On Second Thought Ezra

Tag: judaism

  • Covenant and Identity – Becoming a Self: Part 3

    Covenant and Identity – Becoming a Self: Part 3

    Genesis as the Story of Every Human Life: Part 3 A part of the ‘On Second Thought‘ series By: Ezra Nadav Previously in the Series: In Part 1: Conception and Innocence, we began with Eden — a symbol of our earliest beginnings, when we live in unconscious trust, gifted goodness, and untested belonging. It is…

  • Knowledge and Estrangement – The Loss of Innocence: Part 2

    Knowledge and Estrangement – The Loss of Innocence: Part 2

    Genesis as the Story of Every Human Life: Part 2 A part of the ‘On Second Thought‘ series By: Ezra Nadav Previously in the Series:In Part 1, Conception and Innocence, we explored the Edenic beginnings of human life — a time of unearned goodness, unconscious trust, and belonging without condition. But innocence, however beautiful, is…

  • Genesis as the Story of Every Human Life: Part 1

    Genesis as the Story of Every Human Life: Part 1

    Part 1: In the Beginning: Conception and Innocence A part of the ‘On Second Thought‘ series By: Ezra Nadav Genesis Is Our Story Too: A New Series on Growth, Loss, and Becoming. What if Genesis wasn’t just a story about the world’s beginning, but about your beginning too? What if its pages didn’t just tell…

  • On Belonging Without Agreement

    On Belonging Without Agreement

    Can we belong where we’re not always aligned? A part of the ‘Not Quite What You Meant‘ series By: Ezra Nadav There’s a peculiar pressure in modern community life, a pressure not just to get along, but to agree. To belong, it seems, one must often speak the same language of belief, adopt the same…

  • What I’ve Learned by Attempting to Learn Biblical Hebrew

    What I’ve Learned by Attempting to Learn Biblical Hebrew

    Why I Now Read Slower, Complain Less, and Love the Torah More From the ‘On Second Thought’ series: By Ezra Nadav Learning Hebrew with dyslexia and an auditory processing disorder has been anything but easy. But it has changed the way I relate to sacred text, to tradition and to myself. When I first set…

  • Memory as a Moral Imperative: Choosing Justice Over Vengeance: Part 3

    Memory as a Moral Imperative: Choosing Justice Over Vengeance: Part 3

    ‘For You Were Strangers in the Land of Egypt’ from the ‘On Second Thought’ series By: Ezra Nadav Introduction to Part 3: Memory as Moral Responsibility In Part 2, we explored the Torah’s radical call to love, befriend, and refuse hatred toward the stranger—even when it’s uncomfortable or counter cultural. These commandments push us beyond…

  • The Stranger as Neighbour: Love, Friendship, and the Refusal to Hate: Part 2

    The Stranger as Neighbour: Love, Friendship, and the Refusal to Hate: Part 2

    ‘For You Were Strangers in the Land of Egypt’ from the ‘On Second Thought’ series By: Ezra Nadav Recap of Part 1: Recognising the Stranger In Part 1, we explored the foundational Torah commandments that urge us to remember our shared experience of being strangers in Egypt. These verses call us to see and honour…

  • Who Is the Stranger? A Modern Reflection: Part 1

    Who Is the Stranger? A Modern Reflection: Part 1

    ‘For You Were Strangers in the Land of Egypt’ from the ‘On Second Thought’ series By: Ezra Nadav Series Summary: Part 1: Who Is the Stranger? A Modern Reflection In this first part of a three-part series, we explore the Torah’s moral urgency around how we treat “the stranger”—a term that appears in at least…