Rabbi Shai Held is president, dean, and chair in Jewish Thought at Mechon Hadar and directs its Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas in New York City. He is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence and a recipient of the Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish education. Rabbi Yitz Greenberg is one of the preeminent Jewish thinkers of our time.

Foreword
Acknowledgments
A Note on Translations
Introduction

Genesis
Bere’shit No. 1. What Can Human Beings Do, and What Can’t They? Or, Does the Torah Believe in Progress?
Bere’shit No. 2. Created in God’s Image: Ruling for God
Noä No. 1. Before and After the Flood: Or, It All Depends on How You Look
Noä No. 2. People Have Names: The Torah’s Takedown of Totalitarianism
Lekh Lekha No. 1. Are Jews Always the Victims?
Lekh Lekha No. 2. Between Abram and Lot: Wealth and Family Strife
Va-yera’ No. 1. The Face of Guests as the Face of God: Abraham’s Radical and Traditional Theology
Va-yera’ No. 2. In Praise of Protest: Or, Who’s Teaching Whom?
¿ayyei Sarah No. 1. Isaac’s Search: On the Akedah and Its Aftermath
¿ayyei Sarah No. 2. People Are Complicated: Or, Sensitivity Is a Dangerous Thing
Toledot No. 1. In Praise of Isaac: The Bible’s Paragon of Marital Empathy
Toledot No. 2. Between God and Torah: Judaism’s Gamble
Va-yetse’ No. 1. Can We Be Grateful and Disappointed at the Same Time? Or, What Leah Learned
Va-yetse’ No. 2. No Excuses: Jacob’s Sin and Its Consequences
Va-yishlä No. 1. The Fear of Killing: Jacob’s Ethical Legacy
Va-yishlä No. 2. The Power of Compassion: Or, Why Rachel’s Cries Pierce the Heavens
Va-yeshev No. 1. Against Halfheartedness
Va-yeshev No. 2. Election and Service: What Joseph Learned
Mikkets No. 1. His Brother’s Brother: Judah’s Journey
Mikkets No. 2. Reuben’s Recklessness: What Disqualifies a Leader?
Va-yiggash No. 1. Humiliation: Judaism’s Fourth Cardinal Sin?
Va-yiggash No. 2. Saving and Enslaving: The Complexity of Joseph
Va-ye¿i No. 1. The Majesty of Restraint: Or, Joseph’s Shining Moment
Va-ye¿i No. 2. Underreacting and Overreacting: Dinah’s Family in Crisis

Exodus
Shemot No. 1. Why Moses? Or, What Makes a Leader?
Shemot No. 2. Gratitude and Liberation
Va-’era’ No. 1. The Journey and the (Elusive) Destination
Va-’era’ No. 2. Cultivating Freedom: When Is Character (Not) Destiny?
Bo’ No. 1. Pharaoh: Consumed by the Chaos He Sows
Bo’ No. 2. Receiving Gifts (and Learning to Love?): The “Stripping” of the Egyptians
Be-shallä No. 1. Leaving Slavery Behind: On Taking the First Step
Be-shallä No. 2. Bread from the Sky: Learning to Trust
Yitro No. 1. Does Everyone Hate the Jews? And, Is There Wisdom Outside of Torah?
Yitro No. 2. Honoring Parents: (Sometimes) the Hardest Mitzvah of All
Mishpatim No. 1. Turning Memory into Empathy: The Torah’s Ethical Charge
Mishpatim No. 2. Hearing the Cries of the Defenseless: Or, We Are All Responsible
Terumah No. 1. Being Present While Making Space: Or, Two Meanings of Tzimtzum
Terumah No. 2. Returning to Eden? An Island of Wholeness in a Fractured World
Tetsavveh No. 1. God in the Mishkan: Present but Not Domesticated
Tetsavveh No. 2. Between Ecstasy and Constancy: The Dynamics of Covenantal Commitment
Ki Tissa’ No. 1. The Importance of Character: Or, Why Stubbornness Is Worse Than Idolatry
Ki Tissa’ No. 2. God’s Expansive Mercy: Moses’s Praise and Jonah’s Fury
Va-yak’hel No. 1. Whom Do We Serve? The Exodus toward Dignified Work
Va-yak’hel No. 2, Pekudei No. 1. (A) Building with Heart
Pekudei No. 2. Building a Home for God

Notes on Genesis
Notes on Exodus
A Note on Bible Commentaries
Bibliography
Subject Index
Classical Sources Index