2022 Yom Kippur Morning: It’s About Time
My two-and-a-half year old son, Aaron, has a new morning routine. Upon waking up, he excitedly opens his bedroom curtains and exclaims, It's daytime!
Category: Judaism and Religion
2022 Yom Kippur Evening: Regret is Holy
Ashikaga Yoshimasa was a shogun, living in the 15th century. One of his favorite possessions was a Chinese tea bowl. A story suggests that he accidentally dropped it on the floor, and immediately It shattered into many…
2022 Rosh Hashanah Morning: Changing How We Think About Change
This is a story about a town not too different than ours. Its citizens were generally friendly, good, menschy people, but over the past few years, their demeanor changed. No one knows the exact cause: It could be the…
2022 Rosh Hashanah Evening: “It is Good”
1968 was a difficult year. Racial discord and foreign conflicts created an atmosphere of tension and anger. Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated. The United States was embroiled in the war in…
A New Life During 2 Minutes of Silence
The commemoration of Yom HaShoah in Israel is an incredibly powerful thing. At 10:00 AM, sirens go off across the entire country, and everything comes to a standstill. Teachers stop teaching, people stop working. Cars on…
What Whoopi Goldberg can Teach an Athens, GA Elementary School
In early January, the school board of McMinn County, Tennessee voted to ban Maus. This book is a graphic novel that appropriately and powerfully teaches about the Holocaust to children (and adults).
Response to Capital Riot: Truth Shall Sprout from the Earth
During the process of creation, a midrash suggests that God consulted with the angels in order to determine whether or not to create human beings. Each angel argues their case: The angel of Lovingkindness says yes, let…
It Remains a Dream (Ki Teitzi)
Fifty seven years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr. stood at theLincoln Memorial, and delivered a speech that is indelibly woven into our ideals and our hopes.
What Does it Mean to be Free?
Tomorrow, we celebrate America’s independence; our freedom. Whereas July 4 is by no means a Jewish holiday, its themes of independence and freedom are central to Judaism.
Count Each Person. Each Person Counts.
This week's Torah portion is a continuation of the first census. At the beginning of the book of Numbers, God says, Take a census of the whole Israelite community by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names,…