Uncategorized
How Abraham Learned to Walk with God
A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.
On a warm Sunday afternoon — July 7, 1946 — the world’s richest man almost killed himself trying to outfly the laws of physics. Howard Hughes — movie mogul, aviation pioneer, and eccentric genius — was testing his new reconnaissance aircraft, the XF-11, over Beverly Hills.
Although his engineers warned that the aircraft was not ready, Hughes took off alone from his private airport in Culver City, California, for what was supposed to be a short test flight.
After about an hour in the air, the XF-11 developed a hydraulic leak that caused the right engine’s rear propeller to reverse pitch. Instead of shutting down that engine, Hughes tried to balance the drag by cutting power on the left engine and keeping the right engine at full power. But this only made things worse, and Hughes lost control.
The plane veered wildly over the Los Angeles Country Club, clipped the rooftops of several homes on the 800 block of North Linden Drive, and finally crashed into 808 North Whittier Drive — right in the heart of Beverly Hills. The impact ignited a fireball that engulfed the house, tore through the street, and left Hughes trapped in twisted metal and flames.
Miraculously, Hughes survived — but barely. He was pulled from the wreckage with third-degree burns, cracked ribs, a punctured lung, and a shattered collarbone, and countless cuts and bruises. Witnesses said the crash site looked like something out of an apocalypse.
Later, Hughes summed it up with characteristic flippant bravado: “I was flying fine until I wasn’t.”
The crash was both a literal and symbolic explosion of human hubris. For all his intellectual brilliance and skill as a pilot, Hughes was undone by the same quality that made him extraordinary — the conviction that he could master every element of the world.
The accident epitomized the defining trait of the modern era: the belief that technology, wealth, and intellect can conquer nature, eliminate risk, and even outwit mortality itself. But there’s a moment when ambition crosses into arrogance — when pushing boundaries morphs into believing you’re above them. Cross that line — and the fall is fast, fiery, and usually self-inflicted.
That same fatal overconfidence lies at the heart of one of the most haunting episodes in Parshat Vayera — the story of Sodom and its fiery destruction. Like Hughes, Sodom was fueled by prosperity and innovation. It was dazzlingly prosperous, the most modern, successful city of its day. Its citizens had everything: fertile land, abundant water, thriving commerce.
By any measure, it was the Silicon Valley of the ancient world. Yet, just as Hughes’ brilliance led to disaster, Sodom’s intoxication with success turned inward — becoming the very embodiment of arrogance, which soon curdled into selfishness and cruelty.
The prophet Ezekiel spells it out bluntly (Ez. 16:49): “Only this was the sin of your sister Sodom: arrogance! She and her daughters had plenty of bread and untroubled tranquility; yet she did not support the poor and the needy.”
Sodom’s sin was not mere depravity — it was hubris. They believed their superiority exempted them from moral responsibility and shielded them from consequences. They legislated selfishness, convinced that the laws binding others did not apply to them.
The Midrash tells us that hospitality was outlawed in Sodom, and generosity mocked. When the two angels sent by God came to visit Lot, the townspeople surrounded his house — not out of curiosity, but to rid the city of these unwanted outsiders. Sodom’s creed was simple: “We invent reality and owe nothing to anyone.”
Just as Hughes believed he was exempt from rules and could do as he pleased, Sodom considered itself above the norms of ordinary human existence. Its citizens imagined that success canceled obligation — that wealth and achievement freed them from the standards governing everyone else. But the Torah reminds us: such hubris always ends the same way — and so it was with Sodom.
And then, against this backdrop of self-worship, the Torah showcases Abraham — the antithesis of Sodom. Like the people of Sodom, Abraham was wealthy, bright, and powerful; he was also the patriarch of a growing clan, respected by kings and blessed by God.
But unlike Sodom, his instinct was not self-indulgence but service. This contrast becomes clear when three dusty travelers appeared on the horizon: Abraham ran to greet them. The Torah slows down the moment, describing every gesture — the water, the bread, the shade, the choice cuts of meat. Every act of hospitality is detailed, as if to remind us that true greatness shines brightest in the smallest deeds, particularly when done by a great man.
Later, when God informs Abraham that Sodom is about to be destroyed, he doesn’t shrug and move on. He stands before God and pleads: “Will You destroy the righteous with the wicked?”
It is one of the most astonishing conversations in all of human history — a man challenging God, not for his own benefit, but to intercede for others with whom he has no personal connection and who stand for all he opposes. This is greatness in its purest form.
And when God denies his plea, Abraham is not defeated. He accepts that however exalted he may be, only God is the true master.
And there’s another revealing contrast between the two stories. When the angels arrive in Sodom, they find a city obsessed with protecting its privileges. But when they arrive at Avraham’s tent, they find a home open on all sides — a man running to serve strangers.
One culture is built on taking, whatever the cost; the other on giving, no matter the effort. One collapses in fire; the other becomes the foundation of a nation destined to bless all others.
It’s not hard to see echoes of this today. We live in an age that revels in self-indulgence and worships those who “push boundaries,” yet rarely stops to ask what those boundaries are for. Against this backdrop, we are surrounded by technologies that promise to transcend every human limit — to manipulate biology, redefine morality, and even simulate consciousness.
In such a world, the temptation to believe we can do anything is powerful. Yet the Torah’s warning in Sodom’s downfall is clear: not everything we can do is worth doing, and the ultimate price of hubris is self-destruction.
Howard Hughes lived long enough to see his brilliance consume him — but more importantly, he became a living lesson in the destructive power of hubris. After surviving the crash, he withdrew into paranoia and isolation — a man imprisoned by the very perfectionism that had once made him great. He died in 1976, unrecognizable, emaciated, and alone.
The story of Sodom ends no better: a city reduced to ash, remembered only for its cruelty.
Abraham may not have invented machines or built empires, but his achievement was infinitely greater. He taught that whatever power we possess must never be self-serving; that prosperity demands compassion; and that moral aspiration is not a weakness, but the very thing that keeps humanity close to God.
There’s an old saying: “When man tries to play God, he ends up playing with fire.” Sodom’s downfall etched that warning into our earliest history, and Hughes’ crash was a modern echo of the same truth. Both remind us that the higher we climb without humility, the harder the fall.
Sodom believed it had conquered the heavens. Howard Hughes tried to own the heavens. But Abraham — kind, caring Abraham — understood how to connect with the heavens, and walk with God.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
Uncategorized
The White House cabinet is eating like your zayde
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is hawking a new diet: sauerkraut. Yes, lacto-fermented cabbage. And it’s catching on with Trump’s cabinet, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported that Vice President JD Vance, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are all heaping their plates with cabbage — apparently “drawn by the promise of slimmer waistlines and glowing skin.”
This claim may sound like it belongs in the marketing material for some sort of beauty product, or a scammy gas station supplement, rather than a jar of preserved vegetables. But RFK Jr. boasted that he lost 20 lbs in 30 days from eating mass amounts of the stuff. One might assume something like a tapeworm is responsible for such extreme weight loss — especially given Kennedy’s previous worm-related medical issues — but he asserts it’s all thanks to cabbage.
The diet, drawn up by one Dr. Sean O’Mara, an MD who advertises himself as an “executive biological consultant to high-performance leaders,” is apparently not just about sauerkraut; it includes other fermented vegetables, urges followers to also eat steak, snack on “old world cheese” and cut out alcohol and sugar.
Admittedly, this sounds like a fairly normal, low-carb diet. But sauerkraut is so core to the meal plan that members of the cabinet have taken to making their own, and carrying it around just to make sure they’re never without. Kennedy’s wife, Cheryl Hines, said on a podcast with Steven Miller’s wife, Katie, that she has had to refuse to stow a container of sauerkraut in her clutch when she and her husband go out for a nice evening. But, she said, he brings it anyway, presumably in his own bag. Or maybe tucked under his arm.
It’s hard to imagine anything more bubbie-coded than whipping out a jar of sauerkraut from a handbag while out at a nice dinner.
It’s not that Jews have some kind of patent on fermented vegetables; they exist in many cultures, like kimchi in Korea and miso in Japan. Sauerkraut specifically is common throughout European countries like Germany, Czechia and Russia.
But in the U.S., there’s a pretty strong association between Jews and pickles, whether they be sauerkraut or cucumbers, thanks to the deli culture imported with Jewish immigrants into the U.S. Jews created a pickle district on the Lower East Side, selling the preserved vegetables from pushcarts and spreading the food through the city. We’ve long been aware of the healthy gut biome effects of a lacto-fermented vegetable.
Ashkenazi food has long been made fun of for being gross — largely thanks to innovations like jarred gefilte fish, its beige-heavy color palette and, as the Wall Street Journal piece hinted at, the diet’s resulting gastrointestinal effects. Much of shtetl food culture was the result of hardship, and the need to preserve food through long winters, not an attempt for glowing skin and slim waistlines. The hardier the vegetable, the longer it lasted. Enter the cabbage. There are few foods less sexy than cabbage. (And I love cabbage.)
Which is why it’s so funny to see some of the most powerful men in the U.S. adopting the diet of a poor shtetl Jew — and doing so for aesthetic reasons.
There are a lot of weird diets and quasi-scientific buzzwords like “seed oils” and “clean protein” floating through the MAHA world that these American leaders often play to. But most of those, at least the ones promoted by men like Vance, have some cross-over focus on manliness and discipline — they’re about building muscle in some sort of primitive way. Think the carnivore diet or Kennedy’s obsession with beef tallow. Seeing these men turn to a diet I associate with my grandmother because they want to lose weight feels absurd, especially in the days of Ozempic for those with the funds to pay for it. Perhaps that does not have the right optics.
Of course, sauerkraut is nothing to be ashamed of. In recent years, Jews have been reclaiming pride in their food cultures; bespoke pickling classes have boomed. So the White House cabinet’s sauerkraut kick is really just them being really late to the shtetl chic trend. But you still should probably be ashamed of smuggling your own food into a nice restaurant, even if it’s sauerkraut.
The post The White House cabinet is eating like your zayde appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Chair of Britain’s largest arts center to step down amid antisemitism scrutiny
(JTA) — The chair of the United Kingdom’s largest arts institution will step down this fall following months of controversy over allegations of antisemitism and his social media activity related to Israel.
Misan Harriman, 48, the chair of the publicly funded Southbank Centre in central London that hosts millions of visitors per year, publicly stated earlier this week that he would not seek another term.
In a since-deleted social media post, Harriman stated on Monday that his departure had long been planned. “It’s semi-public knowledge that my term is coming to an end anyway,” he said, according to The Guardian. “I had decided way before this madness that I was going to do two terms.” He added, “I came on just after Covid, two terms, then handing the baton to whoever the next chairman will be. We will find out in due course, and of course, I am going to support that.”
The Southbank Centre said that it had been informed earlier in the year of Harriman’s decision.
In May, more than 64 MPs and peers wrote to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy asking the government to open an investigation into Harriman’s behavior, expressing concern that his public comments “have not been treated with sufficient scrutiny, particularly given their implications for public trust and community confidence,” in a publicly funded institution.
Nandy later confirmed that the Charity Commission and Arts Council England were examining complaints, alongside an internal review by the Southbank Centre.
Harriman, a photographer and self-described social activist, came to prominence in 2020, photographing a Black Lives Matter protest in London. He has overseen the Southbank Centre since 2021, but it’s only in recent months that he has faced increasing scrutiny over his public and social media comments, including referring to Israel as an “occupying power” and accusing the country of genocide.
In April, when two Jewish men were stabbed in the heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Golders Green in London, Harriman posted on social media about an alleged third victim who was Muslim. He wrote, “Wait, so there was a 3rd victim on the SAME DAY who was Muslim?! And our press isn’t reporting it? Even the Met Police didn’t mention the Muslim victim in its X post?! What is going on @metpolice_uk ?”
The Muslim victim did in fact receive coverage, and the focus on the Jewish victims stemmed from the alleged attacker’s anti-Jewish animus.
Then, following Reform UK’s gains in the May 7 local elections, Harriman shared a post that critics said compared the party’s success to the events that led to the Holocaust.
The post prompted Reform MP Robert Jenrick to respond on X, “Comparing the millions who voted Reform on Thursday to the Nazis is disgusting.”
Harriman received support from many prominent activists and artists who signed a petition in May organized by The Good Law Project. The petition accused right-wing media of running a smear campaign against Harriman.
Those who signed included activist Greta Thunberg, actors Aimee Lou Wood, Mark Ruffalo, and Susan Sarandon, director Yorgos Lanthimos and journalist Mehdi Hassan.
Following Harriman’s announcement, the Campaign Against Antisemitism praised the decision, posting on X, “Mr Harriman’s decision to step down – supposedly always his intention – is welcome. This saga has exposed a rot in the arts world. We hope that his successor will be more worthy of the post.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Chair of Britain’s largest arts center to step down amid antisemitism scrutiny appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Mamdani touts ‘Babies not Bombs’ messaging after flexing political muscle in the New York primaries
(New York Jewish Week) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrated the victories of the progressive candidates he endorsed in New York’s Democratic primaries describing their success as a “shift in the balance of power.”
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the morning after the primaries, Mamdani touted the triumphs as a shift in the balance of power between “working people” and “special interests.”
Mamdani-endorsed candidates Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez won Democratic nominations for Congress. During the press conference, the mayor repeatedly highlighted their calls to restrict U.S. military aid to Israel and redirect federal funding to domestic priorities.
Following Mamdani’s election night sweep in New York, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that “America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!”
The victories offered an early demonstration of Mamdani’s political influence beyond City Hall, as several Democratic Socialist candidates he backed, including Chevalier, defeated established Democratic incumbents in their districts.
“The working person is struggling in our city to afford basic needs,” Mamdani said, adding that Avila Chevalier’s oft-repeated slogan of investing in “Babies not Bombs,” is “the kind of conscience, the kind of clarity, the kind of conviction that has been missing in our politics for far too long.”
Mamdani responded to the president’s post on Wednesday, telling a reporter who asked whether his goal is to make America a “socialist” country that his “goal is to make America a place that every American can afford.”
When asked about federal policies that could be affected by Mamdani’s endorsed candidates, the mayor cited Valdez’s support for “foreign policy that understands human rights for all” and Lander’s commitment to co-sponsoring the Block the Bombs Act, which prohibits the sale of certain U.S.-made offensive weapons to Israel.
Mamdani also dismissed a question about whether he was concerned about how the victories would play out in November as Democrats try to win back the House.
“Every time the fight for working people takes a step forward, you will hear Republicans say that this is actually going to jeopardize the existence of that very fight,” he said.
When asked whether the election of Chevalier, who has faced scrutiny for past social media posts attacking Democrats and her appearance at an Oct. 8, 2023, pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square, could “complicate campaigns for Democrats as a whole,” Mamdani replied “No.”
“[Chevalier] often speaks about a politics of life. She speaks about ‘Babies not bombs,’” Mamdani continued. “What could be a better example of what the people of the district want to see versus what the people of the district have been forced to experience, which is tens of billions of dollars being spent at a national level to bomb children overseas, while children in our own districts are struggling.”
The post Mamdani touts ‘Babies not Bombs’ messaging after flexing political muscle in the New York primaries appeared first on The Forward.
