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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.
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Rashida Tlaib Introduces Resolution ‘Recognizing Ongoing Nakba’
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses attendees as she takes part in a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) on Thursday reintroduced a congressional resolution recognizing the 78th anniversary of what she described as the “ongoing nakba,” using the Arabic term for “catastrophe” deployed by Palestinians and anti-Israel activists to refer to the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948.
The resolution, introduced on the anniversary of Israel’s independence, accuses the Jewish state of carrying out “ethnic cleansing,” “apartheid,” and “genocide” against Palestinians, language that many pro-Israel lawmakers in Congress and advocacy groups strongly reject as inflammatory and inaccurate. The measure also calls for renewed US support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), an agency that has faced mounting scrutiny from Israel and several Western governments over allegations that employees participated in or supported Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
In a statement announcing the resolution, Tlaib argued that the so-called nakba “did not end” with the Arab-Israeli war in 1948 and continues today through Israeli military operations and settlement expansion.
“War criminal Netanyahu and his cabinet have repeatedly threatened to ethnically cleanse the entire Palestinian population in Gaza, annex the land, and permanently occupy it. Today, they are extending these same threats towards southern Lebanon,” she said, referring to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and military operations against US-designated terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. “As we mark the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, we honor all of those killed since the ethnic cleansing of Palestine began and all those who have been forced from their homes and violently displaced from their land.”
Activists often invoke the term “nakba” when discussing the displacement of some 750,000 Palestinian Arabs following Israel’s War of Independence, many of whom left the nascent state for varied reasons, including that they were encouraged by Arab leaders to flee their homes to make way for the invading Arab armies. At the same time, about 850,000 Jews were forced to flee or expelled from Middle Eastern and North African countries in the 20th century, primarily in the aftermath of Israel’s declaring independence.
Tlaib’s resolution is co-sponsored by several prominent progressive Democrats, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), Ayanna Pressley (MA), and Summer Lee (PA).
The move is likely to draw fierce criticism from pro-Israel lawmakers and Jewish organizations, many of whom argue the resolution ignores the historical context surrounding Israel’s founding and the 1948 war. Israel accepted the United Nations partition plan in 1947 to create two states, one Jewish and one Arab, while neighboring Arab states rejected it and launched a military invasion after Israel declared independence.
The resolution also calls for a so-called Palestinian “right of return,” a demand insisting that potentially millions of descendants of Palestinian refugees should be able to return to the land of Israel, a step that, according to proponents, would result in the abolition of the world’s only Jewish state.
“This immense trauma, including the loss of their loved ones and connections to the communities they grew up in, needs to be repaired. True peace must be built on justice and the inalienable right of return for Palestinian refugees,” Tlaib said in her statement.
While refugees are generally defined as those who flee a country out of credible fear of persecution, UNRWA uniquely defines Palestinian refugees to include all descendants of those who left the land, regardless of where they were born.
Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of the US Congress, has emerged as one of Israel’s loudest critics on Capitol Hill, repeatedly accusing the Jewish state of genocide and drawing rebuke from fellow lawmakers.
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Toronto Sees 50% Drop in 2025 Hate Crimes, Yet 82% of Religiously Motivated Attacks Target Jews
A member of law enforcement personnel works at the scene outside the US Consulate after shots were fired, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, March 10, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. Photo: REUTERS/Kyaw Soe Oo
Even as Toronto recorded an overall decline in reported hate crimes last year, newly released data shows the city’s Jewish community continued to face disproportionately high levels of targeted antisemitism and violence amid an increasingly concerning social climate.
On Thursday, Toronto Police released its annual hate crime statistical report, showing that Jews accounted for 82 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes in 2025, compared to 14 percent targeting Muslims.
Even though the Jewish community makes up less than 3 percent of Toronto’s population, officials now warn that Jewish residents are 14 times more likely than other residents to be targeted in a hate incident.
With 81 anti-Jewish hate crimes recorded, Jews and Israelis were the targets of 35 percent of all reported hate incidents in the city.
Despite a 50 percent overall decline in reported hate crimes, from 443 in 2024 to 231 in 2025, Toronto has seen a 40 percent increase in such incidents so far this year compared with the same period last year.
Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw noted that, even with the overall decline, the Jewish community continued to be the primary target of hate-motivated offenses.
“We are steadfast in our commitment to confronting hate in all its forms and making it easier for people to come forward and report incidents of hate,” Demkiw said in a press release.
Because police-reported hate crime data only includes incidents that come to the attention of authorities and are later confirmed or suspected to be hate-driven, official figures likely underestimate the true scale of such incidents.
Over the past two years, Toronto authorities have expanded law enforcement capacity and resources to investigate hate crimes by establishing a Counter-Terrorism Security Unit and increasing specialized training for officers, while also strengthening Holocaust education initiatives and introducing digital literacy programs for youth aimed at countering online radicalization.
Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs Vice President Michelle Stock called the latest statistics “deeply alarming,” warning of a broader reality of hostility that Jewish families across the city are confronting on a daily basis.
“Toronto prides itself on being a city where people of all backgrounds can live openly, safely and without fear. Those values are undermined when any community no longer feels secure expressing its identity in public,” Stock said in a statement.
“From synagogues to schools to public displays of Jewish identity, blatant attacks against the Jewish community are becoming more frequent and more brazen,” she continued. “Jewish Canadians are being targeted simply for who they are. No one should have to think twice about wearing a kippah, attending synagogue, sending their children to Jewish schools or participating openly in Jewish life.”
The city’s figures reflect a broader nationwide rise in antisemitism and anti-Israel hostility, with the Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada reporting a record high in anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2025 for the second consecutive year, documenting 6,800 such cases across the country.
According to the latest report, antisemitic incidents nationwide increased by 9.3 percent last year, surpassing the previous record total of 6,219 set in 2024.
With an average of 18.6 incidents per day, this figure represents a 145.6 percent increase from 2022, before the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Early 2026 data already indicate the country is now on track to see its most violent year against the Jewish community in recent memory, with more violent antisemitic attacks recorded so far this year than during all of 2025, B’nai Brith Canada reported.
In total, 11 violent antisemitic incidents have already been recorded across the country since January, surpassing the 10 violent cases documented during all of last year
“These brazen attacks on Jewish Canadians are a sign of a crisis of antisemitism that has spiraled out of control,” Simon Wolle, chief executive officer of B’nai Brith Canada, said in a statement.
“Violence such as this, which has escalated from targeting synagogues to targeting Jewish people directly, does not occur in a vacuum. It is what happens when governments fail to act despite mounting evidence that antisemitism is becoming more normalized and dangerous,” Wolle continued.
Last week, a group of Jewish worshippers standing outside the Congregation Chasidei Bobov synagogue in Montreal was targeted in a drive-by shooting, leaving one person with minor injuries.
A week earlier, three visibly Jewish residents were targeted in a separate antisemitic attack when suspects opened fire with a gel-pellet gun, causing minor injuries.
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Israel, Lebanon Extend Ceasefire by 45 Days as Washington Talks Conclude
Smoke rises following explosions in southern Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from northern Israel, April 27, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Shir Torem
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a 45-day extension of a ceasefire that has tamped down the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, as two days of talks facilitated by Washington concluded on Friday with an agreement to hold further meetings in the coming weeks.
“The April 16 cessation of hostilities will be extended by 45 days to enable further progress,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said on X, adding that the talks aimed at settling decades of conflict between the two countries were “highly productive.” The ceasefire was set to expire on Sunday.
The Lebanese and Israeli delegations issued positive statements about the talks, their third meeting since Israel intensified air attacks on Lebanon after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on March 2, three days into the US-Israeli war with Iran. Israel‘s bombing campaign and ground invasion into Lebanon’s south displaced some 1.2 million people, before US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire last month following initial talks between the two countries’ ambassadors in Washington.
Hezbollah and Israel have continued to trade blows, with hostilities focused in southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces are occupying a self-declared security zone.
LEBANON WANTS HOSTILITIES TO CEASE
The US-led mediation between Lebanon and Israel has emerged in parallel to diplomacy aimed at ending the US-Iran conflict. Iran has said ending Israel‘s war in Lebanon is one of its demands for a deal over the wider conflict.
Lebanon’s delegation, which is attending despite objections from Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah, has prioritized a cessation in hostilities in the talks. Israel says Hezbollah, which openly seeks the Jewish state’s destruction, must be disarmed as part of any broader peace agreement with Lebanon.
The Washington meetings, the highest-level contact between Lebanon and Israel in decades, have evolved to include security and military officials. Pigott said on X that a new “security track” of the negotiations would be launched at the Pentagon on May 29, while the State Department will convene the two sides again June 2-3 for a political track of negotiations.
“We hope these discussions will advance lasting peace between the two countries, full recognition of each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and establishing genuine security along their shared border,” Pigott said.
Lebanon’s delegation said in a statement that it wanted to turn the momentum from the ceasefire into a lasting peace agreement. “The extension of the ceasefire and the establishment of a US-facilitated security track provide critical breathing space for our citizens, reinforce state institutions, and advance a political pathway toward lasting stability,” the delegation said.
Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said the talks were “frank and constructive.”
“There will be ups and downs, but the potential for success is great. What will be paramount throughout negotiations is the security of our citizens and our soldiers,” Leiter said on X.