a more “acceptable” 1.5 billion, and…
Lying on my kitchen counter is an instrument that was produced by the hard work of over five million men and women. A marvel of international cooperation, its components come from dozens of countries. It is one of the most…
Leah woke up to the sound of someone walking softly through her apartment, humming a tune that hadn’t existed the day before. “Good morning, Leah,” came the voice, warm and familiar. “Heart rate’s a little high. Did you have a…
In the Wild West there were all kinds of villains; thieves, desperados, barrel boarders, gadabouts, nibblers, ruffians, chiselers, shotes, and mops to name a few. But in the Wild West, there was one group of people that were considered the…