Turn on the radio these days and you get an earful of the latest election news with the campaigns of President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney trading barbs on a near-hourly basis. In this environment of political oversaturation, this week's Torah portion, Korach, provides us with some juicy material to help understand our own role in the...

This is the season of pageant and protocol, as we celebrate graduations and weddings. As we participate in such celebrations during this season, perhaps we wonder about the intention and the history that structures and guides each of these events, from the music, the processional, the rituals and words, the costumes -- all the parts that make up these ceremonies...