What is the Real Miracle of Chanukah?
How do you explain the miracle of Chanukah to non-Jews? A popular Facebook suggests one to imagine that their cell phone battery is at 10%,…
Jacob’s Ladder (Vayetze)
Things are not going well for Jacob. After conspiring with his mother to fool his father into thinking that he was his older brother (got…
Should Politics be on the Bimah?
Our Torah has 613 commandments. Our rabbis divided them into a number of categories, one of the most notable being the distinction between commandments between a person and God, and commandments between a person and another person.
Yom Kippur Morning 5777: 1…2…3…Smile!
My father loves photography. He would lug out his 35 millimeter camera and insist on taking pictures of my mom and me on vacations, hikes, even sometimes just going out to lunch. Now that he has a DSLR, it’s even worse; Emily and I joke that we have to build dad’s camera time into our activities due to the number of times he asks us to stop in front of this or that tree, bridge, flower, sunset … you get the idea.
Yom Kippur Evening 5777: Now is the Time …
A young boy ran away from home, and was quite far away. In fact, it would take a journey of 100 days to return. He friends beseeched him, Return to your home! He said, I cannot, for I do not have the strength. Upon hearing this, his father then sent a message, Come back as far as you can according to your strength, and I will go the rest of the way to meet you.
Rosh Hashanah Morning 5777: Make Good Art
In 2012, Neil Gaiman gave the commencement address at the University of the Arts. Gaimon is a prolific author of fantasy books, including the well-known and critically acclaimed, *Coraline,* which was made into a stop-motion animation film in 2009.
I’m guessing that Gaiman did not have Rosh Hashanah and Judaism in mind when he delivered his speech in Philadelphia. His words, however, could not be a more perfect introduction to the beginning of our New Year:
Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do:
Make good art.
Rosh Hashanah Evening 5777: Tevye’s Other Hand
A new Rabbi comes to the synagogue and leads Shabbat services for the first time. Everything is going well. But just before the Sh’ma, half of the congregation stands up while the other half remains seated.
During the Oneg following the service, the rabbi asks some congregants about this interesting happenstance. The congregation is split. Each half argues vehemently – some for standing – and some for sitting.
The Second Telling of our Lives (D’varim)
Deuteronomy is a summation of the previous four books. Coming from a Greek word meaning, *second telling,* Deuteronomy recounts the history of the Israelite people. When talking about our fifth book of the Torah, I always think of the comedic movie “Airplane,” where a character is told, “Tell me everything that’s happened up until now.” This is akin to Deuteronomy. Moses goes through a second telling of our history.
The Destruction of the Temple is Happening Again. and Again.
In a few weeks, Jews around the world will commemorate Tisha B’av. The name of this day is a specific date, the 9th of Av. On this day, the 9th of Av, the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed not once, but twice: first by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and again by the Romans in the year 70 CE.
Elie Wiesel Taught me #BlackLivesMatter
Elie Wiesel, a famous and beloved Holocaust survivor, passed away last Shabbat. As the New York Times wrote, he was a “champion of human rights, a symbol of hope, a writer of unmatched eloquence and the very conscience of the world. But above all else, he considered himself a witness who fought humanity’s most dangerous enemy, indifference.”